This is a (mostly) theoretical question, as doing the things I'm about to suggest
certainly void warranty, and probably aren't worth it. Basically,
do not do this ![Wink](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/wink.gif)
This isn't exactly specific to mining, but since miners are generally the only people crazy enough to try such things, I'm asking here.
I've recently decided to steal a couple 6950's from my mining rigs to build myself a sweet, sweet crossfire gaming rig. It is truly awesome and all that jazz,
however it's loud as all get out and hotter than hell, even with an open slot between my cards. To alleviate those issues, I'm turning to water cooling.
Now, the motherboard I'm using (Gigabyte 990FX UD3) has 4 16x length slots, two at 16x and two at 8x. It occurred to me while researching waterblocks that my two-slot cards would effectively become 1 slot cards, and I thought 'hey, I could squeeze 4 cards onto this board!'
Reality and disappointment struck soon after when I realized my cards have two DVI headers stacked on top of eachother, as such:
The header is a solid-block rather than a ribbon, so the card still occupies two PCI slots even without the monster HSF.
Now, the crazy question -
is it possible to desoldier the DVI connectors entirely, removing this restriction?Leave all the 'this is stupid, use extenders' or 'not worthwhile for mining', 'run it open air', or 'zomg wtf over' type responses at the door, I'm merely asking about the possibility and ramifications, not whether it's sane or worth my time or monies.
The little eeng experience I have tells me the DVI pins are each just connected to individual traces on the board, and 'nothing is plugged in' is basically the same as 'no header connected at all', is this accurate?
As for mining applicability, this would allow squeezing 4 2-slot cards into a single motherboard, well-cooled,
inside a case, which obviously has it's appeal