Shuttle + Zalman VGA cooler?

[Goat_guy]

I have been looking online, but cannot find any references to this question. Will a Zalman VGA cooler work with a standard shuttle case (PCI, then AGP) without blocking the PCI slot? I am looking to get the new 939 Shuttle case with a 6600GT (I am aware of which card to get to make sure the Zalman works), but I need to know if there is any way that the Zalman will not block the PCI slot. If not, what are the quieter options for cooling a GPU without having an extra PCI slot to occupy??

Thanks for your help!
Brian

[Mariner]

Pretty sure that the answer is no. In fact I don't believe the Zalman VGA coolers will even fit in Shuttle cases without modification.

I'd suggest you check out the forums at www.sfftech.com where there is plenty of discussion about what can and can't fit into a Shuttle!

[Rykoro]

Zalman has a VF100 coming out in July. It's basicly a VF700 except single slot.

[Slaugh]

My brother has a Shuttle XPC SD31P. He needed to install a Radeon X850 XT because the onboard GPU was not suitable for gaming. When he realized how loud that card was, he decided to swap the stock cooler for a Zalman VF700-Cu. I was a bit skeptical when he bought the VF700-Cu, but it fits well (not so tight), and performs as good as the stock cooler (if not better), minus the noise. The Shuttle SD31P has a slightly bigger case than the other models, so you might want to check the measurements of your Shuttle and make sure that you have enough clearance for the VF700-Cu (it measures 91(L) x 126.4(W) x 30(H)mm).



EDIT: I've just realized that his PCI-e slot was located at the bottom of the board, so there was no other slot in the way. It all depends on the motherboard, so I'm not sure if the VF700-Cu can really fit in a standard Shuttle without sacrifying a PCI slot.

There's currently five Shuttles with Socket 939. The Shuttle XPC SN25P is similar to the SD31P, and it comes with a nForce4 Ultra chipset and supports Socket 939 CPU's. Here's a picture of the SN25P (FN25 motherboard), and the actual location of the PCI-e slots:


(Click on the picture for a larger view)

It looks tight but if it's like the SD31P, it should fit. There's a review of the Shuttle XPC SN25P on GamePC (The above picture comes from this review).

The slots are arranged in such a way that dual-slot graphics cards can be installed in the SN25P, although this will take up both of the two case I/O slots, leaving you with no other room for expansion.

The single PCI Express x1 slot is nice, but we would have preferred the use of a 32-bit PCI slot so we could use modern PCI peripherals. While PCI Express x1 will eventually take over where 32-bit PCI has left off, there are a scant few PCI Express x1 peripherals on the market today, so for many, this expansion slot will be left empty. Also, if you'll notice in front of the PCI slots, there is a translucent, sticky piece of plastic which covers some voltage regulation modules. This is installed so that you don't accidentally damage these components while installing your expansion cards. It can be a tight fit in there, and safety measures like this are always appreciated. Just shows that Shuttle is thinking ahead.

You might also want to consider the Shuttle XPC SN26P, which is a SLI setup that uses 2 custom heatpipes coolers for the video cards (although I'm not sure if this one is shipped with 2 video cards or not):


(Click on the picture for a larger view)

There's a review of the Shuttle XPC SN26P on X-bit Labs.

In order to deal with the heat generated by graphics cards, Shuttle developed a specially designed heat pipe cooling system, based on its existing cooling solution for processors. Regardless of the demands placed on the SN26P, users can expect their Shuttle XPC Barebone SN26P to remain “super quiet, super coolâ€