2x 670 System Upgrade!

[ddeuel]

I would like to add a second 670 to my current rig (350d, gene v, gigabyte 670) it looks as though I am going to want to watercool and since I've never done any watercooling plus I'm a bit tight on space I thought I'd go with THIS rad/res/pump combo in the front of the case. I priced out the things I'd need and it came to be $550 on frozencpu. (2x EK 680 blocks, fittings, rad/res/pump combo, and tubing). My problem is that I only have $600 in leftover Christmas moneys to spend in total on the upgrade. I'm planning on getting a used windforce 670 off ebay and they seem to be going for about $250. So my issue is I can afford to get all of the watercooling stuff and save until I can buy the gpu or I can buy the gpu and run on air for a while until I can buy all the wc kit in one whack. I would love your input and opinion about anything and everything, this is very much so out of my comfort zone.

[Andrew0472]

to me it makes more sense to buy the gpu now and do all the watercooling in one hit later rather than install it and have to fiddle with it when you install the second gpu further down the track

[ddeuel]

to me it makes more sense to buy the gpu now and do all the watercooling in one hit later rather than install it and have to fiddle with it when you install the second gpu further down the track

From what I can tell though a second 670 like that will starve the top card and I'll have to run at crazy high fan speeds and still be at 90 degrees.

[Panda of the Shadow]

I would like to add a second 670 to my current rig (350d, gene v, gigabyte 670) it looks as though I am going to want to watercool and since I've never done any watercooling plus I'm a bit tight on space I thought I'd go with THIS rad/res/pump combo in the front of the case. I priced out the things I'd need and it came to be $550 on frozencpu. (2x EK 680 blocks, fittings, rad/res/pump combo, and tubing). My problem is that I only have $600 in leftover Christmas moneys to spend in total on the upgrade. I'm planning on getting a used windforce 670 off ebay and they seem to be going for about $250. So my issue is I can afford to get all of the watercooling stuff and save until I can buy the gpu or I can buy the gpu and run on air for a while until I can buy all the wc kit in one whack. I would love your input and opinion about anything and everything, this is very much so out of my comfort zone.

Sell your 670 take 500$ of your Christmas money and get a 780ti.

[Andrew0472]

Sell your 670 take 500$ of your Christmas money and get a 780ti.

now thats an idea haha

[ddeuel]

Sell your 670 take 500$ of your Christmas money and get a 780ti.

I hadn't thought about that at all... but I guess I could. Thanks, that's probably the best idea.

[Hecknologist]

I dont think the windforce cards use a reference pcb as the 670 pcb is much shorter then the 680. If you want to watercool 2 670's you are going to have to sell yours (assuming you have a windforce) and buy 2 reference ones. I would look at getting a new single card such as a gtx780 and then watercool that down the track as the value for money is worse if you stick with the 670 upgrade route.

This is my opinion so feel free to critique/ignore.

[Panda of the Shadow]

I hadn't thought about that at all... but I guess I could. Thanks, that's probably the best idea.

And once again a Panda saved the day. 

[mineblaster]

remember one  awesome card is better than two good cards and also you could save money getting one waterblock and keep power usage down (if it matters) sell ur old card and get a gtx 780. you could sell your old card for $250---->$300 and have $900 to spend then maybe water cool it if you can.

[Hecknologist]

There is also the option of getting a second 670 and a couple AIO's with NZXT g10 adaptors and avoid the custom loop but get better temps. Your problem then is space for the rads. Maybe one the rear and one in the roof (if you get 120mm rads)

[Guest]

Merged

[consoleconvergence2pc]

sell your 670 and get a 780 or if you have more money get a 780ti then watercool just the one card.

Then you can save money buy not buying a second gpu. gaining money from selling your existing gpu and also saving money from just buying one gpu block rather than 2 

[BiG PHiLL]

First of all, you have to tell us which resolution you're playing your games.

I have dual 670's 4Gb and they are very nice, however I bought them to play at 1440p. That means that you're probably fine with one 670 if you're on 1080p, for now. I wouldn't spend the money in this case, for now as it performs about the same as the newest 760.

