Attention PC gamers...

[Oldfisti]

With the size of those cards supposedly the X58 from evga was the only board that could fit all three without having fitment issues.  Saw a few reviews and the 780 boards were all having to put the 3rd card in at a bit of an angle to get them to fit.

Does that power supply seem to hold up well so far running all three cards?

I would think 1000w would be plenty big...

[needtorque]

I would think 1000w would be plenty big...

Actually it just depends on how the rails are split and just how efficient the power supply is.  On some of the reviews they tested several PS trying to find out and some 1000w were fine but others would shut-down or just not supply sufficient power to the cards when running all three.  The reviews I saw were on the 280 cards and the 285 draw a bit more power than the 280 series.  One review I saw had a 1000w PS cant remember the brand but they had to rig up another 400w unit to run the 3rd card.  The only reason for the question is I would like to know from someone with experience what works because I will build a PC like this when the newer version of the X58 board comoes out that supports true tri sli (currently no board runs all three slots x16 even the current x58 only has 2 x16 slots but the improved version is coming out soon and it is supposed to have 3 x16 slots for the gpus)

[ZLTFUL]

Actually, the GTX285 is a die shrink and is substantially more power efficient than the 280 at the same and higher clock speeds. As for fitment, any true Tri-SLI board should have no fitment issues. It was a matter of 10 minutes from package open until start-up with the third card in and bridged.

Truth be told, it is how you split the 12v rail...in that you do not want a split 12v rail. A single high amperage rail will ALWAYS outperform several small amperage rails that add up to a higher number than the single rail amperage. Basically, you would have to run a connector from each of 2 rails to the 2 power connectors on the GPU PCB so as to distribute the load evenly across the rails. With a large single 12v rail, you can plug it into any of the 12v 6pin PCI-E connectors and have the load spread on one rail.

I've been fiddling/building/breaking/raping high end PCs since the Tandy 1000 was top dog on the technology food chain. Right now under full load from Crysis at max res with all the "eye candy" turned up, I am running at 70% load on my PSU. Alot of myths about needing some massive PSU have been floating around the net and when it comes down to it, an 850w Corsair with an 82 amp single 12v rail would easily run this rig as it is. And that's including all of the case fans and cold cathode lighting as well.

If your reviews happen to be Tom's Hardware Guide, bear in mind that their credibility has gone downhill about as fast as TOB's reputation as a Monster hot spot on the web. Some of the more unbiased reviews I have seen have come from places like Overclockers.net, Overclockers Club Online, Guru3D, Planetx64, Extremeoverclocking and a few more.

[ZLTFUL]

Actually it just depends on how the rails are split and just how efficient the power supply is.  On some of the reviews they tested several PS trying to find out and some 1000w were fine but others would shut-down or just not supply sufficient power to the cards when running all three.  The reviews I saw were on the 280 cards and the 285 draw a bit more power than the 280 series.  One review I saw had a 1000w PS cant remember the brand but they had to rig up another 400w unit to run the 3rd card.  The only reason for the question is I would like to know from someone with experience what works because I will build a PC like this when the newer version of the X58 board comoes out that supports true tri sli (currently no board runs all three slots x16 even the current x58 only has 2 x16 slots but the improved version is coming out soon and it is supposed to have 3 x16 slots for the gpus)

Couple of things here...
1. The Asus P6T WS Revolution will run 3x16x slots and is currently on the market. The DFI top of the line x58 will as well when it is released in the near future as will the EVGA Classified but EVGA has been silent about it's release.
2. Only 1 card currently on the market even comes remotely close to saturating an 8x PCI-E bus and that is the GTX295 (The 4870x2 from ATI only reaches around 70% saturation) and even then it will only load the lanes up to about 85% of their capacity. You will notice absolutely no speed difference at all.
3. The LGA1366 has been shown in countless reviews to perform staggeringly well in heavy processing environments but has shown itself to be barely ahead of a top of the line Core Duo Quad or even an E8600 OCed in gaming. 95% of the games/software out there barely scales to 2 logical cores let alone 8 virtual cores that the i7 has.

Fact is even overclocked, most processors are making GPUs sit around twiddling their thumbs while the CPU tries to keep up. The i7 improves on this but until the software begins to utilize all 4 physical cores and all 8 virtual cores, it will be like buying a Pagani to drive back and forth to the corner market 4 blocks away.

[ZLTFUL]

New Winners!!!


Far Cry 2: Capt Stuebing

Call of Duty: World at War: TiAvenger

Congrats guys. I will PM you for your shipping info.

Rest assured, next time I upgrade, you folks will be the first to know...

[ZLTFUL]

New Winners!!!


Far Cry 2: Capt Stuebing

Call of Duty: World at War: TiAvenger

Congrats guys. I will PM you for your shipping info.

Rest assured, next time I upgrade, you folks will be the first to know...

Well Ian (TiAvenger has withdrew himself from contention...so the CoD:WaW winner is...Yuu!!

Incoming PM for mailing address...

[ZLTFUL]

*sigh* I just can't give these games away hehe. Yuu apparently already has this game.

So the NEW new winner is Drunken Monkey!!!!

PM incoming for shipping info.