[Mafia2020]

I finally did it. I bought myself my first SLI, performance wise, it's heaven. I can run ANYTHING I play maxed out without a single instant of stuttering. There's a downside though, it is as noisy as a U.S. Army Helicopter. My guess is it doesn't help the two cards are so close (my upper card has 67°/82° and my lower card 45°/75°)

Long term, I plan to get 2x Danger Den Waterblocks and setup my whole rig to make use of the Water Cooling. But it's quite costy and it will have to wait.

Mid term, granted it actually FITS, I was thinking of buying 2x Accelero Arctic Extreme Pro (the custom cooler which I had on my previous VGA which was quite effective in bringing down temperatures and noise level).

Short term, I was thinking of moving the second card to the lowest slot in order to improve the air circulation inside the case, problem is... it seems it doesn't fit. As you can see by the picture the card would collide with the USB ports on the motherboard. Not to mention the fact that due to my case (Thermaltake Element V) even if I manage to put the lower card on the lowest PCI-E port I will have to give up on the hole in the rear of my case which would let the lower card heat sink push out air.

My question is, is there any way to fit the second card in the lowest spot on my motherboard? Does anyone have my same MB (Asus Rampage Extreme II) and same SLI Config (2x GTX 580) and managed to do it?

 

[Defoler]

From what I can see, you are hooking your cards to PCIE slots 2 and 3, while you are using 1 for something else (audio?).

I suggest you use slots 1 and 3 for the GPUs, so you benefit from the distance, both cards will be less hot, and you get the full benefit of the X16.

The audio (or what ever it is) you can put either in the PCIEX1 slot next to the ICH heatsink, or on the PCIE blue slot in the middle.

That should reduce the heat (and noise from the fans).

I guess I have read it wrong.

Basically, you can either try to clip the usb connectors, or give up on them if you aren't using the front USB ports and just use a small hub connect from the rear.

Losing the hole isn't a problem. The card should out-take air from its own backplate, and does not relay on the space, as long as the fan is not bothered to suck air on the card.

 

[youra6]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Defoler;13109560
From what I can see, you are hooking your cards to PCIE slots 2 and 3, while you are using 1 for something else (audio?).

I suggest you use slots 1 and 3 for the GPUs, so you benefit from the distance, both cards will be less hot, and you get the full benefit of the X16.

The audio (or what ever it is) you can put either in the PCIEX1 slot next to the ICH heatsink, or on the PCIE blue slot in the middle.

That should reduce the heat (and noise from the fans).

I guess I have read it wrong.

Basically, you can either try to clip the usb connectors, or give up on them if you aren't using the front USB ports and just use a small hub connect from the rear.

I count at most 7 expansion slots. Depending on his motherboard layout, I don't think its possible for him to move the cards around.

Edit: Ninja'd

I'm trying to think of alternative solutions. After market fans will definitely increase the airflow. If your CPU cooler isn't bulging out of the case, the side intake fan can also help.

Your options are limited w/o spending some money. The GTX 580 is actually quiet in comparison to it's predecessors and its competition (HD 6970). I used to put on headphones while I gamed with the my 480s.

Perhaps the easiest way is to lower the ambient temps as much as possible.

 

[Mafia2020]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Defoler;13109560
Basically, you can either try to clip the usb connectors

What do you mean by that exactly?
Quote:

or give up on them if you aren't using the front USB ports and just use a small hub connect from the rear.

A small hub connect from the rear is not an option, since its port on the motherboard is just next to the other USB ports, giving up on front USB may reveal to be hard since I use them quite heavily.
Quote:

Losing the hole isn't a problem. The card should out-take air from its own backplate, and does not relay on the space, as long as the fan is not bothered to suck air on the card.

That's one bit of good news, since I have no way to make a NEW hole in my case to accomodate that problem.
Quote:

Originally Posted by youra6;13109682
I'm trying to think of alternative solutions. After market fans will definitely increase the airflow. If your CPU cooler isn't bulging out of the case, the side intake fan can also help.

I was thinking of Accelero Xtreme Plus from Arctic Cooler, problem is that it is a 3-slots card once I mount it, meaning I am not sure 2 cards would fit in my case, certainly not sandwiched, so I am rather clueless.

