Asus Rolls Out Shortened GeForce GTX 960 for Mini ITX Builds

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

Get ready to see more of these

One thing I've noticed over the last few months is an increased focus on mini ITX builds. New cases like In Win's funky D-Frame Mini and Corsair's LAN-friendly Graphite Series 380T underscore a growing desire to build high-end systems with smaller footprints, but what about the parts that go inside them? It's mostly an issue with graphics cards, and while some mini ITX cases can accept full-length cards, others don't have the space. For those that fall into the latter category, Asus just expanded its mini ITX graphics card line with a shortened version of the GeForce GTX 960.
The Asus GeForce GTX 960 Mini (GTX960-MOC-2GD5) is part of the company's Mini Series. It's a performance part built on a compact 17cm PCB. It's also factory overclocked with a GPU that's goosed to 1190MHz base and 1253MHz boost, up from 1126MHz and 1178MHz, respectively. The 2GB of GDDR5 runs at reference -- 7GHz effective.
It's a full-height card that takes up two slots with a single "CoolTech" fan with both top-flow and lateral-flow fins. Other features include a single 6-pin PCI Express power connector, solid brushed aluminum backplate, and display outputs that consist of dual-link DVI, HDMI 2.0, and three DisplayPort 1.2 (x3).
No word yet on pricing or availability, though this isn't the only higher end mini ITX graphics card on the block. Asus also offers a shortened version of the GeForce GTX 970 that streets for a little under $360 shipped, as does Gigabyte (streets for around $334 shipped).
These are great options for higher-end PC console builds and cases like the Phantom One, and as the segment continues to gain steam, I suspect we'll see even more shortened graphics cards.
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