Thinking of going SLI or... not..

[Phage]

At least the shed will be nice and toasty with that beast of a rig.
I had a long gaming session on Friday night and had to open the window !

[dangel]

True!

Got the blocks fitted last night, but i've decided to go with EK's bridge/link solution (parallel) so a few more bits to come tomorrow before I can leak test/break the loop and get it all fitted. Hopefully thur night i'll have it running again. The feser solution is simple but I don't like relying on a couple of O rings without any sort of threaded connection and given how much i've spent I may as well do it 'right'. It will be nice to have the cards as a single rigid unit and the parallel cooling looks better for heat/flow rates to me.


NVIDIA's drivers seem a bit dodgy - the nvidia control panel item for the SLI config is a 'blank' character in the tree that requires some careful clicking on to show it but at least it works.

[phinix]

I had the same problem. I have gtx580 and was wondering wouldn't be easier and cheaper to buy second hand 580 and block.
I think for now I will stay with single card - only thing is I would like to swap it for 670.
I dont think any new cards will come out soon so 670 is a good choice, compared to 680 at least.


P.S. oh, and I like your avatar.. the dude...

[dangel]

I had the same problem. I have gtx580 and was wondering wouldn't be easier and cheaper to buy second hand 580 and block.
I think for now I will stay with single card - only thing is I would like to swap it for 670.
I dont think any new cards will come out soon so 670 is a good choice, compared to 680 at least.


P.S. oh, and I like your avatar.. the dude...

Thanks

Well very shortly i'll have a spare 580 with an EK waterblock prefitted... Just sayin'

To be fair a single 670 isn't a bit upgrade from the 580 and hence I went the way I did (OK i'm just justifying it..). This is the first time i've set everything to max in Metro 2033 and had it playable..

[PmanUk]

True!

Got the blocks fitted last night, but i've decided to go with EK's bridge/link solution (parallel) so a few more bits to come tomorrow before I can leak test/break the loop and get it all fitted. Hopefully thur night i'll have it running again. The feser solution is simple but I don't like relying on a couple of O rings without any sort of threaded connection and given how much i've spent I may as well do it 'right'. It will be nice to have the cards as a single rigid unit and the parallel cooling looks better for heat/flow rates to me.


NVIDIA's drivers seem a bit dodgy - the nvidia control panel item for the SLI config is a 'blank' character in the tree that requires some careful clicking on to show it but at least it works.

Hi Mate,

First grats on it being done!! Now time to make that shed your home!

With the feser connector its surprising how effective it really is when the cards are in place and the connector is in slot, I have tried many many different ways of doing it in the past and this is both the simpliest and in my experience the most effective.

It is really one of those things that just works although I have to admit that the first time I used one I was a little "this is mad" but now it is my preferred way to do it.

Thanks

Well very shortly i'll have a spare 580 with an EK waterblock prefitted... Just sayin'

To be fair a single 670 isn't a bit upgrade from the 580 and hence I went the way I did (OK i'm just justifying it..). This is the first time i've set everything to max in Metro 2033 and had it playable..

Nice isnt it I have been playing it at 40-50fps in 3d

The 670 is a very nice upgrade on the 580

[dangel]

Hi Mate,

First grats on it being done!! Now time to make that shed your home!

With the feser connector its surprising how effective it really is when the cards are in place and the connector is in slot, I have tried many many different ways of doing it in the past and this is both the simpliest and in my experience the most effective.

It is really one of those things that just works although I have to admit that the first time I used one I was a little "this is mad" but now it is my preferred way to do it.

Cheers!!
Yeah I'm not discounting that it does work but I prefer threaded connections and I like the fact that the EK Bridge makes the two cards into one solid unit (plus that parallel feed). In any case, the blocks won't work with the feser connectors as the ports won't align with these blocks for the tubes to sit in them (my mistake).

It turns out i've had a bit of a drama - the EK blocks should have come with the EK Links to marry them to the bridge but didn't. I contacted EK and they've apologised profusely and are DHL'ing some to me asap (from slovenia) so a small wait till I can finish the loop. Good service!

Nice isnt it I have been playing it at 40-50fps in 3d

The 670 is a very nice upgrade on the 580

I have to say, the scaling is indeed very impressive and, touch wood, i've not seen any problems aside weirdness with the nvid control panel.

[PmanUk]

Ack!

I'm glad to hear about EK they are generally excellent and my preferred user as well

Same with EVGA I can't fault thier service

[dangel]

Mistakes do happen - they did ask for the QC check tags from the boxes (presumably so they can have someone shot..).

Parcel is now in Austria..

[dangel]

Well finally my EK links have arrived via Germany and they are indeed physically different from the normal FC Link parts you see on the web. Hoping to get some time to fit them sometime this week..

[dangel]

Big Sigh...

It's all done and i'm typing on it now - phew!

I have to say the EK Bridge is brilliant - both cards get equal cooling and it looks like even on this very hot day i'm well within the capabilities of my WC setup

Now if I could only get Creatives XFI drivers to work OK on Windows 8

[Greecean]

My 2 cents

I had a pair of 580s on full EK waterblocks and loved them, then I have upgraded to a pair of 670's and there is a very healthy performance increase, circa 30%

I brought the EVGA FTW cards as they use the full 680 PCB and the full EK blocks fit on them perfectly.

This is the best route to do it, although a pair of cards will cost around £640 + around £75 per block and £12 for a SLI connector kit.

So around £800 for the setup.

But well worth it and they are monster cards with huge overhead on them.

Plus EVGA even confirmated that as long as you dont physically damage them with the instalation then they will not void your warranty for removing the HS to put a block on

No other card maker does that

i love both EVGA and watercooling

[deano131]

I'd give SLI/Xfire a miss, too many issues with drivers, stuttering and the like. Plus can be quite hot and drawing lot of power, always found a good single card solution the best option.

[dangel]

I'd give SLI/Xfire a miss, too many issues with drivers, stuttering and the like. Plus can be quite hot and drawing lot of power, always found a good single card solution the best option.

Me too up until now but i'm not seeing stuttering (actually had that with skyrim and single 580 with the new drivers) thus far. Problem was the 670/80 wasn't enough of a step up for me