i actually upgraded to a 5670, unless you were referring to the old 5570 i used for like 10 minutes. everything is very tight, but the card does not touch the memory clips, nor the CPU cooler.yetidaddy wrote:I wish I found this before I built my machine, because I had the same problems as you did and same goal. I wanted eyefinity + gaming + htpc. I finally did it, but it took so long to dig up informations and buy those parts. My machine:
Intel E5200
Biostar G41-M7 MATX mb
2gb G.Skills Ram x 1
160gb 2.5mm HDD
ATI 5570 sapphire (same one)
Case - same
PSU - same but with a shuttle adapter
(I'm not sure how much watts I get from that but it seem to be powering it fine. 180w PSU)
I get good performance over the 3-screens in eyefinity setup. But, its just mmo and emulators.
The goal is to push it and see what kind of gig I can get under $400.
So the 5670 doesn't cover your ram clips?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product
What about this motherboard? Will that heatsink on southbridge block it?
I'm also amazed that the 150w can power the i7 + 5670.
Do you think it will power a MATX + i3 + 5670 ?
I'm getting another case that's 9 x 11 x 5 so fitting them won't be a problem.
if this setup can power my i7 and 5670, i don't see why it can't power a i3 and 5670. the power difference between mATX and mini-ITX is pretty negligible, there's bigger differences between brands and platforms. mATX should be fine.
i actually have that asrock mATX. it's pretty much a hybrid between mini-ITX and mATX form factor. the width is just a tad larger than mini-ITX, but a lot smaller than most mATX. it takes up 3 expansion slots instead of 4, so you can fit it in some mini-ITX case. here's a quiet build i did for it so refer to this thread below. i just haven't posted it on this forum yet:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1612045