On Fri, 2005-09-09 at 13:34 -0400, Timothy Miller wrote: 
> Let's focus on passive cooling for the moment.

Well, from my experiences there are a few things that help
the airflow even in very cramped cases.

As we know, hot air rises, but only if it can be replaced by
cold air. Thus some cards actually have cut out a piece of
the pcb to allow air to come through from the other side.

I have seen both large cut-pot parts below the vga connector
as well as several smaller cut-out parts in various places
on the card.

Since we will have two DVI connectors, the large cut-out
space might not be available, but a few mm cut off on the
lower end might be possible. Actually the whole card could
be cut a little extra on the lower end (except on the
pci connector of course) to allow both airflow from under
the card and better clearance to motherboard components.

The metal shim at the end of the card might also have space
some venting holes.

If I remember correctly, some cards have 2xDVI + s-video
plugs. If we only need 2xDVI then they can be located as
far up (away from the motherboard) as possible. This allows
for venting holes/strips on the shim, aswell as some pcb
cutoff.

As an alternative to active cooling it could be worth
considering a heatpipe solution where the main heatsink
is located on a pice of pcb where no components are located.
Thus allowing a thicker heatsink. I know this is more
expensive than plain passive, but it is more reliable than
active.

PS: will there be 5/12V fan headers onboard?

-HK

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