Pocah Posted September 3, 2020 Share Posted September 3, 2020 (edited) Currently my main PC is sat in an Air 740. Love that case! I am considering moving to a Crystal 680X. My one limitation with the case is that the cooling solution I love (front mounted Corsair radiator) slightly limits my choice of video card. I think the limit is 300mm, which is the distance between the front fans and the back slot covers. There are some 330mm video cards so you see the problem. It would be really nice to gain that extra 3cm so I am completely free to choose whatever video card I want, including the almighty 3090! Checking the dimensions and the 680 depth seems very similar to the 740. And I know this is an impossible question, but is the distance from the front fan mounting plate to the back slot covers any different between the two cases? In the 740 I believe the answer is 350mm. Taking off 25mm for fans this only leaves 325mm. Even that is too short for some 20 series cards. Taking off another 25mm for a radiator, and there is a serious problem. And to make matters a lot worse, most 30XX GPU cards are going to be really long. Edited September 3, 2020 by Pocah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c-attack Posted September 3, 2020 Share Posted September 3, 2020 The 680x and 740 have the same frame and will have the same interior dimensions. 680X owners also report some conflicts with radiator placement that I can get away with in my 740, so there may be a few millimeters lost on changes required for glass. I think that’s a tough swap unless you really like look, want white, or are not overly concerned about loosing a few degrees in performance. That glass will not breathe like the mesh on the 740. Would really like to see a larger 940/980X that can do a 360mm radiator top and bottom. That would also take care of the GPU length issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocah Posted September 3, 2020 Author Share Posted September 3, 2020 (edited) It's a shame. The way I have it configured is two 140mm fans in the bottom, two on the top, creating a chimney type flow of air through the case. The radiator is on the front with two 140mm fans blowing in. For some reason this gives me way better results than any other configuration I tried, so I was really keen to keep that configuration. But alas as I said the problem is that the graphics card can be no larger than 300mm. I currently have a 2070S in there but I want a 3080 and looking at the designs I think they are all going to be larger than 300mm. I am not even sure that a 330mm card will fit in a 680 even without the radiator. Certainly the 3090 is not going to fit at all. So yes, love the case BUT it needs to be 50mm longer. 80mm to accommodate a 360mm radiator on the top for you! It's a real shame because there really aren't many cases like that and a premium case like the 680 just shouldn't suffer from this problem. Edited September 3, 2020 by Pocah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocah Posted September 3, 2020 Author Share Posted September 3, 2020 You know looking at this Corsair could have done something about this when they designed the 680. By mounting the fans the other side of the front mounting plate it would have given 25mm more room in the case. All they had to do was ensure there was enough room in the new plastic front panel moulding to accommodate the fans. I don't think it would have made the overall product any bigger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p0Pe Posted September 3, 2020 Share Posted September 3, 2020 You can always go with the same layout hardware canucks used in this video: [ame] [/ame] dual 280mm radiators, both as outtake, and then 3 120mm fans as intake in the front. If you want the best cooling performance, I would reccomend that you use ML PRO's on the radiators, and then you can have RGB (if wanted) in the 3 front fans the case comes with. Mounting an XD5 in the PSU compartment gives you all the room you would ever need, even for a 3090 card (if you place it vertically, not sure about horizontally) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c-attack Posted September 3, 2020 Share Posted September 3, 2020 Well, for what it's worth I ran into this as well when I bought my 2080 Ti and misjudged the actual available space by 2mm. I had been running a full water reverse flow with front/top exhaust. Now I needed to run the 2x280mm radiator top and bottom. However, rather than a penalty it turned out really well. I ran top/bottom intake, top/bottom exhaust, classic front/bottom in, top/rear out and they all worked out great. Differences in the various configurations were less than 1C and it was actually better than what I was doing before (again by small margins). The 740 is a really great case for 140mm based fan sizes. I just outgrew it in terms of wattage and needed to move up to larger radiators. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocah Posted September 3, 2020 Author Share Posted September 3, 2020 (edited) I have no idea why the cooling configuration I have works so well but it does. By the way, I do use six ML PRO's. They made a significant difference. They are quieter and much better than the stock fans that came with the H115i that I bought ( a few years ago ). There is hope because gigabyte seem to go to great lengths not to make their GPU cards longer than 290mm. Even their 2080ti Extreme is 290mm. MSI are a dead loss though, lol, theirs are always bigger than 300. Asus often wander over 300 too. I guess I will just have to see what's what and try some different orientations in my existing case. If I can't sort out a good solution in that one then there is little hope in the 680. Edited September 3, 2020 by Pocah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c-attack Posted September 3, 2020 Share Posted September 3, 2020 If you can't make it work in the 740, it absolutely will not work in the 680X. The need for triple fans on the big watt GPUs has really stretched things out. The new Ampere are not going to be any shorter. However, if your hand is forced you can run the H115i on the top as intake, the bottom fans as intake, and then front and rear exhaust. I did this this 450-500W in the loop and it was absolutely not a problem. The distances on the 740 are so perfect in all 140mm mode, where that top radiator is effectively exhausting directly into the front and rear fans removing it. It's the only case I've ever owned where I could keep the internal temperature about 2C above the room temp. You won't get that with a glass box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocah Posted September 3, 2020 Author Share Posted September 3, 2020 Yes, as suspected, the 3080's are really BIG. Not even an Asus will fit in the 740 with a front mounted radiator and the Asus is one of the shorter ones. Many of them won't even fit in the 740 with front fans only. I am afraid I may have to abandon the case altogether and it seems the 680 is just too short. Oh well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts