Running ASUS GTX 670 DC-II in SLI on mATX board

[biostud]

I contemplating on finding another ASUS GTX670 DC-II to add to my setup to run in SLI, if I can find a used one cheap.

It's not going to happen in my current case as there's not enough room/airflow. So I will definitely get a ATX case, something like the Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 or similar.

My motherbord is a mATX, so the videocards will be sandwiched together with the top card having little room to breathe.

If I run the cards w/o overclocking I hope the temperatures will be ok, and prevent throttling or fans running at a noisy speed.

Do you think it will be manageable?

 

[UNhooked]

As long as the you have some airflow over the GPU fans you should be fine. Looks like your case has side fan as well.

 

[biostud]

There's not enough room in my current case for the extra card.

 

[blackened23]

It depends on what motherboard you're using and how much space it allows you in between the cards. I would say that 99% of mATX boards won't do very well with "open air" cards in SLI configuration, I would strongly suggest getting a reference design in this scenario.

You can make it work POSSIBLY, but be sure to buy from a place with a good return policy just in case it doesn't - I've tried open air cards in SLI before and unless they have room to "breathe" it will take some work to make them get along. I had 680 lightnings in SLI before but of course I had a full size ATX motherboards with near 2 slots of space in-between, I don't think mATX will give you the same amount of room in between. Even then, the temps on the upper card were MUCH HIGHER in SLI than they were in single card config. The big issue with cramped cases / small motherboards along with open air cards is what I refer to as "temperature creep". The upper card will generally get much hotter than the lower one over time, because the hot air from the lower card will suffocate the upper one. This will cause the temps to slowly and slowly get higher and higher over time - it could take 20 or 25 minutes, but this is what I observed on quite a few sandwiched, open-air/aftermarket mGPU configurations.

The other thing to consider is the entire reason for aftermarket cards is for the purpose of overclocking. If you sandwich SLI them, you won't be able to overclock very well if at all, so you're negating that benefit. It's definitely worth a try, but be sure to buy your second 670 from a shop with a good return policy just in case.

edit: also, if you're willing to run with the case side-panel off that's another avenue that can help a ton if you do run into issues. This is one of those situations where you can't get a definite answer as to whether it will work well or not, you just gotta give it a whirl and mess with it until it works. If nothing else, case side panel off will generally make them get along if you do run into temperature creep issues.