SLI Build on a budget....

Scania

Scania

Scania

Caporegime
Joined
25 Nov 2004
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25,977
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On the road....
I'm looking to upgrade my rig in the near (ish) future, my current heap (in sig below) still handles current games (BF4, not yet tried GTA 5) at high settings as I have a woefully low res monitor, two screens but the primary is 1280x1024 and the secondary 1440x900 (!)

I have my eye on two 1920x1080 monitors via a workmate - or source similar elsewhere such as the MM - which ultimately will replace my current screens.


I'm looking to SLI as I want to try it again (the last SLI setup I had was two Voodoo 2 cards!)

Currently have a 550W Coolermaster PSU which I'll have to update, three mechanical SATA drives, two SSD's and a DVD R/W drive.

Graphics wise I'm thinking of using my existing Asus GTX 580 Direct CU ii, and am thinking of another (Given they go for sub £60 on the MM) identical card for SLI to give me a performance boost that I guess I'll need for 1920x1080 gaming, at a later date, sell the 580's and SLI something more modern that'll cut the mustard....

So, I'm looking for a good CPU / RAM / SLI capable motherboard (that'll take 3 slot graphics cards in SLI as my current one is huge!) combo that won't break the bank and a PSU that'll handle it.

I do not need case, O.S., HDD, SSD, Keyboard etc as this'll be replacing the internals of my current heap.

What are my options? Ideally I don't want to exceed £400, less if dooable, bearing in mind I've managed just fine with very old kit up until now with no issues for the gaming I do.

Thanks.

Apologies if in wrong thread, but, I'm thinking bundle here.... :o
 
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YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SLI - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£12 Saving** £277.98
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £104.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £47.99
Total : £440.56 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).



What case do you have, got a aftermarket heatsink that fits socket1155/56 which is the same as 1150 ?

Thinking about it, 750W will be fine for SLI GTX580s.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Antec High Current Gamer M 750W "80+ Bronze" Modular Power Supply £89.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 750W "80 Plus Gold" Semi-Modular Power Supply - Black £86.99
1 x Seasonic M12II EVO Edition 750W '80 Plus Bronze' Fully Modular Power Supply £83.99
Total : £275.06 (includes shipping : £11.75 Ex.VAT).

 
Hi stulid,
Thanks for the prompt reply.

I currently have what I take to be a standard atx case, it's a bit tight in there as the picture shows, but I think everything will fit at a push.

Edit: thinking about it, a second monster card such as I have and my three mech drives will be well & truly in the way,assuming I can't move the drives to the CD ROM bays, erm, case suggestion? :o

I'm fairly sure I'll get by with 750w - I'm fairly sure I'm pushing my 550 beyond its rating, but, it's a good psu and never gets even warm.
I'd need a decent heat sink, ideally a beefed up 3rd party one rather than oem, not that I overclock much although my current quad is @ 3Ghz instead of its rated 2.5....

Tidy builds have never been me I'm afraid! :o :D

The case is an "iCute" made by whom I have no idea, just an old one scrounged off a mate.

Another thing, I live within a long dog walk of OC/UK so shipping isn't an issue. :)

Cheers.
 
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I ran GTX470 SLI on a 700 watt OCZ Fata1ty PSU (Impervio unit was pretty much same specs as a good 750 watt) and when overclocked to stock GTX480 performance levels it was giving the PSU a good workout so your going to be cutting it close but it should be doable with the 580s probably.

EDIT: Also had a Q9550 @ 4GHz in there which was running a fair amount of voltage due to the board not being the best for overclocking quads.
 
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Rroff said:
I ran GTX470 SLI on a 700 watt OCZ Fata1ty PSU (Impervio unit was pretty much same specs as a good 750 watt) and when overclocked to stock GTX480 performance levels it was giving the PSU a good workout so your going to be cutting it close but it should be doable with the 580s probably.

EDIT: Also had a Q9550 @ 4GHz in there which was running a fair amount of voltage due to the board not being the best for overclocking quads.
Click to expand...

The 580 is more power efficient than the 470 / 480 from what I read, I hope it'll cut it. :)
 
Honestly OP, as exciting as SLI 580's sound, I wouldn't recommend it. I had SLI 580's a couple of years back, and it was very loud and very hot.

My advice would be to flog your current kit for as much as possible, and go for (as others have suggested) some pre-owned stuff off the MM. I don't myself have access the the MM, but from what I have seen on the forums, and the prices of things on other sites, you should be able to bag a 2500k, board and some ram for around 200, less if you are lucky.

Add to that something along the lines of the following, and you'll have a pretty damn capable machine.

Sure it might take you a little over budget, but the sale of your old kit should help cover that (unless your budget was including that already!)

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R9290X-DC2-4GD5) £229.99
1 x EVGA 600W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (100-B1-0600-KR) £53.99
Total : £283.98 (includes shipping : Ex.VAT).

 
Your case looks to be micro ATX btw. Think I've seen a few of those icute ones on the bay and I'm pretty sure they are mATX. Just bear that in mind when selecting a board unless you're gonna pick up a new case too.
 
The existing kit is going to end up as a Minecraft machine for my other halfs 8year old, I have a GTX260 that'll be going in it for this purpose.
Thanks for the pointer, I am now erring toward second hand tbh.
I'm thinking SLI simply because it's a cheap way of getting a performance boost from my existing 580 by adding another (they do go for buttons) - and I fancy doing it anyway - when / if upgrade time comes again, there is nothing stopping me going for a single slot solution and again SLI later if I wish.

The case will probably need replacing,although I have another spare it's no bigger,tbh my preference with regard to graphics has been Nvidia for a good while now.
 
Is that case mATX then? how many expansion slots does it have?

I can certainly recommend a case, £40 can get you a ok one with three fitted fans with speed controllers.
 
It's got 4 CD ROM bays, I'd have to count the PCI slots, off the top of my head, 7 or 8? - I'll check when I get home.

Space in it isn't an issue currently but will be with 2x580's,unless I move my mechanical drives into the CD ROM bays....
 
If it is a micro atx case, it will have no more than five PCI slots, and if I zoom in on the photo, I t looks as if there's only the one slot free beneath the 3-slotter 580 you have in there.

Stulid whats that case you're referring to? Sounds like a lot of features for the money... might be tempted to pick one up if it's not too ugly :)
 
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