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3 way SLI - how can you fit 3 in!?

skippo

skippo

skippo

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3 Feb 2008
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256
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Bristol
I was wondering how anyone can fit 3 graphics cards in their pc?

I have a compatible mobo, massive case, and 2 x BFG 8800 GTX OC2 at the moment, but if i wanted a third, then there simply isn't the room - or there is but we are talking about nanometres between the above and below GTXs.

Also, if 3 were to be fitted, then how on earth this there going to be any room for the air to enter the fan!!! crazy. Heat levels would probably reach 200*C!:eek: :D

I guess this is where you all tell me that unless you water cool your graphics cards, then 3 way SLI is not going to be possible.


cheers,
 
i did it on air

the price isnt worth the performance increase, plus no air flow etc as there was barely enough room, it was crammed with 3x evga asc3 edition cards
 
You hit the nail on the head yourself really, it's not really bvery easy without water.

Anyhow, if you're running on air, and have dual GTXes, then money is better spent on a watercolling system than it is on another card.
 
Forgive my watercooling noobness here - wouldn't piping water over a CPU then 3 GTX's in a row for example mean that by the time the water hits the third card, it's pretty warm?
 
Paracelsus said:
Forgive my watercooling noobness here - wouldn't piping water over a CPU then 3 GTX's in a row for example mean that by the time the water hits the third card, it's pretty warm?
Click to expand...

Dual loop is probably the answer here. Have the CPU and one card on one loop, the other 2 cards on the other loop.
 
Watercooling is the way to do it, but even that is a tight squeeze. I would hate to try and get the tubes to fit between 3 sli cards, 2 is bad enough, but 3 would be really hard.
 
tubing is easy, using something like EK blocks you just need tint bits in between each block.

Whether there's really any point or not is another matter entirely.
 
Cooling a Tri Sli setup would be easier if nVIDIA didn't use there inclosed cooling method.

It would be better if they used heatsinks from Zalman(using coolermaster ones at the moment) as you could use your side panel fans to aid the cooling.
 
Greebo said:
Easier if you were just fitting gpu blocks though and not full gfx blocks.
Click to expand...

are you trying to say it would be easier to watercool a tri sli setup with blocks like the swiftech/dtek ones that just cover the core???

If so you are utterly wrong but apologies if I've misread your post.
 
matt100 said:
are you trying to say it would be easier to watercool a tri sli setup with blocks like the swiftech/dtek ones that just cover the core???

If so you are utterly wrong but apologies if I've misread your post.
Click to expand...

Yeah that was what I was meaning. Okay you have all the tubes to run in series but you have plenty of space and the tubes come out of the top of the card?

I was looking at my single card and thinking it would be no big deal to repeat that twice over or am I missing something big (I figure I am by the way you posted!)?
 
still have the sneaky feeling I'm misunderstanding you.. do you mean blocks like this??

DSC00063.jpg


in which case its a nightmare doing multi card setups, the tubing bend and kinks like you wouldn't believe and the force of the bend in the tubing pushes the cards around in the slots, its baaaad.
 
Yeah, that is exactly what I meant :o

Now I have seen your picture, I can see that it isn't as easy as I first thought ;)
 
thats an old pc of mine with sli 7800GTX, see the kink thats already in the tubing between the 2 gfx cards? I needed to stick loads of cable ties on it just to keep it vaguely open to water.

full cover blocks are a bit of a waste of money as the ram on gfx cards often doesn't need active cooling but for multi card systems its the only viable option IMO.
 


Just thought i would post this... a mates alienware tri ultra rig...runs hot as hell with the cards at near 100c :eek: cost about the same as my car did too...waste if uyou ask me but hey each to their own.....
 
imo its way to cramped. until they design a motherboard more suited to it . ie better/bigger for it. the only way to go for three cards would be 8800gt's. at least that way they can breath.
 
can't really make a motherboard bigger tbh, especially in that dimension. I don't think you can trisli 8800GTs either can you? I thought it was 8800GTX and above?
 
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