I didn't pay enough attention to the mini cards for Kepler.
Now, I'm wondering what could be sacrificed if you could at least get a GTX 1070 card less than 7" long.
"Everybody else" in the forums is leaning toward iTX or mATX, or they're building ATX systems in more compact computer cases. For the end-of-year project in a few months, I'm going to order a Corsair Vengeance C70.
One of the last two computer cases I bought between 2008 and 2011 was my Stacker 830. I'm building a new server that doesn't need to be deployed in a working state for as much as a year from now. I just chose to use the Stacker, and I started looking at the cooling possibilities in the event that I swap the server innards between the Stacker or something else. To be sure, that could make purchase of the C70 unnecessary, or at least a low priority over time.
Anyway -- yes, TLTR I'm sure -- I took this last month or so to fret over the Stacker in a fit of inspiration. This is going to be slick! I think I can fit a Swiftech H240X2 in the front, with the mods I've made otherwise for use with a 212 EVO. Part of the inspiration was the use of the CM Crossflow fan in the Stacker. It vents (or draws by default) from the motherboard-pan, pulling air from the front edge of the motherboard - 4/5 from above, 1/5 from below. Apparently, with that fan orientation, there must have been smaller graphics cards. I think I had a pair of BFG GT 9600's, which aren't full length. So the conflict -- a fan obstructing a 10.5" gfx card on a 9.6" wide ATX-board, with a duct-plate of my own custom design -- also an inspiration or so I could think.
But if the server gets transferred next year and the Stacker gets a Z170 system, the H240X2 and so on, the otherwise promising ducting and vent from the CF fan will impair my choice of video cards.
So I turned toward the mini's, just to discover the possibilities that could be totally satisfactory for my type of builds and budgets.
I also understand that these 10x0 cards either limit SLI to 2x at the top-end, or do not support SLI for the mid-range 1060 card. But a 1060 outperforms a 980 in some tests. So I think I'd much rather hope for a 6.8"-long 1070 card. These things are build with as much as 6GB of VRAM. And I'm only moving toward 4K video in the most deliberate and slow schedule. I just really don't need it . . . not right now. . . .
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