In any case, if you want more fps, just buy a second 670 or go for the 780, selling your old card. Dual 670 out performs the 780 in raw fps, but you can be sensible to micro stuttering on the sli setup (which is getting a lot better due to lately nvidia drivers optimizations). 780ti maybe is too chuch for 1080p and has a not so good value in that scenario.

Now about the water cooling. You really have think about it, because today's high end air coolers are very efficient. That been said, you can spend the money on components that actually will make the difference in your gaming experience. Like on a nice ssd or a nice pair of headphones, or even a better GPU, for example. I have noticed that water cooling is almost like a hobby. It's nice, it makes things run quiet and cool, it looks awesome, however it's also expensive and takes a lot of time to do it and to all the maintenance that it requires. You won't feel that much of a difference in real experience while gaming.

Me, for exemple, I run a i7 930 @ 4.0ghz on air and my temps are under 65c under load on Brazilian's summer. So, for conclusion, I would put my money on components that I really can experience the difference, especially because we're always upgrading our rigs as better parts are launched every 3 months. If one doesn't pay attention, theses rigs can be like money drains...

[ddeuel]

Panda of the Shadow has already helped me make up my mind, I've decided to wait until I can find a gigabyte GHz 780 ti for sale, this is the card that I want. I thought I marked this topic as solved but people were still replying after that. I've already made up my mind to buy the one card and sell my old one. I'm only at 1080p but there are still a few games that a 780 ti can't get 60 fps in at 1080p ie modded skyrim, crysis 3 and many new games I'm sure. Even Luke on their review said that it wasn't overkill for 1080p and I game out of a couch in front of a 100 inch projected image so it's not like I can just upgrade monitors or add a second.

[ddeuel]

I dont think the windforce cards use a reference pcb as the 670 pcb is much shorter then the 680. If you want to watercool 2 670's you are going to have to sell yours (assuming you have a windforce) and buy 2 reference ones. I would look at getting a new single card such as a gtx780 and then watercool that down the track as the value for money is worse if you stick with the 670 upgrade route.

This is my opinion so feel free to critique/ignore.

Just to clarify I did some research on this before my post and I'm fairly certain that the windforce 670 uses a reference 680 pcb and can be used with any 680 block. This is confirmed by ek's cooling configurator at the very least. Anyway I decided not to watercool.

[ddeuel]

First of all, you have to tell us which resolution you're playing your games.

I have dual 670's 4Gb and they are very nice, however I bought them to play at 1440p. That means that you're probably fine with one 670 if you're on 1080p, for now. I wouldn't spend the money in this case, for now as it performs about the same as the newest 760.

In any case, if you want more fps, just buy a second 670 or go for the 780, selling your old card. Dual 670 out performs the 780 in raw fps, but you can be sensible to micro stuttering on the sli setup (which is getting a lot better due to lately nvidia drivers optimizations). 780ti maybe is too chuch for 1080p and has a not so good value in that scenario.

Now about the water cooling. You really have think about it, because today's high end air coolers are very efficient. That been said, you can spend the money on components that actually will make the difference in your gaming experience. Like on a nice ssd or a nice pair of headphones, or even a better GPU, for example. I have noticed that water cooling is almost like a hobby. It's nice, it makes things run quiet and cool, it looks awesome, however it's also expensive and takes a lot of time to do it and to all the maintenance that it requires. You won't feel that much of a difference in real experience while gaming.

Me, for exemple, I run a i7 930 @ 4.0ghz on air and my temps are under 65c under load on Brazilian's summer. So, for conclusion, I would put my money on components that I really can experience the difference, especially because we're always upgrading our rigs as better parts are launched every 3 months. If one doesn't pay attention, theses rigs can be like money drains...

Watercooling would have affected my gaming experience because two of these cards in sli would've been so close together in my MATX case that doesn't have good airflow and I would have had horrible fan noise and have underclocked gpus. I already decided though to not go for an sli setup. It doesn't seem like you fully read my post.