Considering GTX480 SLI - silence required (Arctic Cooling? Water?)

[davidrees]

I have a single GTX480 right now, and I would like to go SLI - partly for performance, and partly so I could do the multi monitor stuff.

So first off, I know I need a new motherboard - my P55-UD3R does not do SLI.

My existing GTX480 is a little louder than I like, but it's not what most would consider loud due to excellent air flow from the Cosmos S case.

I see two possible options:

Option 1: Water

* Add a 360mm radiator to the top of the Cosmos S and put in a water loop to cool just the video cards (CPU has a Noctua D14).

* I want to run fans at around 1000RPM (for low noise) and I am not sure if this will be enough - even with a good radiator.

* Are the water pumps relatively quiet? I really don't want to hear some pump humming away all the time.

Option 2: Advanced Air Cooling

* I used to have an Arctic Cooling HSF on my 4870X2 - it was great in every way except that it took 3 slots (not an issue with a single card). This same cooler is available for the GTX480 - it runs cool and quiet but still takes 3 slots.

* I am not sure how possible it is to run a pair of 3 slot cards in SLI. It does look like a lot of motherboards have 3 slots between the main X16 slots, but if I go this way, I lose all other slots except maybe a 1X slot above the first 16X.

* I also want to add in a PCIE 4X SSD card at some point - it should not be a problem if I go the water route, but if I stay with the big Arctic Cooling units, I don't think I can run an SSD card which looks like the best SSD performance these days.


So my ideal motherboard would look something like this:


[X16] [slot] [slot] [X16] [slot] [slot] [X4]
[GTX480 ARCTIC] [GTX480 ARCTIC] [SSD card]

Does anyone know of such a beast? I am willing to go to the 1366 socket if I have to.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Water cooling is going to be EXPENSIVE. Figure $100-150 per GPU water block, $50-100 for the radiator, $75 for the pump, and another $30-50 for tubing, fittings, clamps, etc. You could literally buy another graphics card for that much.

Rather than water cooling two hot cards, I would say wait for the Cayman (HD 6950 / 6970 / etc.) to see how well it competes with the GTX 480. If it does well and runs cooler / quieter, you could buy 2x HD 69XX for Crossfire, sell your existing GTX 480, and still come out ahead money wise.

 

[RussianSensation]

Honestly, GTX480 SLI is massive overkill for 1920x1080. Plus you have to get a new motherboard? That's another $150+...
Also, there your PSU is not a tier 1 variety; and I wouldn't be running 2x GTX480s + Core i5 overclocked on a 750W thermaltake unit.

I agree with CurseTheSky. If you want more graphics power, you are likely MUCH better off selling the GTX480 and grabbing an HD6970 within a month. If you really need more power, then just wait for the 6970 x2 card (6990) when it ships (it only needs 1 PCIe 16x slot).

Getting socket 1366 or a new 1156 mobo now is a complete waste of $. I mean if you are going to start thinking about changing your mobo, might as well sell your CPU+Mobo and grab the new Sandy Bridge 1st week of January and reuse your 8GBs of DDR3.

 

[Sentry2]

I've got a single eVGA GTX 480 with a Koolance block on it. I'm running it at 940MHz(1.15v) GPU and 4,500MHz(QDR) memory. Temps peak at 48c after four hours of Furmark. A Swiftech MCP655 ($69 from jab-tech.com) would work great for you and they're pretty quiet too. An XSPC RX360 radiator would also work fine for you with some low speed fans. I think waiting for X68 boards/cpus to appear would probably be better than grabbing an X58 now just to go SLI/CFX since you already have a great cpu. Water cooling would probably net you a good 30% overclock on your 480 and drop your temps way down... of course not all games scale 30% with an overclock but most did for me.


Example: Crysis @ 1920x1080 4x AA Maxed would get 48FPS(looking at a cliff in the beginning of the game) and 61FPS @ 940MHz. For a comparison HD5970 + HD5870 in Tri-fire (all three gpus @ 850MHz) would get around 77FPS in my rig.

Edit: RussianSensation beat me to it...
The only other thing I can say is I will never buy another ATI/AMD X2 card until they find a better solution than the current generation PLX chip they're using. Less issues with 2 card SLI/CFX setups than a dual gpu card IMO.

 

[RussianSensation]

The only other thing I can say is I will never buy another ATI/AMD X2 card until they find a better solution than the current generation PLX chip they're using. Less issues with 2 card SLI/CFX setups than a dual gpu card IMO.

That's interesting. Good to hear about your experience. Still if the OP intends to go SLI/CF, might as well sell his CPU+Mobo and grab socket 1155.

Looking at upcoming PC game launches, what game is coming out from now until SB launches that will push a GTX480 to its knees at 1920x1080?? Except Metro 2033 and Crysis, GTX480 is pretty much good for any game at that resolution.