As for the side intake fan provided by my case, according to some tests I ran, it only increase noise while the temperatures stay the same, so I deactivated it (even because my overclock does not need it).
Quote:

Your options are limited w/o spending some money. The GTX 580 is actually quiet in comparison to it's predecessors and its competition (HD 6970). I used to put on headphones while I gamed with the my 480s.

Perhaps the easiest way is to lower the ambient temps as much as possible.

I am not against spending further money, I can probably afford a coupla more custom coolers (around 100$), what I can't do (yet) is going full water cooling (which may require 500$ or more).[/QUOTE]

This is the layout of my motherboard, by the way:

 

[Mafia2020]

I made some progress, I removed the Asus Q-Connector and gained a CM so that somehow I managed to move the lower card farther from the upper card, temperatures DID vary, while noise stayed mostly the same.

I went from:
67°/82° and my lower card 45°/75°
to:
50° / 82° and my lower card 45°/70

So while the lower card didn't benefit of being moved farther that much as expected, the upper card now idles 17° lower than before at least.

I was wondering if I could 'alleviate' my (noise) pain by installing the Arctic Accelero Xtreme Plus (the 3 slot custom cooler) just on the upper card, which should bring her temperatures down around 20° and leave the lower card with the stock cooler; would that generate troubles for SLI?

 

[spacegoast]

I dont think it would "generate troubles" but it would only take care of the noise from 1 gpu. The other card will still sound loud. What are your fans set to? I know these cards run very hot but what is the minimum fan speed you can set them to? I had the same temp issues when I was using a mATX mobo with my GTX285's but I got a newer mobo last year and spaced the gpu's farther which helped the temps. Can you fit an AC Accelero cooler on the bottom GPU too?

 

[brettjv]

So the bottom card is just blowing air it's hot air right 'into the wall', basically? You should get a hole cut in the case there somehow, first off. That's not really a good scene there I don't think.

I dunno about whether that cooler would cause clearance problems with the tri-SLI bridge, seems like it might. If you have a long flexible bridge though you should be golden.

I bet you'll never make the mistake of buying a mobo w/o more than one extra slot between cards for SLI again, eh? I went through the exact same thing w/my UD4P and 7-expansion slot case. I was mad at myself for not fore-seeing this problem ... and the UD4P is just collecting dust in my closet ...

 

[Mafia2020]

Quote:

Originally Posted by spacegoast" I dont think it would "generate troubles" but it would only take care of the noise from 1 gpu. The other card will still sound loud.

True, but considered the lower card temperatures are quite lower than the upper card, perhaps 'neutralizing' the noise of the upper and noisiest card would improve slightly my situation?

Quote:

What are your fans set to? I know these cards run very hot but what is the minimum fan speed you can set them to?

I left them controlled by the drivers, according to Everest though on idle they are at 1650 RPM (Upper) and 1500 RPM (Lower), while under load they reach 2500/3000 RPM (Upper) and 2000/2500 RPM (Lower).

Quote:

Can you fit an AC Accelero cooler on the bottom GPU too?

This is a very good question, I am not entirely sure it would fit.

Quote:

Originally Posted by brettjv So the bottom card is just blowing air it's hot air right 'into the wall', basically? You should get a hole cut in the case there somehow, first off. That's not really a good scene there I don't think.

The second picture I posted is misleading, under the lower card there are about 5cm more of empty space, the only problem's that there's no rear hole (fault of the case).

Edit: Perhaps I misread, I guess that infact, in the rear the lower card is (almost) pushing hot air right 'into the wall'.

Quote:

I dunno about whether that cooler would cause clearance problems with the tri-SLI bridge, seems like it might. If you have a long flexible bridge though you should be golden.

I am not planning on going 3-way SLI with custom cooling, problem's I am not entirely sure I can fit the custom cooling on the lower card (due to the presence of the darn USB connectors + HDD Led, Power and Reset Switch etc...)

Quote:

I bet you'll never make the mistake of buying a mobo w/o more than one extra slot between cards for SLI again, eh? I went through the exact same thing w/my UD4P and 7-expansion slot case. I was mad at myself for not fore-seeing this problem ... and the UD4P is just collecting dust in my closet ...

