Sabertooth x58 Crossfire issue

[westspeed]

I was wondering does anyone have a good crossfire set up on this board i just installed 2 xfx 6950's and have about 1mm of space between the cards. I can post pics if needed....

 

[ViviTheMage]

You have them in an Antec 900 II right mike?

 

[westspeed]

Yes i do

 

[westspeed]

Here is a picture

 

[Rifter]

Here is a picture

where? pic failed.

Also having very little room between the cards is normal if the slots are stacked back to back. This is why getting a Trifire board is a good idea so you can leave 2 empty slots between the cards and generally get better cooling.

 

[ViviTheMage]

I think his question is, anyone with the X58 sabertooth figure out a good method to xfire/sli?

 

[westspeed]

yea i am looking for a way to fix this issue on my current board if possible

 

[Rifter]

doesnt it have another 16x slot?

From the pics of the board on newegg it looks like it has a third 16x slot at the bottom, you could use a long CF cable and run a card in that slot, allowing more room between the cards. This is how in running SLI on my P6X58D-E.

 

[westspeed]

that one is a non 2.0 pci-e does that matter?

 

[ViviTheMage]

I wouldn't do that .. the third one is :

PCI Express x16 1 x PCIe x16 (at x4 mode)

AFAIK the 6950 would saturate the x4.

Since it is PCIe version1 x4

• v1.x: 250 MB/s (2 Gb/s)

So a total of 1Gb/s

Wouldn't that saturate it, correct me if I am wrong.

 

[westspeed]

any other ideas?

 

[Rifter]

Didnt know that about the sabertooth, my board only goes down to 8x on that slot. Guess you will have to live with it or look at a different board. Or go to aftermarket air cooling or watercooling for the cards.

I was under the impression from looking at pics that the newer ATI ref cards drew alot of air in from the end of the card and exhausts it out the back for good cooling in Crossfire, is this not the case with your cards?

 

[Diogenes2]

I'm trying to understand what could possibly be done, other than use another slot ?

 

[Rifter]

I'm trying to understand what could possibly be done, other than use another slot ?

I dont think there is anything you can do, i mean unless you hacksaw your board in half what could you do about the spacing?

I feel sorry for the OP, the sabertooth looks like such a sexy board its to bad it fails at CF cooling 🙁

 

[westspeed]

they are still cooler than my 260 i moved them a little apart and the highest i have seen my top card at is 72c in bc2

 

[Rifter]

they are still cooler than my 260 i moved them a little apart and the highest i have seen my top card at is 72c in bc2

72c is totally normal, even lower than normal for CF/SLI. My top 460 hits 65c under load but has a few slots between the cards. If you dont go over 72c gaming then you are golden.