3 GTX480's, custom cooler or upgrade?

M

Matthew Kane

Supreme [H]ardness
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Dec 1, 2007
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Ok, it's Summer here now and am about fed about with the 3 GTX480's in my rig, mainly with the noise and heat output, the heat part being the major issue as during a typical 30'C day my room is about close to 38'C without the air con on when my 3 card's are at full bore in game or benchmarking.

I'm currently using a 22inch LG monitor, 1680x1050 res but I sometimes add on my other HP 19inch WS when I need that dual screen for work stuff. Few other user's suggested in another thread while ago that I should w/c the 3 480's I have, but that's out of my budget atm and honestly I just don't have the time to buy parts/setup/maintain a w/c system, so I'm wondering if I should upgrade to any single slot aftermarket cooler's or a AIO w/c system that's able to cool the three card's through 1 loop or so, or should I just upgrade to a new card entirely?

Help me choose a wise path:cool:

Thanks
 
I vote for selling them and getting 1 good one, expecially for that resolution, 1 card will do.
 
Yeah get a 670 or 680. Should be able to sell the 480s for about the same $$ as a 670. I had 480sli and went to a 670. It is much smoother.
 
Definitely sell them and get 1 or 2 newer cards. Without question. Besides, with W/C your temps and noise will be lower, but the heat output will still be the same, hot.
 
At that low resolution have you tried just running a single 480? Can't imagine a game that wouldn't run really well if not maxed out?!
 
Three video cards for 1680x1050? I can see why it's noisy and hot. Another vote for getting a single card that's two generations newer.
 
257Tony said:
At that low resolution have you tried just running a single 480? Can't imagine a game that wouldn't run really well if not maxed out?!
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Well I do have a 30inch Dell monitor that I might put to use, but unsure at the moment. And yeah there were few games that I could not run maxed out at the mentioned res, some of these games I play have HD texture and graphics mod's which is why.

Guess I might go back to the GTX680's I had then, should I upgrade to the 680 directly or wait till the next gen which is around the corner?
 
Just a guesstimate, but I don't think nvidias next card is coming anytime soon. Maybe a new Radeon in 3-6 months. Grab a 680 or a couple 670's and enjoy the upgrade!
 
Thanks going to start listing my 480's tonight on fleabay see how much interest it can get then will be buying a single 690 or 2 680's.
 
Matthew Kane said:
Well I do have a 30inch Dell monitor that I might put to use, but unsure at the moment. And yeah there were few games that I could not run maxed out at the mentioned res, some of these games I play have HD texture and graphics mod's which is why.

Guess I might go back to the GTX680's I had then, should I upgrade to the 680 directly or wait till the next gen which is around the corner?
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You may have been running into vram limitations there. I kind of doubt it at that resolution though. What cpu? Rest of the sys?
 
Yep rest of sig. Except I have 6GB of OCZ ReaperX 1866 RAM, 2 sticks of my Mushkin's are dead so I lent the rest of the modules to a friend.
 
I went from 3x480's to 1x680 and I gotta say, the 680 was a better gameplay experience at 2560.
 
I definitely know 1 680 won't be enough but I've almost made my mind up with whether 1 690 or 2 680's. Probably will go dual 22 or 1 30inch.
 
whatever you do dont get a 690 unless your psu limited... you can get so much more performance from 2 dedicated cards than one 690
 
Well I can pickup another 690 later on. Only thing I'm afraid of is the heat output of going 2 680's or possibly even 3 680's. Power is no problem as I have a good 1250watt psu.
 
Matthew Kane said:
Well I can pickup another 690 later on. Only thing I'm afraid of is the heat output of going 2 680's or possibly even 3 680's. Power is no problem as I have a good 1250watt psu.
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A 690 is good for the 30" or for 3 x lcd's in eyefinity/surround. Then if you need more power for the 3x lcd's then you can add another later.
 
It ran a watercooled gtx 480 for about two years. It worked well, but it was such a power hog. I replaced it with a gtx 680 and my power draw dropped some 120w.
 
Mordecai Walfish said:
I'm looking to get a 2nd gtx480 to run in SLI on my system.. how much would let go of one for? North America?
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Unfortunately I'm from down-under and here in Aussie shipping with tracking to worldwide is expensive and it will kill a good deal for you.

adriantrances said:
Keep them still spring. Save on heat in the meanwhile xD
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They did really well last Winter, did not turn on the heater one single day out of the cold period. Now that Summer's here, even when I'm just in my underwear in my room, I end up being a roast sweaty pig.:mad:
 
Matthew Kane said:
Unfortunately I'm from down-under and here in Aussie shipping with tracking to worldwide is expensive and it will kill a good deal for you.



They did really well last Winter, did not turn on the heater one single day out of the cold period. Now that Summer's here, even when I'm just in my underwear in my room, I end up being a roast sweaty pig.:mad:
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I wanna come to Australia! I wish I had the money to fly down there as an "excuse" to get a good deal on a 2nd 480:cool:.
 
LOL.

There are some really good deal's in the FS/FT trade section here if you realllly want one that bad.
 
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