As promised, this is a follow up to the thread I posted a couple weeks back in the forums asking about the 8800GTX length (thanks to all the people to replyed to me!)
Anandtech, Nvidia 8800 GTX length
I'm posting this seeing that there don't seem to be any owners of both a Thermaltake Aguila case and 8800GTX in all the forums I've searched. I'm hoping that somebody who wants to buy this Thermaltake case and also wants to install a 8800GTX will find this information useful.
The premise of the story was that I had bought a Thermaltake Aguila case and was planning to install a reference design EVGA 8800GTX video card into it. I basically wanted to know if I needed to buy new case in order to fit this monster video card.
These are components I'm working with:
Case: Thermaltake Aguila Case (with window)
Video Card: EVGA 8800GTX (stock speeds, reference design/cooler)
Motherboard: Asus P5K Deluxe WiFi
Let me first say this, the 8800GTX WILL NOT fit the Thermaltake Aguila if you use the HDD cage. The 8800GTX is exactly 10.5 inches (26.67 cm) long measured from the backplate to the end of the PCB. With the HDD cage in place, the 8800GTX is about 2 mm (dope!) too long. Fortunately the location where the 8800GTX sticks out makes it simple to mod the HDD cage with some tools, so you can still use it while fitting the 8800GTX.
Just a couple of comments from my web research.
In this forum they say the Aguila (they have a typo an call it Aquila) will not fit the 8800GTX.
Their pictures are misleading as they assume the 8800GTX is 11 inches long, also the vertical position of the card relative to the hdd cage isn't correct either (maybe depends on the location of the PCI-E x16 slot on the motherboard).
MaximumPC, 8800GTX, will it fit in your case?
In this thread it says that the Aguila might fit the 8800GTX once you remove the HDD cage.
Anandtech, Case List for 8800GTX/GTS
The Aguila will fit the 8800GTX if you remove the HDD cage from the Aguila. Once the HDD cage is removed there is a massive amount of clearance, and you could fit a video card the length of the entire case if you wanted. But unfortunately this defeats the usefulness of having the HDD cage.
If you chose this route, you can still setup a computer without using the HDD cage.
There is a 3.5" drive bay located in the power/reset bay. This simply means you can only have one HDD in your system. If you needed to add more HDDs, you have to buy 5.25" to 3.5" brackets and convert the drive bays as needed. This is a possible but non-optimal solution as it is more convenient to mount drives into the HDD cage and also have the front fan cool them.
Now the actual details.
Since a picture is worth a thousand words, this is the picture of the final setup with the modified HDD cage.
Final Fitting
Basically a few cuts need to be made into the sides of the HDD cage to make the 8800GTX fit. The cuts are made on the outside metal shell of the HDD cage thus does not destroy the HDD cage, allowing the cage to hold the original maximum of 4 drives. This mod works well with the reference design/cooler 8800GTX as the part of the PCB that sticks out is just the empty PCB with no components and no cooler (8800GTX with end of PCB highlighted showing no mounted components). There is at least 5 mm of extra PCB before reaching any mounted components. If one were to install a full length cooler video card (like the EVGA 8800 Ultra) then you'll probably have to remove the HDD cage or make larger cuts to the HDD cage or modify the cooler.
I first started off by installing the motherboard and video card into the case with the HDD cage removed. I then took the HDD cage and made some rough fittings on the location of the cuts I needed to make to fit the video card, marking them down with a pencil. From the picture you can see the front of the HDD cage where I have marked the depth of the cut at about 5 mm (only 2 mm sticks out from the video card) and the width of the cut at about 3 mm. (Pencil marked HDD cage (front)). It will also be necessary to cut along the the side of the HDD cage. Fortunately there is a pre-made hole on the side of the HDD cage which will make cutting the side easier.
As the HDD cage is made out of rolled steel it is not too extremely difficult to cut, but does require some patience. The way I cut the cage was first by drilling out as many parts of the section I wanted to cut out first, then using a metal hacksaw to complete the rest of the cut. It takes a while for the saw to bite into the metal, but once it is in, it is easy to cut the steel. Once the cuts are made, the edges will be sharp, so it is a good idea to file it down, but definitely put some masking tape over it. I did both, as I didn't want the cut metal to scratch the video card PCB when inserting and removing the HDD cage.
Here are pictures of the cuts made to the HDD cage with masking tape applied to cover the edges. (Front View) (Side View)
For the side cut, it happens that the cut intersects with the premade holes thus making it easier to complete.
Final picture of everything installed (same picture as above). (Final Fitting)
Close up of the video card and the cut HDD cage (Close Up)
From this picture you can see that the top side (the side with the cooler) of the 8800GTX PCB is lightly resting on the bottom cut of the HDD cage. This is fine as there are no electrical components there.
As an aside...
I wanted to add that the Aguila case fits the Thermaltake Ultra 120 Extreme Heatsink, it clears the side of the case by about 2 cm, so there is probably not enough space to mount a fan over the side blow hole.
So this concludes my story. In the end modding the HDD cage turned out to be pretty easy, and much cheaper than getting another case.
