Case mod to fit in my brothers GTX 960 into a low profile Optiplex desktop....
The build is actually for my brother as a moving out present. As he is moving out he is a bit strapped for cash and my company were throwing out this PC and I thought I could put it to good use. It’s an OptiPlex 7010 with an i7 3770 and 8GB RAM so more than adequate for a gaming pc. My brother had already bought the GTX 960 about 6 months ago and installed it in the family PC hence why I didn't just buy a low profile card like a 1050ti. The original PSU was 225W off the top of my head and I had issues with it when doing a test run so that had to be replaced. Because of the form factor of this machine it uses a TFX PSU, I couldn’t find much in the way of high wattage TFX PSUs out there but after doing some PSU calculations 300W was enough to power the system and I found a bequite 300w TFX PSU (link for parts below if anyone wants to do similar). As most of you figured out the GPU itself is connected to the mobo using a PCI extender/riser and powered by a PCI 6 pin fed through the side. I had to dremel a small amount off of the side panel to feed the riser through but you don’t see that and its quite neat. The GPU is cable tied, very tightly and securely to the side panel, so to get inside the case you disconnect the PCI and power and simply remove the side panel (quite clever imo xD). As the side panel is metal to mitigate the risk of the rear PCB shorting (there is no back plate on this 960), I used some ceramic tile in-between the GPU and the side panel as its non-conductive and can handle the heat. The temps are awesome on the system, 70C on GPU on full load and the fan doesn’t need to ramp up so nice and quiet, and the system is nice and tucked away so is safe from children and dogs xD.
TL;DR GPU light up antlers FTW
Parts:
PSU: https://www.scan.co.uk/products/300w-be-quiet!-tfx-power-2-80plus-bronze-black-pci-e-sleeved-cables-erp-2014
Riser: https://www.scan.co.uk/products/thermaltake-pci-e-x16-30-riser-cable-(core-p5-p3-g3)
