Quote Originally Posted by jcool View Post
I once benched it with 2x 3870X2 fit well... also built a watercooled setup with 2x 4870X2, see a few pages back. What's the issue with the 4850X2?
As far as I am aware, the 4850X2 is the BIGGEST graphics card you can buy - about an inch longer than the 4870X2. I also could not get it into the primary slot and gave up trying to force it - part of me thinks I can get it to fit if I bend a few bits, but who in the world wants to do that when the graphics card and motherboard come to nearly £1,000 !! Correct me if I am wrong but the second slot is exactly the same as the first slot, they are both x16, unlike on cheaper boards where one is x16 and the other is x8 or x4. Now I have the primary x16 free in case I ever need to plug something else in. That would probably be nothing or another graphics card as I already have a RAID controller in the white (mechanical) x16. I guess the complication would be if you need to plug in a legacy PCI device?

This has kinda shattered my ambitions to buy another 4850X2 and run 4-way Crossfire, but the 4850X2 is so powerful I don't really see any reason to bother. You can always buy a 1GB 4850 and put it in the first slot and (I believe) run 3-way Crossfire, or buy a 4870X2 and run hybrid 4-way Crossfire.

By the way, have you heard the fans yet?? I stripped mine off and put on a thick slap of water cooling!