asus sabertooth x58 sli heat issues

I purchased a second palit 460 gtx to run in sli. I installed the additional card last night and everything runs fine at acceptable temps. But the sabertooth x58 mobo has the pcie express slots so close together that the cards are practically touching. Consequently, the top card has to run the fan at around 95% of top speed to keep the temps from getting too high (the top card gets to about 85-87C on load). This produces a ton of noise, so much so that it's distracting. Here are the solutions I've considered so far:

1. Purchase this:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999130 , keep an open case and let the fan blow on the top card.

2. Remove HSF from both cards, clean off the stock thermal grease/pads, and reapply a better thermal paste.

3. Live with it.

Has any one else had this problem and found an inexpensive solution? Thanks in advance for your advice and comments.

I'd like to know if there is a solution to this as well, I also have a x58 motherboard and am about to run gtx 470 sli

I purchased a second palit 460 gtx to run in sli. I installed the additional card last night and everything runs fine at acceptable temps. But the sabertooth x58 mobo has the pcie express slots so close together that the cards are practically touching. Consequently, the top card has to run the fan at around 95% of top speed to keep the temps from getting too high (the top card gets to about 85-87C on load). This produces a ton of noise, so much so that it's distracting. Here are the solutions I've considered so far:

1. Purchase this:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999130 , keep an open case and let the fan blow on the top card.

2. Remove HSF from both cards, clean off the stock thermal grease/pads, and reapply a better thermal paste.

3. Live with it.

Has any one else had this problem and found an inexpensive solution? Thanks in advance for your advice and comments.

Ronin282

I had a similar issue with my old GTX 280s in SLI. My MB supports 16x/16x/1x or I can flip the bridge chip and run my PCI-E slots as 16x/8x/8x. My top card always ran 10-15C hotter then the bottom card when they were right next to each other. So after having things setup that way for a while I finally swapped the bridge chip and moved my bottom card to the third PCI-E slot. I ran my cards in 16x/8x, putting more space between the cards and things ran noticeable cooler that way.

I didn't get any hit in performance either. So I went from 16x/16x to 16x/8x for my SLI setup. If you have a similar MB and can space the cards out, I would suggest doing so to help with the temps. Also, a good case with good airflow helps a lot.