Quad Crossfire rig - Looking for Case and Card suggestions.

[Omnomnom]

Hi! I'm building a Quad Crossfire rig with a Full tower case. I need some example of cases (from top tier brands) which would be able to reasonably handle 4x AMD HD 79xx or AMD R29x cards. The cooling must be provided by the fans included with and pre-installed in the case. Some suggestions for physically thinner AMD HD 79xx or AMD R29x cards so that there will be more of a gap between them for better airflow would also be great. The priority here is physical integrity and reliability not absolute clock speeds.

 

[lehtv]

If you're going to run quad crossfire on air, the only way to do it is with reference cards because they are the only ones with blower coolers. Otherwise you will run into issues.

For such a rig I'd probably go with the good old HAF X.

Needless to say ... you also need a massive power supply. LEPA G1600 should do it.

The cooling must be provided by the fans included with and pre-installed in the case.

Why?

EDIT: Also, make sure the noise isn't a problem for you.

 

[Omnomnom]

Thanks for the reply. Good preinstalled air cooling is a plus for me - convenience. And that case... looks awesome.

Would it be the same for running 3 cards in crossfire, would I still need reference cards?

 

[SimsReaper]

For the most part, any setup involving more than 2 video cards will involve 2 slot card size restrictions, as this is a motherboard form factor issue. 3 or 4 card motherboards will have the same card spacing restrictions. And while reference designs will guarantee the dual slot size if that is what they claim, you can probably find 3rd party re-designs that are sized to the same specifications. Just be aware of the restrictions before you purchase the cards.

 

[lehtv]

For the most part, any setup involving more than 2 video cards will involve 2 slot card size restrictions, as this is a motherboard form factor issue. 3 or 4 card motherboards will have the same card spacing restrictions. And while reference designs will guarantee the dual slot size if that is what they claim, you can probably find 3rd party re-designs that are sized to the same specifications. Just be aware of the restrictions before you purchase the cards.

With 3rd party designs, the issue is not only with physical cooler compatibility in adjacent slots, but also heat. 3rd party coolers will exhaust a lot of hot air INTO the case, and having 3-4 of them side by side all packing the case with hot air, it's just not going to end well. In addition, their ability to take in cool air is hugely impaired when the whole intake area below the fans is blocked by another card's hot PCB. Overheating of the cards themselves is likely to be a bigger issue with third party designs than with reference designs. Sometimes this is true even in dual card setups where the cards are adjacent, and it will be even more true when one of the cards is sandwiched.

 

[guskline]

lehtv is correct that a HAF X is a big case but if I was running 4 graphics cards I would opt for a Corsair 900 case. Sucker is HUGE AND you have room for water cooling.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139019
Make sure your motherboard TRULY supports 4 graphics cards and has enough room for them. DON"T buy gpus with aftermarket coolers because you will NOT have enough room for 4 cards.

SERIOUSLY consider custom watercooling blocks for 4 graphics cards. lehtv's heat cooments are why a lot of 4 card sli or CF rigs use water cooling.

4 7970s or R9 290s will cause a LOT of heat so be prepared.

BTW have you ever run 2 cards in CF or SLI before? If so you'll know why I make my suggestion.

You might want to look at Caselabs cases. Very expensive but massive room.

 

[guskline]

Would it be the same for running 3 cards in crossfire, would I still need reference cards?

Most likely.

 

[DigDog]

hmm.. just my two cents:
someone who doesn't know which cards he wants in quad-crossfire, should not go quad-crossfire.

a x4 CF setup requires more than just plugging in the cards, and generally, anyone who can run it will have far more knowledge than "which cards are good for this".

still, there's a nice thread about 4x crossfire here on AT, http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2353407&page=7 which you might want to refer to.

 

[Tweakin]

hmm.. just my two cents:
someone who doesn't know which cards he wants in quad-crossfire, should not go quad-crossfire...

I was thinking the exact same thing...I don't want to sound cold but this is probably out of your league...

 

[Omnomnom]

I've decided to go with 3x R9 280x (Reference) for this build. Will a PSU providing 80 or 83 AMPS on the 12v rail / 1000W be enough?

Not out of my league. I built my current PC: Corsair 600W CX PSU, Core i7 3770, 16Gb Ram, VTX3D R9 280x etc.

 

[lehtv]

Hmm. Given the limitations of third card scaling and the sheer amount of noise output from three adjacent reference cards... I'm inclined to say you'll get a better user experience with two third party 290's.

At the end of the day it's up to you so if you really want to do threeway crossfire, then yeah a 1000W unit would be fine.

 

[Omnomnom]

Sound cancelling headphones ftw. Awesome news on the 1000w unit.

 

[Zardnok]

Hmm. Given the limitations of third card scaling and the sheer amount of noise output from three adjacent reference cards... I'm inclined to say you'll get a better user experience with two third party 290's.

At the end of the day it's up to you so if you really want to do threeway crossfire, then yeah a 1000W unit would be fine.

I am going to echo lehtv's comments here. Knowing how to build a computer and properly setting up something as complicated as quad-fire are two separate entities. What resolution are you running to need this much "horsepower"? Any reason you want to go quad-fire or tri-fire other than it sounds really cool? Not discounting sounding really cool here, just wanting you to realize that sometimes sounding cool and being cool are two totally different things.

I personally went with two of the Sapphire Tri-X 290 cards in Crossfire and much prefer the Tri-X cooler to my buddies reference 290 leafblower. I would highly recommend going with a pair of 290s or 290xs in regular crossfire before adding in the heat, noise, and complexity of a quad-fire set up. You should be able to get some really solid deals on used 290s and 290xs from miners giving up their systems.

 

[DigDog]

given that 2x 290 will destroy anything on the market today (and tomorrow) and they are hardly more difficult to setup than plugging them into the mobo, i would also recommend this as an ideal CF setup.