Best motherboard for 4x 7950s?

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jbreed

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May 6, 2013
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Like the title says. Trying to piece together my build.

Was originally deciding on going with the Sabertooth Z77, but read I would need 2 double GPU cards to run quad cards. I am wanting to run four 7950s for a brute force password application and litecoin mining when not in use.

Any suggestions? Price is not a concern.

Wanting to run a 3770K i7
 
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jbreed

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May 6, 2013
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Thanks

What about cooling? Forgot to mention this will have to be in a case. Will probably be buying a liquid cooling system. I could leave it open air, but it can't look like shit (LOL).
 
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Xenturion

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You can't run 4 Dual-Slot 7950's on that motherboard. If you look at the spacing of the slots, you can see that you'd only be able to get 3 cards on that board. You'll need an XL-ATX Motherboard, or an ATX motherboard where the bottom expansion slot of the 7 is a PCIe x16 connector. It's going to be tough to find a Z77 that supports 4 video cards, you may have better luck with X79.

Water cooling would be ideal, but not necessary. So long as you get a case with a nice sized side panel fan blowing over the video cards, you'll be fine going on air. If you're going to be doing brute force and bitcoin mining, you're going to have quite a lot of noise to contend with, which water cooling would help negate.
 
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groundrat

groundrat

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Liquid cooling is very expensive... mostly because it WORKS. If you want a closed loop CPU cooler I’d recommend a Corsair or Coolermaster. But those don't outperform a Noctua D14. A good server case with a few big fans will do the job of keeping it cool and protected. Look at a Thermaltake Level 10, a Rosewill Blackhawk Ultra, a Coolermaster HAF X, or a NZXT Switch 810.
 
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jbreed

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May 6, 2013
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Sweet. Thanks for the info. I never thought it would be this difficult to piece this together (properly).

So here is what I got. Fill me in if I am wrong.

X79 MOBO
i7-3930K
4x 7950s
Rosewill Blackhawk Ultra
Noctua D14
16G 2400 G.Skill memory


Would I need to run water tubes to cool the GPU's, or could the fans keep it cool enough?
 
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groundrat

groundrat

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With the Blackhawk Ultra... no, you will be able to keep them cool on fans alone. You realize this is a $2500+ build?

Please remember to not short the power supply. For this kind of build your looking at a 1000 Watt Seasonic 80+ platinum.

Last point... Promice: this build might be better served using Win server than Win 7.
 
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J

jbreed

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May 6, 2013
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Actually, I have a sheet showing $5000 lol

$430 : Asus Rampage IV Extreme X79
$570 : i7 3930K CPU
$1360: 4x 7950s
$190 : Case
$100 : CPU cooling
$60: cd/dvd-blu ray
$150: SSD for OS
$100: HDD
$170: memory
$1200: two dell U2711 27" 1440p IPS monitors
$120: keyboard/mouse
$170: colormunki
$50: random

Am I missing something?
 
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jbreed

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If it wasn't for the brute force application I could use for work I probably would not be building it. Also, if I am building it I should go ahead and build it for other purposes too.
 
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jbreed

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Completely forgot to add a power supply. How much watts would I need? Would a 1200W PSU be enough?

What would I need for eyefinity? I never heard of it before, but just did a quick google search. It looks pretty cool. I would just need to add another monitor?
 
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jbreed

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Also, the screens I am wanting are 60hz. I keep reading mixed reviews on 120hz vs 60hz 1440p. My wife is a photographer so I figured I would go with a higher gamut 1440p monitor, but if I decide to play games on this setup will there be any lagging?
 
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groundrat

groundrat

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A good 80+ platinum 1000 to 1200 watt will do nicely. Try to stick to Seasonic, Antec or Corsair.

With those four GPU's, you can run 6 monitors and you might get a little lag, but I doubt it.

Seriously, you just spec'd my dream system. I hope you don't mind me living vicariously through you.

If your gaming get Win 7 Pro or Ultimate 64 bit.
 
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groundrat

groundrat

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For Eyefinity you need two monitors connected with DVI or HDMI (either or) and one using an ACTIVE display port. The active adapters cost #$30 US versus the $15 for the passive ones. It basically turns all three monitors into one huge workspace. Right now my home resolution is 4320X900 and I play games seeing 180 degrees around me. No one sneaking up with a knife in BF3!

The big deal with 120hz monitors is that you can get frame rates over 60 hz. This makes some people sick. If you can go to an iMax film and not get sick it will not affect you. High frame rates are what gamers want. The higher the frame rate, the smoother the action.
 
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jbreed

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THANK YOU!

Looking forward to building this beast. A few guys at work were building computers as well so I might be looking into adding all of our workstations to a personal "cloud" for computing. I have no background in "clouds" so will have to start doing some research.

I already have a rack of Cisco devices that I have been using to study for CCIE. Might end up using my ASA 5510 and placing it between my border router this workstation. Possibly setting up a VPN so I can access it whenever. I don't think it is needed, but sounds cool. I leave all the cisco equipment powered off to save on my power bill. Plus, I have enough equipment to setup a decent size business with a whole network. I don't have any nexus equipment though, but they cost too much right now.
 
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groundrat

groundrat

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The only advice I have is to keep any and all proprietary information off the cloud. Once something hits the cloud it belongs to "everyone". Good luck and if you have any issues, please don't hesitate to post.
 
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