Graphic card length reference:
ATI Radeon HD 4850/4830 - 9”
NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT - 9"
NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT/GSO - 9"
NVIDIA GeForce 8800GS/GT/GTS - 9"
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 - 10"
As the illustrations above show, most enthusiast motherboards with heat pipes will work fine in the ##, the heat source is located below other parts of the heat pipe.
CPU cooler:
Horizontal style cooler
Good orientation
Good orientation
Bad orientation
VGA cooler
The illustration here shows a VGA cooler that will not work well in the ## because the heat source side (touching the GPU) ends up being located higher than the other end.