Crossfire/SLI on a mATX board?

B

Butter

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 30, 2011
Messages
253
Hi All,

With the blitz of new Graphics cards coming, I've been debating whether to get a single 680 or 7970, or just get another 6870 and Crossfire. I have a Maximus IV Gene board which does have Crossfire support... I'm just wondering if anyone have tried SLI/CFX with an mATX and how their temps are like?
 
Horrible because your lower card is going to be covering the intake fan of your upper card. (I had an Sg03 and an intake fan was blowing DIRECTLY on top of both cards).

My temps were so high doing SLI 460s with my P55m-UD4.

Go with a single card. or at the very least a single card with dual GPUS.
 
sidsaccount said:
Horrible because your lower card is going to be covering the intake fan of your upper card. (I had an Sg03 and an intake fan was blowing DIRECTLY on top of both cards).

My temps were so high doing SLI 460s with my P55m-UD4.

Go with a single card. or at the very least a single card with dual GPUS.
Click to expand...

What were the temps normally with one 460?? how's your case? did you increase the fan speeds?
 
I made a CrossfireX with 2 XFX HD6950 2GB inside my Armor A30 and I can tell you that it's not bad at all!
Here the thread:
A real gaming system with Z68 and mATX form factor

I got acceptable temps with a hybrid cooling setting; one card with original heatsink and another with a Setsugen 2.
You can check it here and here.
Now I installed the Setsugen 2 in both cards with PWM slim fans (purchased directly from Scythe) and the system is very silent but the temps on the sandwitched card are a little higher during intense gaming (75C max). Instead, the temps on the lower card are decreased with the Setsugen 2 by 10C!
My advise is that you should also consider that CrossfireX is sometime tricky with games since the sofware from AMD is not the best.
You can have issues with games compatibility and wait for updates to enjoy the latest games.
Also, the risk to have a hardware failure is double compared to single card configuration.
Anyways, CrossfireX in a mATX from factor is feasible and with reasonable temps.
Just, it's more difficult to set.
 
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Mousemagician said:
I made a CrossfireX with 2 XFX HD6950 2GB inside my Armor A30 and I can tell you that it's not bad at all!
Click to expand...

Sure, it's not bad for you because you're a mad overclocking genius! For those of us that just want to plug in cards and have them work well, SLI in mATX isn't the best way to go.
 
I'm far and away not nearly as overclock happy/cooling intelligence inclined as many [H]'ers, but I'm currently running a 6870 CF set up on my Maximus IV Gene board. I'm using a Fractal Design Define Mini.

With just the one 6870, my temps were fine (I don't remember the numbers of the top of my head, but never over 75Cish) with just the stock case fans and the H60 fan working as an intake fan. When I added the second 6870, my temps started getting alarmingly high in some games, when I had Rift cranked literally to maximum, for example, the top card would get to around 89C. I generally don't like pushing my cards very high, and I know they can technically handle this temperature, but it was a bit much for me, so I installed a fan on the side panel right above the cards.

The top is now peaks at around 75 and the bottom still has normal single card temps.

This is with Sapphire 6870's. OP if you've got the cooling in your case, you can do it with a mATX set up, and by that I mean I only needed an extra fan (not even a high speed one, this is the one I used).

Edit: That said, I'm not sure if I'm going to keep the set up or if I'd recommend it. It's nice having a CF set up (and it's kind of cool to finally have a dual graphics solution), but the single high end cards offer better performance and have the room to upgrade later. I'm looking at getting a single GTX680 in the next month or so.

Edit 2: I guess another thing to consider is that my case is borderline SFF. It's large, and I only consider it a SFF based on the fact that it can't handle over a mATX board.

tl;dr - It depends on your case/cooling.
 
Last edited:
Mousemagician said:
I made a CrossfireX with 2 XFX HD6950 2GB inside my Armor A30 and I can tell you that it's not bad at all!
Here the thread:
A real gaming system with Z68 and mATX form factor

I got acceptable temps with a hybrid cooling setting; one card with original heatsink and another with a Setsugen 2.
You can check it here and here.
Now I installed the Setsugen 2 in both cards with PWM slim fans (purchased directly from Scythe) and the system is very silent but the temps on the sandwitched card are a little higher during intense gaming (75C max). Instead, the temps on the lower card are decreased with the Setsugen 2 by 10C!
My advise is that you should also consider that CrossfireX is sometime tricky with games since the sofware from AMD is not the best.
You can have issues with games compatibility and wait for updates to enjoy the latest games.
Also, the risk to have a hardware failure is double compared to single card configuration.
Anyways, CrossfireX in a mATX from factor is feasible and with reasonable temps.
Just, it's more difficult to set.
Click to expand...


Ooh I was considering that case.. But I really don't care too much for windows and LEDs. So I went with the windowless lanbox lite.

I'm just looking at your Thread and wow we went with similar choices lol. I'm going to move to a bigger case though. I LOVE my Lanbox but I'm concerned about heat and such. I'm most likely moving to either a Corsair 300R or 550D
 
Igor99 said:
Sure, it's not bad for you because you're a mad overclocking genius! For those of us that just want to plug in cards and have them work well, SLI in mATX isn't the best way to go.
Click to expand...
HA, HA! Thanks.:p
For those that just want to plug in cards and have them work well I think the best solution is to grab the highest single card solution that your money can purchase and slap it in.:D.
The biggest issue here is the heat to dissipate.
Unless, one can go with bigger than mATX.

