New Motherboard?

aceytrixx · 17 Jun 2014 at 13:40

I currently have a 3570k with an msi z77-g45. I am running 2 msi r9 290 gaming editions and it's all in a Corsair Carbide air 540 but the cards are too close together and are running far too hot. So my options are replace the motherboard, go down to one card which I'm not sure is enough for 1440p or sell both and get a better individual card.

What's a good board to get?

lude1962 · 17 Jun 2014 at 13:56

'to one card which I'm not sure is enough for 1440p'

just try it and see (just untick crossfire in ccc, I think?)

aceytrixx · 17 Jun 2014 at 14:05

I have done some testing with just one but I haven't tried all my games. In particular witcher 2 which is what caused the system to overheat after a few hours

HalfBakedJake · 17 Jun 2014 at 14:13

Definitely don't replace the GPU's

Have you tried placing one card in the PCI slot at the bottom and using an extended crossfire bridge.

The best option is probabaly to water cool them. Corsair have just released their own bracket for the R9 290 series where you attach one of their CPU coolers to the bracket.

http://www.corsair.com/en-gb/hydro-series-hg10-gpu-liquid-cooling-bracket

HalfBakedJake · 17 Jun 2014 at 14:13

Or you could run your own loop.

HalfBakedJake · 17 Jun 2014 at 14:18

aceytrixx · 17 Jun 2014 at 14:20

I'm trying to do this " on the cheap" as it were. Obviously a custom loop would be the way to go but I'm hoping I could get a replacement motherboard wth better spacing on the PCI-e slots for about £100 rather than the £300+ any water cooling solution would cost

William-Mathew · 17 Jun 2014 at 15:59

This should be good:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-492-GI

aceytrixx · 17 Jun 2014 at 16:18

Wrong board type that's z97. I need z77 socket 1155.

William-Mathew · 17 Jun 2014 at 16:46

aceytrixx said:
Wrong board type that's z97. I need z77 socket 1155.

Oh sorry didn't see that

aceytrixx · 17 Jun 2014 at 17:19

No worries. I'm just really not sure what path to take. I have limited money right now and so I'm trying to find the most wallet friendly way to fix my problem. If I had the cash is just grab that board a new i7 and off I go. I mean if I have to go down that road then I have to but it's a lot more than I want to spend right now. Even an amd system would be more but closer to budget but that seems to be a bad idea according to some. So it leaves me with probably looking to grab a second hand board that has decent spacing between the cards so I can get some clearance between my gpus.

William-Mathew · 17 Jun 2014 at 17:36

What's your budget?

aceytrixx · 17 Jun 2014 at 17:51

Ideally less than 200 maybe 300. If spending less is going to hurt my overall system then I wait till I raise the extra funds.

William-Mathew · 17 Jun 2014 at 18:25

How old is your CPU? You could pick a new devil canyon i5/i7 series up and a board for like £300-350

William-Mathew · 17 Jun 2014 at 18:30

i7, which is a bit over budget:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4790K 4.00GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £269.99
1 x MSI Z97 Gaming 3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £99.95
Total : £379.54 (includes shipping : £8.00).

i5:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £189.95
1 x MSI Z97 Gaming 3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £99.95
Total : £299.50 (includes shipping : £8.00).

The CPU's come out on the 23rd

aceytrixx · 17 Jun 2014 at 18:32

I've had it since last February it happily sits at 4.6ghz and if I was to upgrade the CPU if be looking at upgrading from an i5 which will add more to the cost.

William-Mathew · 17 Jun 2014 at 18:40

Can you game with only 1 card? If so you could wait a while until you have some more money or chose one of these boards:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=5&subid=2261

aceytrixx · 17 Jun 2014 at 18:45

I was looking at them since that's the cheapest option and I can always grab a 3770k at some point. However it's more the clearance between the cards that's the side the asrock extreme 4 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-064-AK&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2261 looks like it might have space between the slots so the cards won't be almost touching but I'm not sure.

mcleish · 17 Jun 2014 at 18:50

I have a 3570K in a Carbide air 540 running 780s in sli. I have the extreme4 board, which does have space inbetween the cards. I definitely recommend that board to do the job!

aceytrixx · 17 Jun 2014 at 20:23

mcleish said:
I have a 3570K in a Carbide air 540 running 780s in sli. I have the extreme4 board, which does have space inbetween the cards. I definitely recommend that board to do the job!

Well that's some good news! That could very well be the way I go