This article totally reminds me of mythbusters. Will the fan work better while extended? As it turns out, myth busted!

Great article as always guys.

This card looks like the perfect mid range ati card.

That thing got a HEMI? :-B

There's no way having a fan closer or further will affect the airflow in a closed environnement (in occurrence the somewhat small duct).

The only thing that can be affected, is the noise, when you use a bigger fan, you can reduce the speed of it, so the noise drop, and you keep the same airflow.

Another myth people beleive in, is making the fan turn faster, will cool down the heatsink better. This is actually logical up to a point. The point where the heatsink itself can't transfert any faster the heat. Aluminium and copper have a limit to what amount of thermal it can transfert, eg: speeding up a 120mm fan more than 1200rpm, will not cool more your CPU. You'll need a better heatsink design that can dissipate more heat at the same time.

Best thing a person can do to reduce heat and noise (aside from an aftermarket cooler) is to replace the cheapo stock goop on your GPU with MX-2 (or other quality paste). Simple, quick, do it right: great results.

That's what AT should do! Take all of the mid-high range cards from both camps, replace the TIM, then test. *drool*

Just put a stern warning on the article that it shouldn't be attempted if you're a real dummy who will end up bricking the card.