How important is the Abit SLI retention bracket?

My wife is putting together her dream rig. She is using an Abit Fatal1ty AN8 (Socket 939) board. That board comes with a bracket that screws into the backplane (where a PCI card would go) between the two video cards that holds the SLI bridge in place.

The problem is that we have been thinking about using a couple of GeForce 7900s which are double-wide cards. With the top card being double-wide it would take up the place that the retention bracket would normally go. I would think that with four screws holding both cards the setup should be plenty stable and the bracket will not be necessary. Since she is going to water cool there will be no fan vibration to contend with either. She is naturally leery of leaving the bracket off. I think it will be fine.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

Should be fine.

Is she going to watercool the video cards also? If so...wont you be removing the fans anyway? If so you can use the bracket if you want.

Maybe a link to the cards and mainboard you are using could give us a better idea?

**EDIT** Is this the mainboard?

if thats the motherboar your not getting those gpu blocks in there. way too little room. unless u would only kool one then it would have to be the one closest to the pci slots.

Yes, that is the board in question. Yes, she is planning to water cool the GPUs. But the backplanes on the cards are still double-wide, so unless we cut down the top one (which isn't such a bad idea, and not too hard to do), the support bracket is still a no-go. Many of the SLI boards I have looked at have had similar (if not identical) spacing for the video cards, so I am not too concerned about being able to get water blocks in there. We have the measurements worked out pretty well for now, but we will know for sure once we start having the parts roll in. My prmary concern is overall stability. But then again, it shouldn't be too hard to rig a new support if needed. I've had to do harder jobs before.

 Order the replacable single backplane from dangerden,com, they only cost a few bucks and are designed for use with the waterblock.