Bomo said:
I'm currently running a 6870 CF set up on my Maximus IV Gene board. I'm using a Fractal Design Define Mini.
Click to expand...

Very nice case.

Bomo said:
When I added the second 6870, my temps started getting alarmingly high in some games... ...so I installed a fan on the side panel right above the cards.

The top is now peaks at around 75 and the bottom still has normal single card temps.
Click to expand...
Attaboy!

Bomo said:
Edit: That said, I'm not sure if I'm going to keep the set up or if I'd recommend it. It's nice having a CF set up (and it's kind of cool to finally have a dual graphics solution), but the single high end cards offer better performance and have the room to upgrade later. I'm looking at getting a single GTX680 in the next month or so.

Edit 2: I guess another thing to consider is that my case is borderline SFF. It's large, and I only consider it a SFF based on the fact that it can't handle over a mATX board.

tl;dr - It depends on your case/cooling.
Click to expand...
I agree 100% with all your points:cool:
 
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Butter said:
I'm just looking at your Thread and wow we went with similar choices lol. I'm going to move to a bigger case though. I LOVE my Lanbox but I'm concerned about heat and such. I'm most likely moving to either a Corsair 300R or 550D
Click to expand...
With those cases, you can go with a normal ATX MoBo without problems for SLI or CrossfireX.
But I suppose you want use the Gene-Z because it's similar to the bigger ATX version but way cheaper, am I right?
Or maybe you already have it from your LanBox system...
Anyways, you can make a decent side air duct with these Corsair cases, so I suppose a two-VGA setting with the Maximus IV could be almost geek-free.:D
If you want stay inside the SFF, thought, I would do as Bomo did, with a Fractal Mini.
 
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Mousemagician said:
With those cases, you can go with a normal ATX MoBo without problems for SLI or CrossfireX.
But I suppose you want use the Gene-Z because it's similar to the bigger ATX version but way cheaper, am I right?
Or maybe you already have it from your LanBox system...
Anyways, you can make a decent side air duct with these Corsair cases, so I suppose a two-VGA setting with the Maximus IV could be almost geek-free.:D
If you want stay inside the SFF, thought, I would do as Bomo did, with a Fractal Mini.
Click to expand...

I've had the Maximus IV for a while and it was my choice because it was the only board I could find with PCIe x8/x8. This is my first personal rig. I wanted the lanbox because I've been mobile recently and this make it easy to move around. However, since I've had a bit more stability, I feel that I can use a larger case now. If I change my motherboard, I'm going to have to reinstall the OS right? I'm trying to withhold from upgrading Mobo. Case and Graphics seem to require the least amount of reconfiguring. But any case, thanks for the feedback. It seems doable and I'll see how this goes..

Edit: I was just looking at the Fractal mini and it is similar to the 550D with the sound dampening.
 
Last edited:
Butter said:
I've had the Maximus IV for a while and it was my choice because it was the only board I could find with PCIe x8/x8.
Click to expand...
This is a great MoBo, I love it: UEFI, overclock, fan management, stability... it's great!
Of course, you can find PCIe x8/x8 also in many ATX boards, but not in any other mATX.

Butter said:
If I change my motherboard, I'm going to have to reinstall the OS right?
Click to expand...
No: check here.

Butter said:
Edit: I was just looking at the Fractal mini and it is similar to the 550D with the sound dampening.
Click to expand...
The Fractal Mini is less tall (5"), that's why it's only mATX compatible. The Corsair 550D is a classic mid tower for ATX, a pretty good one though. Based on quality, you cannot go wrong with either cases.
 
Butter said:
Edit: I was just looking at the Fractal mini and it is similar to the 550D with the sound dampening.
Click to expand...

If you're ok with the limitation of the mATX form factor, then I highly recommend the Define Mini. It's one of the best cases I've worked with. The drive bays are easy to install/uninstall hdd, the filters both exist and are easy to clean, the wire management is better than I expected for the size, sound dampening is nice (though with CF you will hear the top card's fan). I haven't worked with many modern cases that are over $50, so I don't have much to compare it to though.

I've only two gripes, the front fan mounting set up makes it a bit weird to do a push pull set up with the H60, something I'm going to try and figure out when I have more time. It's really just a clip in the way.

And the bottom fan slot is partially covered by my PSU (Corsair HX850) I'm not exactly sure if my PSU is larger than normal, but the bottom fan slot is unusable as anything other than a fan less exhaust/intake hole.

Other than that, I really like the clean look and cooling options that it provides. It is a bit big too. But I knew that it would be more of a smaller case, not really a SFF case.

Haven't used a 550D, but it looks much larger.
 
I considered the vulcan at one point, but I was concerned for the handle. I have a things for handles too lol. I bought a Cooler master Storm scout as well but I just didn't see that working out at the time.

Anyways, Thanks for all the input. I never heard of that fractal case until now and that does look pretty nice :D
 
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