a bit of a panic need help with card placement on the mobo/case

[nightwolf92]

Okay! so i ordered my 4 7970's for one rig... with an ASRock 970 Extreme4...

Problem...
If you take a look at the board...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157262

you can see that there are
3 PCIE 16x Slots...
2 PCIE 1x Slots
2 PCI Slots... <- wtf are these for...

My problem being the spacing between the PCIE 16x and PCIE 1x slots... will most likely not fit 4 cards... (am i wrong)?

Ive heard of using risers and that fun junk... but I was wondering what your recommendations are....
Should i return the board for one that would fit it... any recommendations on that?

also I got a thermaltake case... with 8 PCI Slots in the back (each 7970 is a double wide card so 2x4=8)
Case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133194


please give me recommendations to make this work!!!
Thanks!

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[GernMiester]

Get riser cables.. Cards too close to one another can cook each other to death
You can figure it out from there if you can figure out how to build a rig you should be good.

[nightwolf92]

I need a case that allows 4x crossfire or basically a setup that will allow the 4 cards to sit next to eachother ... once that gets fixed then i can figure out risers...

PCIE 1x to 16x is fine... but i need at least 4 slots that i can evenly space out 4 cards...
i need a new mobo...

[DrG]

I need a case that allows 4x crossfire or basically a setup that will allow the 4 cards to sit next to eachother ... once that gets fixed then i can figure out risers...

PCIE 1x to 16x is fine... but i need at least 4 slots that i can evenly space out 4 cards...
i need a new mobo...

I don't think you understand what you need to do.  Go here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7216.0

and read the whole damn thread.  Most of it is pictures anyways.  Read the whole damn thing, even if it takes you 4 hours.  If you spent over $1500 you need to read that to learn how to deal with 4 7970s or you won't understand what you need to do.

Your board should be OK as long as you have risers.  The cards don't need to be evenly sprace, just need at least 1 inch away from each other to breathe air.

[middlemarkal]

Drg you said elsewhere that more then 3 7970 will fry the pcie*16 power pins. So he will need at least 1 Power riser no for 4 cards ?

[Marrs]

I need a case that allows 4x crossfire or basically a setup that will allow the 4 cards to sit next to eachother ... once that gets fixed then i can figure out risers...

PCIE 1x to 16x is fine... but i need at least 4 slots that i can evenly space out 4 cards...
i need a new mobo...

Any 8 slot case will support four 2 slot gpus, if the motherboard spacing for the gpus allows it.

The problem is heat, though. If you don't want your gpus running at 100C or more, that will only work if you watercool, or buy an expensive rack mount case designed to hold a bunch of graphics cards, like the chenbro rm41300g.

Most people running four or more gpus on a single motherboard use an open air enclosure, which could be as simple as a 10$ plastic crate with a wooden dowel through it to hold up the cards.

[DrG]

Drg you said elsewhere that more then 3 7970 will fry the pcie*16 power pins. So he will need at least 1 Power riser no for 4 cards ?

I personally haven't put more than 2 7970s on a single mobo so I don't know if 3 would be OK.  For 4 I would definitely use a powered riser.

My 4 card rigs use 6870s and they're not as demanding as a 7970 obviously.