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GTX 280 SLi advice please

Toadus

Toadus

Toadus

Associate
Joined
3 Apr 2009
Posts
151
Hi there! :)

I'm considering another GTX 280 card, but I have quite a few questions. Any advice would be very much appreciated! ;)

My PC:
Q9400 @ 3.2ghz
nVidia Point of View GTX 280
ASUS / nVidia 750i SLi chipset
4gb Dominator 1066mhz ram
850watt PSU

Questions:

1) Would adding another GTX 280 be wasted due to my CPU speed of 3.2ghz?

2) Is an 850watt PSU enough for another GTX 280?

3) POV GTX 280's appear to be very rare nowadays -
i) Would using another branded GTX 280 be fine?
ii) Would it matter if the clock speeds were slightly different between the two cards?
iii) Can you still OC in SLi mode? For example, my GTX 280 is set to 704 core bus (602 stock) and 1284 memory. (1107 stock)

4) Looking through Ebay, GTX 280's seem to range from as little as £200 to as much as £350. What am I missing here? Can anyone recommend me the best choice to pair up with my POV card, if another POV cannot be found?

Many thanks! :D
 
I've got 2 GTX 260's in SLI and you can overclock them both using evga precision. 850 should be enough as long as you have the leads for it being 8 pin and 6 pin. The minimum frame rates are a lot better in SLI than single card in my case. They don't have to be same brand or speed, they will run at the slower cards speed I think.
 
Legionaire68 said:
I've got 2 GTX 260's in SLI and you can overclock them both using evga precision. 850 should be enough as long as you have the leads for it being 8 pin and 6 pin. The minimum frame rates are a lot better in SLI than single card in my case. They don't have to be same brand or speed, they will run at the slower cards speed I think.
Click to expand...

You say that the 2 cards together will run at the speed of the lowest rated card, the weakest link. Yet you say both can be OC'd. Discuss. :D
 
RJC said:
850w will be fine running your setup, assuming your running quality brand :)
Click to expand...

Thanks. The PC is by Commadore, and from what I've seen so far, they haven't skimped on much at all, all parts seem to be good, including some decent cooling to boot. ;)
 
For all SLI setups, its always best to get the same brand of card, if you can try and get another POV card, or you could try selling this, and getting 2 x GTX260's in its place if you prefered that, as it would save you a bit of money going that way
 
If you have the asus P5N-D SLI board then adding another GTX 280 will be a no no as the second card covers the SATA ports.

I had the same issue with a pair of 8800GTX's when i briefly owned that board
 
MeatLoaf said:
If you have the asus P5N-D SLI board then adding another GTX 280 will be a no no as the second card covers the SATA ports.

I had the same issue with a pair of 8800GTX's when i briefly owned that board
Click to expand...

No hot linking

Holy crap! You're right!!!

What a pathetic design!
 
danceMB said:
For all SLI setups, its always best to get the same brand of card, if you can try and get another POV card, or you could try selling this, and getting 2 x GTX260's in its place if you prefered that, as it would save you a bit of money going that way
Click to expand...

Interesting. I never thought of that! Thank you.
 
Unfortunately the card will span over the very end of the board - had a similar issue with my DFI SLi-DR mobo a few years back - the 7950GX2 i was using almost obscured all the SATA ports.

Perhaps you could find a super low profile right angled sata connector - i believe ASUS made some.

gt

Edit - here's a GTX285 - you can see it goes around 1-1.5 inches beyond the edge of the full atx Asus M3N-HT mobo it's installed in.

IMG_2690small.jpg
 
Last edited:
Angled connectgor will certainly work, but not if you want to use all 4 sata ports as the cable in sata 1 was angled over the next two ports.

How many sata drives do you use?
 
MeatLoaf said:
Angled connectgor will certainly work, but not if you want to use all 4 sata ports as the cable in sata 1 was angled over the next two ports.
Click to expand...
Agreed - bit limited unfortunately.

You could try to find two cables that are angled in different orientations. Even then you could only use two HDD's though!!! :(

gt
 
Look what I found:



:D


EDIT: Won't let me post the link... It's a £12.99 PCI card with 2 SATA ports on it. Runs 150mps. Perfect.
 
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