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asus 7970 dc2t xfire

mr-fluff

mr-fluff

mr-fluff

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Joined
29 Sep 2011
Posts
104
Location
London, uk
hi all,

ok so I'd been thinking about getting a second 7970 in the near future and the recent games offer on these cards has made me think now is as good a time as any so i started looking into it a bit more and realized some what late that my current 3 slot card leaves no room for a second card so am asking for some advice on what my options are? so far I've thought about either going for a new motherboard, but would probably need to go quiet expensive to get one that would fit 2 of these cards, plus my current board is still working great and does all i need. The second option I've thought so far is to strip down my current card, buy a second and watercool them, I've been thinking about trying watercooling on and off for a while so this could be the time to do it.

current rig is
sabertooth x58 motherboard
i7 950 @ 3.2ghz with corsair h70
6gb dominator gt ram
asus 7970 dc2t
HAFX case

oh and gaming at 2560 x 1440

any help would be greatly appreciated as not really sure where to go from here :confused:
 
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weehamish said:
Buy a reference card for top slot and just keep the asus on air.
Click to expand...

Shocking advice.

Always put the reference card on the bottom, as it exhausts the heat out the back of the case. Custom cooled card on the top so the heat rises away from the other GPU.

mr-fluff said:
hi all,

ok so I'd been thinking about getting a second 7970 in the near future and the recent games offer on these cards has made me think now is as good a time as any so i started looking into it a bit more and realized some what late that my current 3 slot card leaves no room for a second card so am asking for some advice on what my options are? so far I've thought about either going for a new motherboard, but would probably need to go quiet expensive to get one that would fit 2 of these cards, plus my current board is still working great and does all i need. The second option I've thought so far is to strip down my current card, buy a second and watercool them, I've been thinking about trying watercooling on and off for a while so this could be the time to do it.

current rig is
sabertooth x58 motherboard
i7 950 @ 3.2ghz with corsair h70
6gb dominator gt ram
asus 7970 dc2t
HAFX case

oh and gaming at 2440 x 1440

any help would be greatly appreciated as not really sure where to go from here :confused:
Click to expand...

Watercool is a great option and keeps the cards cooler and allows for higher over clocks. This would be my choice but I am biased that way :)

Less noise as well is a massive bonus.
 
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Buy another DCUII, watercool them both and don't forget to buy the dual plate I/O PCI brackets EK make??

Edit: P/N for the dual slot brackets for a 7970 DCUII: EK-FC7970 DCII I/O bracket
 
Up to you bud, will work either way :)

For water I'd usually advise an msi oc (£300 atm) then take your pick of blocks.
 
To me if he puts the direct cu on the bottom all the heat from it wont go ontop of the other card and be pulled put by case fans.

With the referance card on the bottom all the heat from the top card is being chucked at it?

Thats how i look at it anyways.

The way you put is all the heat from the top card goes onto the bottom card, so the top is fine but the bottom is getting hotter and hotter the longer you game! My way both cards will be cool as they are balanced by their own heat generation and with a decent case they wont really get any heat from the fan card.

Watercooling a direct cu 2 is just pointless imo.
 
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weehamish said:
To me if he puts the direct cu on the bottom all the heat from it wont go ontop of the other card and be pulled put by case fans.

With the referance card on the bottom all the heat from the top card is being chucked at it?

Thats how i look at it anyways.

The way you put is all the heat from the top card goes onto the bottom card, so the top is fine but the bottom is getting hotter and hotter the longer you game! My way both cards will be cool as they are balanced by their own heat generation and with a decent case they wont really get any heat from the fan card.

Watercooling a direct cu 2 is just pointless imo.
Click to expand...

Have you done SLI/CF builds?
 
weehamish said:
Yes ive had 2 SLI builds, never watercooled.
Click to expand...

I would have thought you would have had a better understanding of how heat rises from a custom cooler.

It is basic common sense to know that a custom cooler puts heat back into the case and will rise onto the top GPU. If you have a ref cooler, it will be pushing most of the heat out the back of the case resulting in less heat rising onto the top card.
 
Yes i understand this but with a dceent case, im mostly going off my cases, ive never had a small case tbh, and all my cases have had side fans and rear exhaust fans on them, there is no heat at all gonna get close to the top GPU with these cases.

The heat from the CPU would be more of a concern tbh.

My side panel atm with the 200mm fan sucks all the hot air blown from the 7970, so going off this my way would be better, if he is going multi cards he must have a decent sized case, if not hes just asking for heat problems.
 
I suppose the best solution is get the card then fit it as weehamish has suggested and see how it goes while I get up to speed with the watercooling and save some cash, I'm am a bit concerned I won't have space though as I also have a small pcie wifi card so could be tight.
 
Grab a dongle if you can? They only cheap and are just as good as the PCIe cards, but save a lot of space.

HAF X is a decent case so it will be fine inside there imo, the only way to really see what works best is try both ways but im sure mine would work better as you wont be dumping all the heat onto 1 card and spreading it evenly.
 
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