Review on LINKUP - Extreme4+ PCIe 4 by Fred Vazquez

I used to mount graphics cards vertically for a while, but when they became available I upgraded to 3090 RTX and had to switch back to horizontal. Why? Because the vertical mounting kit I used before had a vertical cable that just didn't work with Nvidia 3000 series GPUs, I ordered this cable and now it works, back to vertical mounting! I ordered 20cm, my case is Lian Li 011 XL. It's a bit longer to be honest, I think I could do with a 15cm cable, but it would be tight. In fact, for newer cards like the 3080 etc. I would suggest that vertical mounting is the functionally better choice. in a big case. I've seen my RAM and various other system hotspots drop between 2 and 5 degrees Celsius after switching back to vertical. This is because the horizontal bracket blocked the air intake of the fans on the bottom of my case and placed the GPU much closer to other mobile device components. Meanwhile, the GPU basically reaches the same maximum temperature even under full load, regardless of the installation position. UPDATED HINTS: I constantly and adamantly ask the same questions: which cable should I buy, what length, etc. etc. The answers are almost always the same, so read on if you want to know which one you should buy and if it's worth it definitely to buy. 1: Rectangular or straight? If not, then the answer is Right Angle, the end. It doesn't matter whether it's a full tower, medium tower or which tower adapter you use. If your case is not an ITX case, you need the right angle version. If you use an ITX or Mini-ITX case, you need a right angle. 2: Will it work indefinitely with my XYZ motherboard? Answers. Is your motherboard's main PCI Express slot compatible with PCI-E 3.0 or higher? If yes, then this cable will match your motherboard. 3. What length should I buy? Answer 1. If your case is an ATX mid-tower or full-tower case, a 20cm cable is almost guaranteed to fit. Anyway, it's probably going to be a little long. You might even be fine with the 15cm length, for example with the Phanteks P500A case (which I've used to build computers) the 15cm version will be quite long, although it will be a bit cramped. I probably wouldn't risk anything less than 15 unless you mount the GPU vertically at its highest possible position. For reference, both the vertical cables included in the old PHANTEKS Vertical Mount Kit and the new EKWB kits are about 18cm long Answer 2. But what if I have an ITX case? Then you probably already had the vertical cable bundled with your case. You need to remove this vertical cable, measure it and order accordingly. Sorry, but everything else is just a throw of the dice unless you have the manufacturer's specific documentation stating the required length. 4: A question you should ask, but probably won't. Do I need this cable? Answer - It depends on the circumstances. Do you need to replace your existing vertical cable for any reason? Maybe it got corrupted or had a review? Then this cable is a good choice. Alternatively, are you in my situation where you upgraded to a newer card like RXT 3080 or Ryzen 6800XT and your new GPU doesn't work with the old adapter cable? Then yes, this cable is a good buy. However, if you are buying this cable for any reason other than "PCI-E 4.0!" then you absolutely do not need and should not buy this cable. It's highly unlikely that you'll get true PCI-E 4.0 speeds from any adapter cable, including this one. Additionally, many trusted technical groups and reviewers have performed extensive testing proving that forced PCI-E 4.0 has very little performance gain over 3.0. Most of the time the increase is less than 5%, sometimes as little as 1%. In theory, maybe a few percent gain (which usually means only 1-3 frames) isn't worth $70. What makes this cable great is that it's factory tested and guaranteed to work with all modern graphics cards. No other vertical cable on the market that I know of and certainly no vertical cable included in the box can claim the same. PCI-E 4.0 compatibility is a cool marketing ploy, but that's no reason to buy this riser. Compliance 4.0 does not mean speed 4.0.