Power Supply and SLI questions

[bookworm316]

Hello

I have recently been build a new system and its been working great for me. I haven't finished all of the components I want installed in it as of yet. I plan on installing two 150 Raports in Raid 0 and when the GeForce 8600 Ultra's come out I plan to get two 512MB cards and SLI them and possibly a physx card (my board has a 3rd PCI Express x8 slot for this but i'm not sure if I'll get a card.) I want to know two things

1. When doing SLI if I have two 512Mb cards will the computer recognize it as 1GB of Video memory or will it recognize as only 512MB.



2. I wanted to know if the current power supply that I have would be able to hanlde all of these components. In the end this is what my build will be

Asus P5N32 E SLi Nforce 680i Motherbaord
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4ghz @ 3.22ghz
4 GB of Crucial PC2-8000 DDR1000 @ DDR1015mhz
2x 150 WD Raports @ Raid 0
1x 250 GB HD (and possible 1 more 250GB of the same kind which would be probably in JBOD to look like one big disk)Samsung 18x DVD Burner (Internal) SATA
Thermaltake Hardcano Fan Controllor
2x 120mm Case fans
Zalman 9700 LED 110mm CPU Fan
**When available** 2x Nvidia GeForce 8600 Ultra 512Mb SLI Configured

I also have a vary of USB decied connected but the printer is the biggest one then everything else it just small powered stuff and I have to 2x 19in NEC monitors running as one big desktop with the taskbard on the left monitor and a full screen on the right monitor working as one desktop.

This is the current power supply should I buy a new one with the outlook of this final build.

Antec NeoPower 480

Thanks for your help

 

[yh125d]

Sli 8600's is a horrible choice. go for a single 8800gtx or 8900, you'll get better graphics for about the same price.

Either way, you might want to get a psu with more amps on the 12v rails. Something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817139001

Those raptors are pretty much a waste of money. Raptors are a very niche market. You'd only realize a few seconds faster boot times/load times. Having two in raid 0 is no faster than a single one. However, if you insist on having a raptor, just get a single 74gb or 150gb.

 

[moosey]

I agree with yh125td, SLI 8600 is pointless. At least just get one 640MB GTS if not the 8800GTX like he suggested. Might as well go with the GTX since all your other stuff seems high end. Plus, you don't even know how those cards perform yet.

A 480W quality PSU should be fine. However, the Corsair recommended above is great and I'd take that.

 

[happy medium]

I agree, grab a 8800gtx/gts now,another later.

 

[bookworm316]

Cool I see the point in the Graphics card part I'll wait to see benchmarks before making a final decision. What do you think of the HD I have two 150GB raports now but i can return one which i'm thinking of doing but I want people opinion on Raid 0. Which everything will be backed up on the drive incase of failture. (Always backup even if its 1 or 2 Raid 0 drives. Drive fails a drive fails.)

 

[happy medium]

REturn your hard drive and get 2 of these 400gig seagates for 240.00$ Allmost as fast and way more storage.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148138

 

[jvwheel]

I am thinking of making a gamer build almost like yours but have been reading the nightmares from other sites about the extreme heat generated from the MoBo's chipsets as well as the memory incompatability with the board. Have you been up and running with the

Asus P5N32 E SLi Nforce 680i Motherbaord
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4ghz @ 3.22ghz
4 GB of Crucial PC2-8000 DDR1000 @ DDR1015mhz

configuration very long? Is your set-up stable? Is the memory SLI compatable? Please let me know your experience with this build and if you had any initial boot problems. I want to run that exact set up with the EVGA 8800 GTX Video Card and 4 WD SATA HDDs in a Mirrored Raid. Thanks, JV

 

[bookworm316]

I have been running this system with the RTM of Vista since the beginning of December I have been very stable. This board is great. I did have the EVGA board before but idn't get to test it out since it came DOA but I didn't like the layout of the board at all. If you have had an Asus before and people have been suggesting the EVGA to you I would get the Asus since the layout on the board is a lot better. The processor has been awesome I have it clocked now to 3.26ghz on air stable using the Zalman 9500. The Ram is also stable as well at 1015mhz. The memory is definetly SLI compatible. The only werid boot thing you will run into with the memory is that you need to change to voltage to 2.2v instead of the default, also there are a few BIOS revisions that fix a few minor things but other than that it is all set and I'm very happy. Its been pretty cool as far as heat goes as long as you have good case fans and the right airflow going your all set. I did recently buy a Fan Controller to make sure I have control to keep things cool. I've had it on for about 30 days straight one before a windows update required a reboot and there has been no problem.

 

[Roguestar]

Originally posted by: bookworm316
Cool I see the point in the Graphics card part I'll wait to see benchmarks before making a final decision. What do you think of the HD I have two 150GB raports now but i can return one which i'm thinking of doing but I want people opinion on Raid 0. Which everything will be backed up on the drive incase of failture. (Always backup even if its 1 or 2 Raid 0 drives. Drive fails a drive fails.)

Seriously, take our advice. SLI-ing 6800s is an utter waste.

If you don't believe me... http://tomshardware.co.uk/site/vgacharts/index.html

 

[bookworm316]

Did you mean 8600 (which are not out yet)? I am talking about the 8600s not the 6800s. Can you clarify?

thanks.

 

[Roguestar]

Whoops, my bad. SLI-ing mid range cards is not as cost-efficient as buying a single high-end card (incase you want to SLI that later, I guess).

 

[yh125d]

Originally posted by: bookworm316
Cool I see the point in the Graphics card part I'll wait to see benchmarks before making a final decision. What do you think of the HD I have two 150GB raports now but i can return one which i'm thinking of doing but I want people opinion on Raid 0. Which everything will be backed up on the drive incase of failture. (Always backup even if its 1 or 2 Raid 0 drives. Drive fails a drive fails.)

If you do 2 x 150g raptors in raid 0, your pc will see both drives as a single 300gb drive. If one of the raptors fail, all your data is lost. If you do raid 1, your pc will see both drives as a single 150g drive. If one of the drives fail, you dont lose any data. AFAIK, raid 0 will not make load times faster, but i believe raid 1 will. Still, I recommend getting 1 74gb raptor for your OS, and another data drive for storage.