Try to remember how your PC looked 10 years ago. Mine was grey, beige and had a green button for power. Today, the computer’s physical appearance and performance (eg. cooling) is just as important as the computational performance you get on screen. With an AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 graphics card you’re getting amazing hardware that only deserves a matching setup.

In this article I’m going to look at a couple builds that are definitely not dull grey boxes. We’ve taken our AMD CPU, RAM, and Video Cards and installed them in 3 different chassis. I just need to throw in a hard drive and wire everything together and I’ve got myself a LAN party.

All images are for illustrative purposes only and no endorsement of AMD or by AMD is implied.

Common Hardware:

Processor:  AMD FX 8150 Processor with Liquid CPU Cooling System

RAM:  AMD  Radeon™ Memory Entertainment Edition 4GB DDR3 x 2

Video Cards:  AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 graphics card x 2

Motherboard:  ASUS Crosshair V Formula

For all the following builds I’ll be using AMD hardware. This includes everything from the AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 Graphics card to the AMD branded Liquid CPU Cooling System.

On to our first setup…

Setup A:

Chassis: Cooler Master Cosmos II

PSU: Seasonic Platinum Series 860W

When the ATI Radeon™ HD 5970 GPU was released 2009, I was in awe. The ATI Radeon™ HD 5970 GPU was a beast; not only in sheer performance, but also in physique, spanning just over 12 inches. This graphic card was definitely no lightweight and was troublesome (if not impossible) to fit into certain chassis.

Fast forward to 2012, we have the AMD Radeon™ HD 6990 GPU and the AMD Radeon HD 7970 GPU. I measured these boards to be roughly 12 and 11 inches in length respectively. So for the moment the largest cards haven’t gotten bigger, but do we still have the same trouble fitting these graphics cards into a chassis?

With our first setup, there is definitely no issue fitting the AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 GPU. The race-car inspired Cosmos II is a self-proclaimed Ultra-Tower. Supporting up to 10 fans and 13 HDDs, as you can see below the chassis also comfortably fits 2 of our AMD Radeon HD 7970 GPU’s in AMD CrossFireX™ technology mode.

Setup B:

Chassis: Enermax Fulmo & Enermax Fulmo GT

PSU: Enermax Revolution87+ 850W

Sure, extra space is great in chassis’ for routing cables and better airflow, but if you’re like me and living space is a bit more limited, opting for a Mid-Tower over a Big Tower is a reasonable compromise.

Our 2 x AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 GPUs fit quite well in Fulmo (Mid Tower) chassis. For those of you still debating whether to go mid or big, Enermax has made it easier (or more difficult) to make the decision with a nearly identical bigger brother Fulmo GT (Big Tower).

Setup C:

Chassis:  Thermaltake Level 10 GT

PSU:  Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1200W

A big focus on this article has been on fitting the components inside the chassis’, but what if you’re looking for maximum style points? For those who want the red and black color scheme and curvy style inside and out. The Level 10 GT is a definite option.

Another thing to point out is that I’ve paired each of these chassis’ with a matching power supply unit. All selected PSUs have also gone through our AMD Gold Certification to ensure they are up to the task of running our graphic cards in AMD CrossFire™ Technology mode, but I’ll throw out some brownie points to Thermaltake with their Toughpower Grand 1200W. The design complements our AMD hardware quite nicely.

It also comes in white. (Snow Edition)

These enthusiast chassis’ definitely had little issue fitting our AMD hardware, and look great while doing so. So which setup is your favorite?

David Tjong is on the Technical Marketing team at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites, and references to third party trademarks, are provided for convenience and illustrative purposes only.  Unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links, and no third party endorsement of AMD or any of its products is implied.

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