first Scope card always on pci slot 1?

[roy thinnes]

how important is it, regarding system stability and Scope performance?
I’m asking this because I’m a bit concerned about the low distance between the ScopePro and the graphics card, and the resulting heat.
I have an Asus P5B mobo with 3 slots (ScopePro, pulsar2, wlan adapter). so what I think about is:
-exchange the wlan adapter for an usb wlan
-put pulsar2 on slot3
-put ScopePro on slot2
-leave slot1 blank
maybe this is complete nonsense, what do you think?

[garyb]

go ahead.

[astroman]

I've recently had a Pulsar physically hooked to the cooler of a Gforce 8600 for a couple of days without any noise whatsoever.
It was a sick heating sandwich, tho
(I stuck a CD between the 2 cards to keep at least a minimal space)
after all I preferred to remove the 8600

cheers, Tom

[netguyjoel]

Heat, static and dust are real enemies of chips. I'd pull the PCI NIC and get a USB one...unless you like to play world of warcraft on your DAW...

[valis]

• There are several ways to cool PCI slot devices:
• Cut a side intake (blowhole) in your case's door and install a fan on it that blows on your cards
• Use a 'slot cooler' which exhausts out the rear of the case. There are 1 & 2 slot variants. Preferably located above your scope cards but sometimes even moving dead air below cards can improve overall airflow in cases & remove hotspots.
• Increase your lower case front intake fans (either in count or speed, or add one if none is present).

Some cases have a mounting for 120mm fans in the front now, and my tower cases both have room for 2 fans (2x80mm in the old tower case and 2x120mm in the new one). I like this because it means I can use two fans on lower (or lowest) speed settings and get the airflow I need without the noise that a single fan at higher speed creates. I also have PCI slot fans AND side intake fans (cut into the door) of both of my tower cases. Having all options allowed me to turn fan speeds down to 800-1200rpm for most of them, which is nearly inaudible next to the sound of the drives & rear PSU exhaust.

Of course I'm also anal enough about my thermals in here to have purchased a 1400btu window AC a year or two ago. That thing makes one HECK of a racket and is on my list for 'improvements' to make in here when I have the money to address that.

[roy thinnes]

thanks guys,
everything is up and running ok.
valis: the addtional side-fan makes me (and the pulsars) feel even better. and I look for a slot cooler.
thanks for your replies.
ps: ha, because of the new usb wlan stick is my wlan is faster, too

[dawman]

I used one of these on my old 3 card DAW.
http://www.xoxide.com/cooling.html

The ISA one pictured below worked the best on my first GigaDAW. It's length put the fans right in the middle of the Pro cards chips and blew air in 2 directions.
I haven't seen one to use with PCI-e slots yet.

xoxide_2059_184518921.jpg

Slot Fan.jpg

[netguyjoel]

5.25 inch drive bay fan

I use a few of these in our surveillance DVRs..they work pretty good too