Feel free to leave a message if there are any praises or comments.
Anandtech, Nvidia 8800 GTX length
I'm posting this seeing that there don't seem to be any owners of both a Thermaltake Aguila case and 8800GTX in all the forums I've searched. I'm hoping that somebody who wants to buy this Thermaltake case and also wants to install a 8800GTX will find this information useful.
The premise of the story was that I had bought a Thermaltake Aguila case and was planning to install a reference design EVGA 8800GTX video card into it. I basically wanted to know if I needed to buy new case in order to fit this monster video card.
These are components I'm working with:
Case: Thermaltake Aguila Case (with window)
Video Card: EVGA 8800GTX (stock speeds, reference design/cooler)
Motherboard: Asus P5K Deluxe WiFi
Let me first say this, the 8800GTX WILL NOT fit the Thermaltake Aguila if you use the HDD cage. The 8800GTX is exactly 10.5 inches (26.67 cm) long measured from the backplate to the end of the PCB. With the HDD cage in place, the 8800GTX is about 2 mm (dope!) too long. Fortunately the location where the 8800GTX sticks out makes it simple to mod the HDD cage with some tools, so you can still use it while fitting the 8800GTX.
Just a couple of comments from my web research.
In this forum they say the Aguila (they have a typo an call it Aquila) will not fit the 8800GTX.
Their pictures are misleading as they assume the 8800GTX is 11 inches long, also the vertical position of the card relative to the hdd cage isn't correct either (maybe depends on the location of the PCI-E x16 slot on the motherboard).
MaximumPC, 8800GTX, will it fit in your case?
In this thread it says that the Aguila might fit the 8800GTX once you remove the HDD cage.
Anandtech, Case List for 8800GTX/GTS
The Aguila will fit the 8800GTX if you remove the HDD cage from the Aguila. Once the HDD cage is removed there is a massive amount of clearance, and you could fit a video card the length of the entire case if you wanted. But unfortunately this defeats the usefulness of having the HDD cage.
If you chose this route, you can still setup a computer without using the HDD cage.
There is a 3.5" drive bay located in the power/reset bay. This simply means you can only have one HDD in your system. If you needed to add more HDDs, you have to buy 5.25" to 3.5" brackets and convert the drive bays as needed. This is a possible but non-optimal solution as it is more convenient to mount drives into the HDD cage and also have the front fan cool them.
Now the actual details.
Since a picture is worth a thousand words, this is the picture of the final setup with the modified HDD cage.
Final Fitting
Basically a few cuts need to be made into the sides of the HDD cage to make the 8800GTX fit. The cuts are made on the outside metal shell of the HDD cage thus does not destroy the HDD cage, allowing the cage to hold the original maximum of 4 drives. This mod works well with the reference design/cooler 8800GTX as the part of the PCB that sticks out is just the empty PCB with no components and no cooler (8800GTX with end of PCB highlighted showing no mounted components). There is at least 5 mm of extra PCB before reaching any mounted components. If one were to install a full length cooler video card (like the EVGA 8800 Ultra) then you'll probably have to remove the HDD cage or make larger cuts to the HDD cage or modify the cooler.
I first started off by installing the motherboard and video card into the case with the HDD cage removed. I then took the HDD cage and made some rough fittings on the location of the cuts I needed to make to fit the video card, marking them down with a pencil. From the picture you can see the front of the HDD cage where I have marked the depth of the cut at about 5 mm (only 2 mm sticks out from the video card) and the width of the cut at about 3 mm. (Pencil marked HDD cage (front)). It will also be necessary to cut along the the side of the HDD cage. Fortunately there is a pre-made hole on the side of the HDD cage which will make cutting the side easier.
As the HDD cage is made out of rolled steel it is not too extremely difficult to cut, but does require some patience. The way I cut the cage was first by drilling out as many parts of the section I wanted to cut out first, then using a metal hacksaw to complete the rest of the cut. It takes a while for the saw to bite into the metal, but once it is in, it is easy to cut the steel. Once the cuts are made, the edges will be sharp, so it is a good idea to file it down, but definitely put some masking tape over it. I did both, as I didn't want the cut metal to scratch the video card PCB when inserting and removing the HDD cage.
Here are pictures of the cuts made to the HDD cage with masking tape applied to cover the edges. (Front View) (Side View)
For the side cut, it happens that the cut intersects with the premade holes thus making it easier to complete.
Final picture of everything installed (same picture as above). (Final Fitting)
Close up of the video card and the cut HDD cage (Close Up)
From this picture you can see that the top side (the side with the cooler) of the 8800GTX PCB is lightly resting on the bottom cut of the HDD cage. This is fine as there are no electrical components there.
As an aside...
I wanted to add that the Aguila case fits the Thermaltake Ultra 120 Extreme Heatsink, it clears the side of the case by about 2 cm, so there is probably not enough space to mount a fan over the side blow hole.
So this concludes my story. In the end modding the HDD cage turned out to be pretty easy, and much cheaper than getting another case.
Feel free to leave a message if there are any praises or comments.
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