Sorry for late reply . I got Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus and installed it at 18 instead of the PCIe at 17 because the soundcard (with its plastic case) at slot 17 (see reply by redxps630 on page 1) will block the air flow into the graphics card. There are two fans sucking in air on the graphics card but the soundcard at slot 18 will not block the outgoing air because one of the graphics card fans near the back of the system case actually drives air out towards the back of the system case instead of upwards and there is only one opening for the other fan on the graphics card that allows air to go upwards (towards the CPU intake air fan, I have a vertical heatsink/fan cooling arrangement for the processor) but that opening is not blocked by the soundcard , so it works out , but now ....
I have another problem. I want to install a TV tuner card at slot 17 . The TV card does not have any boxy plastic casing but it is still very close to the graphics card at where the graphics card fans are sucking in air (only a few mm space between the cards), I wonder if I should install the TV card or just waste an empty PCIe slot letting the graphics card enjoy taking in the air !?
