290x X-Fire/970 SLI Aircooling which case?

mattcrane

mattcrane

mattcrane

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OK I was going for 970 SLI setup but finances are dictating a rethink and its looking like I may need to go X-fire 290x route instead.

Currently using an Antec300 but if I cant get the 970's then it will mean a case change as the AMD Cards I am looking at, (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-238-MS), will not fit into the existing one, max GPU length is 27cm.

I have been looking at the H440, (when I say looking at I mean drooling over as I just love the way it looks :D ) but I am aware of its restricted airflow and potential for over heating problems.

So I am now at a complete loss which way to go. :(

Any advice gratefully accepted.

Note:
CPU is under a H80i AIO with SP120 fans, and I am unwilling nor able to afford a custom watercooling setup for at least 2-3years so that is not an option unfortunately. Unless it can be done on the cheap without risking killing anything.
 
You want reference coolers for xfire and not custom coolers to keep the cards from dumping all the heat in the case and just contribute to heat and noice. The 290x ref coolers arent the best, you can keep them quiet if you allow them to throttle, which you can configure in the drivers. But it wont run as fast as it COULD obviously. If you can get water cooling, id get the 290x xfire, they would destroy a couple of 970s. On air? 970s are better id say, just because they're easier to deal with.
 
Yeah was trying to avoid the AMD Reference design due to the amount of noise they can make.

As I said PC setup is in the living room so need to at least make an effort to keep the noise levels down :)

Cheers.
 
I have an H440 and crossfired 290s. Similar to you, I also have an H80 AIO cooler. I have the H80 mounted at the back, pulling cool air in to the case with 2 Akasa Piranhas. In addition, I have 3 Bitfenix Spectre Pros mounted as exhausts in the top. To cool the 290s, I replaced the noisy reference coolers with Corsair HG10s and H55s, with the radiators mounted in the front of the case and acting as intake with high SP fans. I added a 2nd fan to the top card for push/pull, as I found it was running a good 10 degrees hotter than the lower card.

If you go with a non-reference design, then I'd recommend looking into a PCI fan of some kind to remove at least some of the hot air out of the back of the case. Otherwise you'll get a real hot pocket of air down there.
 
Just get the 290x's and fit them into your existing case by removing the hard drive cage :)

Your case has a side fan mout too right?


(do not get the H440 with x2 290x's, that would be madness on air and a squished nightmare on water.)

Edit: I would not buy the msi cards either ;0 there are better, cooler 290x's out there for the same money.
 
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Looking at your spec you have a 650w PSU which I have read isn't enough for 290's in Crossfire.

Even 970s are 750W in SLI recommended.

What RES are you playing at?

Could you not purchase a 970 reference design and then later buy another when funds allow?

Looking at some benchmarks due to the 970s being power efficient even the ref cooler design is pretty quiet.

I managed to get my 970 for £265 but bad time to buy due to prices sky rocketing.
 
970s will be faster than or equal to a pair of 290Xs in crossfire - go for the 970s if the same price as they run cooler. Have you looked at the Enthoo Pro from Phanteks? or the 450D Corsair?
 
Gilbert89 said:
Looking at your spec you have a 650w PSU which I have read isn't enough for 290's in Crossfire.

Even 970s are 750W in SLI recommended.

What RES are you playing at?
Click to expand...

Yep new EVGA 850 PSU is already at the top of the shopping list regardless, as the one I have is at least 6 years old :) along with the SLi version of the motherboard I have now.

Will be playing at 1080, (maybe G-Sync or 144Hz depending which cards I go for), for now but will be looking at 1440 eventually but not any time soon. Not really worried about 4k for at least 2 years due to finances.
 
The Enthoo Pro is really spacey, can also remove the HDD trays for about 6cm more gpu space I think. But if you want a nice spacey but silent case, I'd go for the fractal R5, atm only non-windowed ones are released elsewhere :)
 
Shivy011 said:
970s will be faster than or equal to a pair of 290Xs in crossfire - go for the 970s if the same price as they run cooler. Have you looked at the Enthoo Pro from Phanteks? or the 450D Corsair?
Click to expand...

Depends on the game obviously but most reviews show 290X's as the faster cards in most situations (and hotter, noiser and more power hungry as well of course).
Another option is to go for a 295x2 which on here is currently cheaper than getting 2 seperate 290Xs. Cooling it is easier as long as you don't want to really push it overclocking wise.

I can also recommend the Enthoo Pro which ever route you go, lovely case and loads of space to work with and get good airflow.
 
nails666 said:
Depends on the game obviously but most reviews show 290X's as the faster cards in most situations (and hotter, noiser and more power hungry as well of course).
Another option is to go for a 295x2 which on here is currently cheaper than getting 2 seperate 290Xs. Cooling it is easier as long as you don't want to really push it overclocking wise.

I can also recommend the Enthoo Pro which ever route you go, lovely case and loads of space to work with and get good airflow.
Click to expand...

Good call actually, didn't think of the 295x2 :D
 
nails666 said:
Another option is to go for a 295x2 which on here is currently cheaper than getting 2 seperate 290Xs. Cooling it is easier as long as you don't want to really push it overclocking wise.

I can also recommend the Enthoo Pro which ever route you go, lovely case and loads of space to work with and get good airflow.
Click to expand...

Will probably get hung drawn and quartered for what I am about to say considering which forums these are but, as much as overclocking does interest me right now I am not in a position to give it a go as I really cant afford to fry CPU's, GPU's or Motherboards if/when I get it all wrong :D

I did think about the 295x2 so had a look at the owners thread on here and after reading 4 or 5 pages of people having problems with them I decided that it probably wasn't the best route for me.

Along with the fact that I am sort of leaning towards a G-Sync Monitor.

If that has all changed then I may have to give it another look.

Must admit I had a look at that Enthoo and have to agree it does look really good.
 
Hehe, to be honest with a pair of either 970s or 290Xs overclocking isn't really needed as you'll have plenty of performance. A lot of people even on here overclock plenty for benchmarks but drop them right back down for day to day usage, myself included.
Obviously I'm rather biased towards the Enthoo Pro/295x2 combo (see sig :)) but I've not had any problems with either and have been very impressed with them both.
 
I agree overclocking with multiple 970s or 290s is fairly pointless, aside from gaining a few more hundred 3DMarks.

Two of either is provides a huge amount of performance.
 
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