I figure I should return to this thread as opposed to the previous RMA thread I had or the other Lightning discussions in which I had participated.
So I've got both cards now, for those unfamiliar one had to be sent for RMA.
Now, with both cards in, what I had feared was made apparent: there is essentially zero gap between the two cards. With the cards having effectively triple-slot cooler designs, and my motherboard having a triple-slot space between the GPU slots, I suspected it might be tight.
Well, in some rudimentary testing I was conducting, the bottom GPU performs admirably, basically on par with what I was seeing with only one card in the system.
One thing I had feared was impact on CPU temperature with now having two open-air coolers, on beastly cards, dumping heat into the system. I think my upgraded cooling configuration helped admirably, as the CPU really appears to be unaffected even in Crossfire.
That said, the top card? Well, she gets toasty. Very toasty. And obnoxiously loud, like a jet engine is spooling up next to me, filling the room with its throaty turbine roar. This, I can't deal with, as it effectively kills one of the main reasons a person buys a card like the Lightning: if it's this hot and loud, there is no room to OC. The bottom card clearly has room to spare without becoming obnoxious, so I have high hopes once this is addressed.
How hot does it get, you ask? With Heaven running, I saw it approaching 90ºC on stock fan profile. Pushing the fan profile to 90-100% earlier is sort of useless IMHO, because it simply becomes oppressively loud at an earlier thermal point, and it will still creep up into the high 80s, and I suspect past 90ºC if I let Unigen Heaven loop long enough. As it is, I broke that 90ºC point easily using a less overbearing fan profile but one still designed to crank the fan RPM toward max as it approaches those temperatures.
My solution? I kicked and screamed and guaranteed I wouldn't go this route, but what do you know, my sanity is sort of forcing my hand. I have a Corsair H100i, Corsair H75, and NZXT Kraken G10 on the way.
The H100i will cool the CPU and mount up top in my Corsair Carbide 400r.
The H75 will be coupled with the Kraken G10 bracket and cool the top GPU, with the push-pull radiator installed on the back exhaust spot in the case.
I could still be wrong, but going with 120mm all around does appear that I will have no clearance issue with those two essentially going right on top of one another. I eyed up other rigs with the 240mm radiators up top and it does appear that 120mm fans could extend underneath the 240mm radiator with clearance. It certainly looks to be impossible with 140mm fans.
Once this is all said and done, I'll have 2 extra Phanteks SP140's, and the one currently in the rear will replace the Prolimatech thin-profile 140mm fan. With the NH-D14 vacating the case, that will allow a full-profile and much more effective fan to step in on the side panel.
I'll see how temperatures are handled, I guess I would still have the option to mount the two SP140s on top of the case externally, but I would rather not have that simply for appearances sake. I expect I won't, so I'll hold on to them for a future system build.
I've seen at least one person mention that they installed the G10 with an H55 on a 290x Lightning, and kept the stock plates on, so hopefully this will all come together.
I did finance the purchase, partially, with returning a StarTech DisplayPort MST Hub. It worked perfectly in Windows, but I couldn't get it OS X to cooperate, so it's back to two monitors on DVI, one on DP. And one of the MSI rebates has already come in, so that helped.
Looking forward to receiving these on Monday and replacing the current coolers.
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