Graphics card upside down

[W4ff1e]

Graphics card upside down, no im sure this question has been asked many times and i just havent picked up on it, but why are they upside down?

[supaflyx3]

Because you're from new zealand.
No but seriously, i don't understand the question you're asking.

[W4ff1e]

Yeah haha, yes that is pretty unclear, I admit.

Q: Why are GFX cards "upside down" eg. cooler side down, pcb up.
1) i like the look of the cooler more than the PCB
2) PCBs' are often ugly
3) I dont like looking at PCB's
4) is this some kind of PC designing conspiracy? just screwing with me?

But in all seriousness why cant they just set the pcie slots differently and flip the coolers over so i can see my sexy hardware?

[JD]

Because the ATX standard was never designed for that and well nobody has changed that standard since PCs first came into homes really.

You could look at buying a case that uses inverted ATX, meaning the motherboard is basically mounted upside down which makes the card's heatsinks visible.

[sswilson]

Some manufacturers recognize that you may want to see your hardware and offer backplates for your viewing pleasure (EVGA SC+ is one).

[W4ff1e]

Yeah im well up to date with all that, ill be putting an evga plate on my 680, but it cant be too hard to flip the pcb and slot bracket can it?

[sswilson]

Originally Posted by W4ff1e

Yeah im well up to date with all that, ill be putting an evga plate on my 680, but it cant be too hard to flip the pcb and slot bracket can it?

Both the motherboard, and the case would have to be designed out of industry standard specs for that to happen. After the BTX standard fiasco, I doubt very much that any manus are all that interested.... :)

[frontier204]

Originally Posted by W4ff1e

But in all seriousness why cant they just set the pcie slots differently and flip the coolers over so i can see my sexy hardware?

As sswilson noted, what you describe is called the BTX motherboard which died along with the Pentium 4 PresHOTs that it was designed to handle: BTX (form factor) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I actually would've built with BTX if there was stuff to support it, but instead manufacturers decided to just get creative with ATX to get better cooling. (e.g. bottom-mounted PSU, fan placement, tower coolers)

There's always buying a case that flips your motherboard. At least 1/4 of Silverstone's cases flip the motherboard "upside down" or even sideways, although I don't recall if any of them have windows.

[NyteOwl]

PC's originally used desktop cases and the expansion cards sat vertically. The is structurally sounder, and actually provides better cooling . When the first towers appeared ISA was still in use and indeed the components were usually on the top of the cards when mounted horizontally. With the advent of PCI and the mixing of the slots on the motherboard, the components moved to the other side of the cards. In a tower case this puts them on the bottom and the situation ahs remained this way ever since as the spacing of the card slots via the rear bracket would need to be changed in order to move the component area to the top and there is just too much inertia from the hardware base currently installed to make it viable.

The BTX tried it as noted with very limited success. The Silverstone TJ03 (I think) also tried to invert the card positions but didn't go over too well. Some of the newer "top mount" cases are another variation (and not a newone as Northgate did that with their full tower in the 90's).

It would really take a combined effort of motherboard, expansion board and case manufacturers to collaborate on some new models if they wanted to move away from the current layout.

Frankly, I'd love a full sized desktop case again. I tried to find one of the convertible (tower to desktop) cooler masters when I built this machine, but they were nowhere to be found.

[W4ff1e]

Yeah all it takes is is gigabyte or asus to make a new board and higher end gfx card series that have the cooler flipped over along with the bracket flipped and there you go, a perfectly functional system with "inverted" gpus.