upgrading cards, wanting to know if i have the clearance

so after the unfortunate hell that was my pc nearly coughing and dying i have made some changes to my pc, gut her and rebuilt her better, stronger, faster, more capable. but still i crave more

i have a 1440p monitor and so 2k performance is where i wanna be and the 6650xt i bought cause it was literally the cheapest thing not made of false promises and plywood down at the store was fine but.. not really what i wanna be doing with my life. so she will be coming out.

if you havent seen the rest basically pc died as i was rolling out an 8 month plan to upgrade my pc, and 6 months later here i am thanks to some savvy shopping and some patience.

ryzen 5800X

hyper 212 halo white

corsair t220 white

gigabyte aorus b550M elite v2

msi mech x2 6650xt

24gb ddr4 (16 (2x8) gb corsair dominator white and 8gb (2x4) kingston hyper x)

1tb samsung 970 evo

1tb kingston 1tb ssd (m.2)

500gb kingston ssd (sata)

corsair 850e

3 more corsair rgb fans which were given to me as a gift which ive used to add back exhaust and top draw in

(also as an aside i got a keychron V5 keyboard and some 3rd party caps and did a tape and foam mod and oh, oh yes)

i crave the white gpu it calls to me so, and id like to shop locally, not to take things away from online shopping but we have had a serious explosion in porch theft so leaving it on the stoop is a quick way to get a gpu stolen. so this really eliminates me feeling safe getting is stolen (ive also had it happen twice to me and my lady).

so ive had to shop local, and theres really only 2 games in town memory express and bestbuy and honestly prices arent extortion even if selection is strangled to death. not wanting only marginal gains you need a microscope to find i have settled on 3 cards

pny rtx 4070 (not white but its in the price bracket so i thought id at least list it)

XFX merc 7800XT

asus dual (white) 4060ti 16gb

the problem is a matter of clearance

the 4060ti and 4070 both fit my case out of the box, no questions asked, but i also know about the hellish problems with the 4060ti being basically a joke card from the 4060 on the way to the 4070. the 7800XT fits my aesthetics and is cheaper then the 4070 by a good 30 bucks, but if i want to take her i need to rip out a front mounted case fan it would be the middle fan on the frontside, is this a safe thing to do? should i worry about my heat suddenly spiking?

im not big on brand loyalty or teams or any of that nonsense, im simply trying to get a good uptick in preformance in warhammer 3, rainbow 6 siege, doom eternal, mechwarrior 5, and alan wake 2

First off, forget the 4060 Ti. As for your concern, I'm sure you'd still be fine with 2 intake fans on the front temperature wise, but if you care about matching colors then I don't know how you can stand having your graphics card break the whole concept of the PC case. It's a lot worse on the OCD scale. Why don't you look for some 7800 XT or 4070 models with 2 fans? Every brand has models like that, many of them white.

@PfizersaurusRex: as stated im shopping local not online, so my alternatives are all 7800XT's with the same problem (gigabyte 302mm), and MSI (320mm) and qck 319 (320mm), and the only 4070 does fit my case within my $700 canadian budget.

or i take a lower end gpu like the 7700XT (gigabyte, xfx, msi) or a 4060ti (pny, asus, zotac)

i could also take a 6750 (sapphire) but i think its a tad foolish going from an 8gb refresh 6600 to the next tier up's refresh card

Local shops won't order a card they don't have stocked? Can't have something shipped to your local post office and pick it up there? It's like you live in some lawless wasteland, not Canada. XD

If you have to pick out of those I say get the 4070, black is always elegant. It's less power hungry than 7800 XT so it shouldn't get too hot and loud even with 2 fans.

@PfizersaurusRex: i used to have more variety but sadly this is what covid did to mom n pop shops, wiped out everything that wasnt bigger then memory express

RIP fry's electronics for me granted it wasn't covid that killed them they just wanted the bankruptcy money. Does amazon have a lockerbox option for you to pick up at? Ill use a tape measurer and see how it goes. I have 6800xt and sh** is no joke but it somehow fits perfectly with very little room to spare however. The length are insane on new cards.