Damn right you are. Next time I'll be extra careful, this time I managed to get screwed since: A) At the time I bot the MB I wasn't planning on SLI B) Videocards then were somehow smaller.

 

[spacegoast]

Sounds like your fans are set to auto. Im pretty sure you can use EVGA Precision to control the fan speeds? The card in the upper slot is hotter because the heat from the lower card is rising up. I set mine to 65-80% fan speed but our cards are very different in terms of cooling capabilities.

 

[RagingCain]

IF you are willing to get a little crazy, look for something like this but longer, you could theoretically have the GPU card outside of the case all together without loss of performance.

They are called all kinds of things:
PCI-Express Ribbon Extension
PCI-Express Extender
PCI-E Risers

http://www.plinkusa.net/webR1PCI-E1-1R.htm

As long as the card is grounded, and has power, it will run. Basically takes a PCI-E 2.0 16x and lets you physically manipulate where it goes due to the ribbon cabling.

Benefits:
All the heat from the GPU is 100% outside the case, no residual heat, no case cutting (which cuts down on the resellability as well.

Cons:
That one I linked seems pricey and short, but there are others and longer.

I personally think this is a nifty very under rated gadget.

If you have some patience in getting it cut right, also consider noise insulating rubber/foam matting. Greatly helps, just have to be cautious not covering up vents etc.

http://www.arcticmod.com/computer-mo...-thickness.htm

Something like that will help with noise too.

 

[Defoler]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mafia2020;13109708
What do you mean by that exactly?

I used to have that problem with USB connectors on my UD9. My last card would sit on top of the USB connectors and the power/reset/leds connectors.

What I did was take strong cutters and cut the USB connector a bit at the bottom to make it shorter, and that enabled me to put it under the card.

 

[Mafia2020]

You cut the metal part on the MB or the plastic part on the connector? BTW in my case it was enough to get rid of the handy Asus Q-Connector (a sort of white bridge) which gave the cm I needed.

 

[Defoler]

No, didn't though the MB, only the connector itself.

 

[-Apocalypse-]

You've got two front fans, there is no way it should be idling this high, especially with space between.

Judging by the pictures, start with a large can of compressed air on everything, especially the front fans. Repeat every 6 weeks.

The other thing I'd suggest is trying to get some cable management going to improve the airflow. I know the case isn't superior for cable management, but the reviews are saying you can get some going. Chiefly try to get that 24-pin cable out from between the front fans and the 580s.

 

[windfire]

Mafia2020:
The Gainward GTX580 Good Edition is bi-directional cooling card, meaning half of its heat is being exhausted out from the front of the card. Therefore, the 2 front 120mm case fans should not be spinning fast as their intake air will/might just push the hot exhausted air back into the 2 cards.

Read my post (#12) in this thread:
http://www.overclock.net/computer-ca...ii-best-2.html

Note the 2 provisions which I mentioned. All the ideas that I mentioned there also apply to your situation, short term and mid term (because even when you use aftermarket coolers, you will still have to deal with hot air dumped inside the case).

Try to follow those as many as possible. (It is good that you already have the V8 oriented upward)
I hope it helps you.

 

[Mafia2020]

Apparently, by enabling the 20mm Side Fan bundled with my case I managed to effectively reduce temperatures, especially for the upper card; these are the latest:

Quote:

Idle 45°/45° Under Load 78°/78°

Note: These temps I got from running 3DMark Vantage and 3DMark 11, which (I suppose are more stressing than real life videogames).

@Apocalypse: Gonna try your suggestions.
@Windfire: I am not sure my card is the "Good Edition"? It isn't mentioned anywhere on the boxes.

 

[littledonny]

make your own fan profile and let your cards game at 91-93C

 

[Mafia2020]

@Littledonny: I noticed you have a configuration similar to mine (Asus Rampage II Extreme + 470 SLI); I wonder if 1) You had troubles fitting the second card in the lowest position due to the physical interference of USB Connectors and Various LEDs 2) If your cards are sporting a custom cooling (3-slot per card) and if yes, if you could fit the lowest card without problem..