Dual 580gtx on this system

[Jezmond]

Hi all, I'm not too techy but hopefully you guys can help

I have an Asus Striker II exteme motherboard

http://www.techspot.com/review/90-asus-striker-too-extreme/

Currently i have dual nvidia 280's on and 4 gig of 2 year old DDR3 ram.

Should add i have a 1200watt PSU so that shouldnt be an issue?

Im getting married in the new year so i want to spend some of my savings on upgrading ideally id like the best nvidia graphics cards i can get running in SLI with maybe a ram upgrade. Im hoping i wont have to touch my PC then for a few years.
CPU:
Socket 775 LGA.
Intel core2 Extreme Qx9650 @3.00 GHz

Case: cooler master cosmos S

I'm thinking that I'd like to go with dual 580gtx so I'm asking can I actually do this with that motherboard etc?

Any help appreciated

 

[Cleeecooo]

welcome to the forums

Your PSU will be fine for the cards as long as it is a decent brand

Your mobo can support 3 580's. Can I ask, what do you need 2 580's for, what res do you play at?

I suggest you wait a few months for the next generation of GPU's, but if you can't wait, i'd recommend two of THESE

 

[Jezmond]

Thanks for the welcome and the advice there

I run at Highest I can which I think is 1900x1600 - you'll have to forgive my utter lack of tech knowledge I believe my psi is a zalman though without being near my pc right now I can't be sure.

I just clicked on your link there and those are just the cards I was going to plump for so thats piece of mind there.

I suppose my CPU is going to be the bottleneck now and that'll be the next thing i get sorted plus a new mobo as soon as I can.

I'm reassured a lot that I can fit the cards on my current mobo though. Hopefully I won't kill anything when I attempt to plug them in!

Cheers again.

 

[Cleeecooo]

Thanks for the welcome and the advice there

I run at Highest I can which I think is 1900x1600 - you'll have to forgive my utter lack of tech knowledge I believe my psi is a zalman though without being near my pc right now I can't be sure.

I just clicked on your link there and those are just the cards I was going to plump for so thats piece of mind there.

I suppose my CPU is going to be the bottleneck now and that'll be the next thing i get sorted plus a new mobo as soon as I can.

I'm reassured a lot that I can fit the cards on my current mobo though. Hopefully I won't kill anything when I attempt to plug them in!

Cheers again.

no problem

Make sure you post the PSU model number here, just to be safe, but if it is a Zalman, then it should be fine

Could you double check your res please? It will probably be one of the following:

1680x1050
1920x1080
1920x1200
2560x1440
2560x1600

or just post your monitor model no here.
I would deffo upgrade to a sandy if you can. I would wait till January and get new ivy bridge setup with next gen of graphics

 

[fowler002]

they will fit but will be quite snug together giving higher than normal temps for the 1 in the 1st slot.

when you get the chance maybe an idea to post the model of the psu so we can check that its upto 2x580s even if it is 1.2kw.

does it have to be 580s? have you considered this 2 of those unlocked to 6970 and oced will give you near 580 performance and save you ~£300 which you can use to put towards a 1155 mb(asrock extreme4 gen3 or extreme7 gen3) and i2500k(plus good aftermarket cooler unless you have a decent one that supports 1155/1156 tho the asrock will allow you to use a 775 cooler as well). will have to upgrade the mb if you go 2x 6950 as your current one doesn't support xfire unless I'm mistaken.

or as mentioned already the new cards aren't too far away, end of the year/begining of next year.

 

[Cleeecooo]

they will fit but will be quite snug together giving higher than normal temps for the 1 in the 1st slot.

when you get the chance maybe an idea to post the model of the psu so we can check that its upto 2x580s even if it is 1.2kw.

does it have to be 580s? have you considered this 2 of those unlocked to 6970 and oced will give you near 580 performance and save you ~£300 which you can use to put towards a 1155 mb(asrock extreme4 gen3 or extreme7 gen3) and i2500k(plus good aftermarket cooler unless you have a decent one that supports 1155/1156 tho the asrock will allow you to use a 775 cooler as well). will have to upgrade the mb if you go 2x 6950 as your current one doesn't support xfire unless I'm mistaken.

or as mentioned already the new cards aren't too far away, end of the year/begining of next year.

ofcourse, if OP decides on new sady setup xfire will be an option.

You can also consider te GTX 560's and 570's

 

[Jezmond]

I'll probably stick to the two 580's just because they seem to be highly recommended and with savings I can afford them (for now - married life will suck the cash away soon).

I usually play at the highest res that a game allows in basics options - which from fairly dodgy memory might well be 1920x1200.

I'm **** at this sort of thing.

Without being near my pc at the moment I couldn't tell you the model number yet of my psi but i'll repost when I'm back home in a few days.

Really appreciate the help guys, this is a nice place to post for really basic users like myself and not feel a tw@t too much

 

[Cleeecooo]

Really appreciate the help guys, this is a nice place to post for really basic users like myself and not feel a tw@t too much

It is... until you go into GD lol

Make sure you don't order until you can tell us the model of your PSU

 

[Jezmond]

An update on the PSU:

It's not a zalman it's a:

1200W Thermaltake Toughpower Modular

 

[mike gunnz]

Christ I had nothing but nightmares trying to get my old Striker II Extreme stable. Bad times.

You may want to consider overclocking your QX9650 past its stock speed to get the best out of 580SLI if you choose to go that route.

Edit/ I have to agree with some of the other comments. If this is your last planned upgrade for the foreseeable future then Sandybridge or a cheap i7 bundle may be the way forward. Your 775 bundle will still get a good price at auction (especially the QX9650) to fund it.

The PSU looks absolutely fine.

 

[Jezmond]

I'll deffo try to oc my CPU if it's not too difficult. I remember a friend of mine trying it on my system when it was first bought though and he couldn't get it to stabilise. . . So maybe i'll leave that alone.