Tuesday, July 6th 2010
PowerColor Announces PowerJack Graphics Card Support Accessory
TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphics cards, today announced a professional graphics interface card supporter: the PowerColor PowerJack. As high-end graphics are becoming more powerful, the sizes are increasing as well as their weight. This poses a problem that gamers may not know they had. Owners of high-end graphics may be able to attest to the problem of the weight of the card bending in the case. A couple screws and the motherboard may not be enough to hold the heavier cards in place anymore.
This is where the PowerColor PowerJack comes in. The PowerJack supports the weight of the card from the back where it's most needed. With its multistage extension function, it can extend its height from 61.25 mm up to 150 mm and it's applicable to E-ATX / ATX / M-ATX motherboards and can be used in full tower, mid tower & mini tower chassis."The company is full of gamers and modders, so it's no surprise that we discovered a need for a product like the PowerJack," says Ted Chen, CEO of TUL Corporation. "High performance cards are not going to get any smaller, so we saw a need to bring this to market, where we know it will be fully utilized."
The PowerJack will be available on July 15.
This is where the PowerColor PowerJack comes in. The PowerJack supports the weight of the card from the back where it's most needed. With its multistage extension function, it can extend its height from 61.25 mm up to 150 mm and it's applicable to E-ATX / ATX / M-ATX motherboards and can be used in full tower, mid tower & mini tower chassis."The company is full of gamers and modders, so it's no surprise that we discovered a need for a product like the PowerJack," says Ted Chen, CEO of TUL Corporation. "High performance cards are not going to get any smaller, so we saw a need to bring this to market, where we know it will be fully utilized."
The PowerJack will be available on July 15.
33 Comments on PowerColor Announces PowerJack Graphics Card Support Accessory
I would've gone for another approach, something like a rail with moving supports that can support multiple cards by adding more supports and that can clamp onto each card individually so it won't budge... But that's just my thinking...
Sure graphic cards can be heavy these days, but the weight is spread across large PCIe bus and that one or 2 screws.
This is where the PowerColor PowerJack comes in. The PowerJack supports the weight of the card from the back where it's most needed. With its multistage extension function, it can extend its height from 61.25 mm up to 150 mm and it's applicable to E-ATX / ATX / M-ATX motherboards and can be used in full tower, mid tower & mini tower chassis.
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"The company is full of gamers and modders, so it's no surprise that we discovered a need for a product like the PowerJack," says Ted Chen, CEO of TUL Corporation. "High performance cards are not going to get any smaller, so we saw a need to bring this to market, where we know it will be fully utilized."
The PowerJack will be available on July 15.
View at TechPowerUp Main Site
the cpu socket attached with a large and heavy heatsinks at most weigh 1kg
the graphic card + cooler can weigh more than that.
plus, a cpu cooler can use bolt thru kits which have more clamping force at the base of the cooler.
graphics card lack that clamping force to keep it in place.
trust me, i know, i have an ATI 4870X2 with arctic cooler accelero xtreme 4870x2. the whole beast tilts down on the left side (the side hanging in the air) even when i'm using 2 screws.
Spend the time and money to find a way to make the cards smaller instead.:nutkick:
(good idea)
They should just include a bit then and everyone will be happy...
EDIT: Although then you could just do away with the PowerJack altogether and just prod a dowel between two pieces of double sided tape. Does nothing structurally different (and the dowel will probably be able to take more weight). Of course, if you're constantly upgrading cases and you can't afford the time to cut a specific length of dowel each time to support your massively overweight (debatable) graphics card, then the PowerJack is for you! ;)
but at the end it's really good idea
this is a great idea, so long as it doesnt slip at all, and has no possibility of shorting things out if it does slip.
Maybe its about time they redesign motherboards and cases
Case
Replace the Expansion Slots at the back with 5.25 Drive Bays.
Replace Rear Panel Ports space with a 5.25 Drive Bay so that if the user wants PS/2, USB 1.1/2.0, USB 3.0, IEEE 1394 etc at the back they can buy a 5.25 Drive Bay that has them
Motherboards
Replace PCI express with PCI express cable or even light peak.
Rear Panel Ports replaced with light peak/(or anything optical) that connects to a 5.25 Drive Bay.
The CPU should be near the side so that CPU coolers can be attached to the case more than the motherboard.
Motherboards would be far cheaper and smaller as the large PCI express connections would not be needed and the hardware needed for the rear panel port would be on the drive bay.
Optional Extra
Light peak for CPU. If the user wants to add another CPU, they buy a 5.25 Drive Bay with cpu and ram or simply a cut down Ion board that fits a 5.25 Drive bay. Connect the board to a light peak for CPU connector , connect the power and you have another CPU. They could even make it hot pluggable.
i use mine for my main rig and never have to carry a heavy case like my cosmos when i go out of town :p
Does this mean I don't have to use a Popsicle stick and a folded piece of card stock anymore? Really, I had to do that to a x800 to keep it from leaning on the northbrige fan.
On multi-GPU's, put the powerJack under the bottom GPU and use some kind of spacer between the other's to hold them all in place.
Of course, the SilverStone 90 degree cases don't need this....
Not sure how it would have fit on the bottom with most of the surface being just fans, but a bit of rubber on the end could help it stay on smaller ledge too.
Hopefully it's cheap and might get one for next GPU. If it costs too much have to make something similar with 2 bolts :p