What Graphics Card Fit In Shuttle XPC SZ77R5

Earlier this year (2013) I bought a mini pc that will be dedicated for serving plex media server. I got the ShuttleXPC SZ77R5 because it was small enough for me and it works with the Intel Core i7-3770K since this need to handle multiple 1080p streams on my home network on different devices at the same time. The thing that I did not plan for is the video card. So I can make it a dedicated gaming pc for the most recent games and run it flawlessly. But these kind of cards are huge and usually won't fit this case without modifications.

So after some research I got this card,  Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 OC with Boost 3GB DDR5 DL-DVI-I/SL-DVI-D/HDMI/DP PCI-Express Graphics Card 11197-03-40G which barely fits and when you close the case it would probably overheat. Also you will have to remove the hard drive/cd rom rack to fit this card. I moved my hard drive on top of the case, there is a bunch of holes there where you can just attach it in. Then the hard part was cutting the case to have an opening in same place where the fan of the graphics cards are. I never really tried running it without that opening so I can't say if it would overheat.

It doesn't look that good now with the hole but it works fine.

For anyone that is interested on what else is in there here is the complete list specs.

• Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 OC with Boost 3GB DDR5 DL-DVI-I/SL-DVI-D/HDMI/DP PCI-Express Graphics Card 11197-03-40G
• Shuttle LGA1155/Intel Z77/500W Mini Gaming PC Barebone SZ77R5 (Black)
• Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10)
• Seagate Barracuda 1 TB HDD SATA 6 Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive ST1000DM003
• Intel Core i7-3770K Quad-Core Processor 3.5 GHz 8 MB Cache LGA 1155 - BX80637I73770K