I've gone through the FAQs on here and read some guides and whatnot, but I'm still a bit unclear on some SLI stuff.
For instance, hypothetically, if I had one 7800GT running at 450 core, and another running at 500 core, would it work, or would it take the lowest common denominator and run both cards at 450? Or would I get the full 500 and full 450?
Also, again hypothetically, what is the REAL power needed for a 7900GT on the 12V rail? It's really hard to find specs that go that deep and tell you what it requires. I had a PSU picked out for my future SLI setup, and it looked perfect, then was told it wouldn't run even *one* of my cards (it was the Antec Truepower 550). Seemed like a really beefy PSU to me, but apparently not. The PSU issue is the most confusing part of the whole thing. I don't wanna go out, get a PSU that runs my cards and my drives and everything else, then later add a new HDD or optical drive and have the PSU not be able to handle it. Are the PSUs listed in the hardocp SLI FAQ still valid for a couple 7900GTs, a couple SATA drives, a DVD burner, 4 case fans (4 pin, so on the 12V rail), and good CPU and GPU cooling systems? It'd all be trial and error. And that's not something you wanna have error on. Fried components = bad news bears.
Are there any good, up to date sites that explain SLI setups and what you should have to get one up and running without having to worry about running out of juice? If someone could toss me a link or three, it'd be awesome.
What really confuses me is why video cards these days just don't have power jacks in them so you can plug them into your power strip instead of your PSU. It's just gotten that bad.
Thanks for any help/input. Sorry about posting so many threads around here today, but I just ran into a boatload of cash, and I'm prepping to upgrade to a new rig. Tasty!
For instance, hypothetically, if I had one 7800GT running at 450 core, and another running at 500 core, would it work, or would it take the lowest common denominator and run both cards at 450? Or would I get the full 500 and full 450?
Also, again hypothetically, what is the REAL power needed for a 7900GT on the 12V rail? It's really hard to find specs that go that deep and tell you what it requires. I had a PSU picked out for my future SLI setup, and it looked perfect, then was told it wouldn't run even *one* of my cards (it was the Antec Truepower 550). Seemed like a really beefy PSU to me, but apparently not. The PSU issue is the most confusing part of the whole thing. I don't wanna go out, get a PSU that runs my cards and my drives and everything else, then later add a new HDD or optical drive and have the PSU not be able to handle it. Are the PSUs listed in the hardocp SLI FAQ still valid for a couple 7900GTs, a couple SATA drives, a DVD burner, 4 case fans (4 pin, so on the 12V rail), and good CPU and GPU cooling systems? It'd all be trial and error. And that's not something you wanna have error on. Fried components = bad news bears.
Are there any good, up to date sites that explain SLI setups and what you should have to get one up and running without having to worry about running out of juice? If someone could toss me a link or three, it'd be awesome.
What really confuses me is why video cards these days just don't have power jacks in them so you can plug them into your power strip instead of your PSU. It's just gotten that bad.
Thanks for any help/input. Sorry about posting so many threads around here today, but I just ran into a boatload of cash, and I'm prepping to upgrade to a new rig. Tasty!