SLI PC components configuration help needed

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mapocian

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I have little knowledge about SLI rigs and I am attempting to upgrade my aging PC.
Components I want to keep from current configuration are:
ASUS NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/ENGTX560_Ti_DCII2DI1...
Corsair GS600 http://www.corsair.com/en-gb/gs600w
Arctic Freezer 13 CO http://www.arctic.ac/eu_en/freezer-13-co.html

I also have 6GB DDR2 RAM (4 chokes) but this seems to me to be not worth it.

I want to add identical GPU but I have no idea which Motherboard/CPU/RAM (size & type) should I choose?
My main aim is to squeeze out maximum performance out 2xGTX560TI's but in the future I might replace them with a single more powerful GPU.
Based on what I dug up in google my current PSU should (just) manage?

I have 300-500 Euro budget to spend on this upgrade and it must also include new case as the current one is to small. It is possible to spend a bit more if it makes sense.

Thank you for any suggestions.
 
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Mousemonkey
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Somber

Somber

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Its a little overbudget but this is a powerful build. This will last you years

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/fDNpNG
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/fDNpNG/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£167.50 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI Z97-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£94.99 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£35.94 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card (£239.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£30.25 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£9.98 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £578.65
 
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DonkeyOatie

DonkeyOatie

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You will need to replace your PSU as well. the GTX560ti needs two 75W 6 pin connectors for power, for a total of four, and I think your PSU has only two. In addition, since your GS600 has some years on it and it's primary capacitors have lost some of their 'goodie', two 560tis is probably too much, and if not will hasten your PSU's demise.

Somber's suggestion seems to make a lot more sense. If you choose a GTX 970 that needs only two 6 pin power feeds, you can even use your existing power supply and the GTX 970 is no more demanding than your 560ti
 
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Mousemonkey

Mousemonkey

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Having run SLi'd GTX560Ti's on an even older HX620w PSU for a couple of years using molex adapters I think/know you are incorrect in your assumption that the OP needs a different PSU.
 
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DonkeyOatie

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I know it's possible and mentioned that it might work. I'm not going to recommend it. Two 560tis could pull up to 400W at full song, plus 100 for the basic system, that's too much for me to recommend on that PSU. If the load is lighter and the use easier, it will do better. Using the Molex introduces a little more loss and heat into the system.

Upgrading suggests the the OP plans to increase the load. Your experience does not change my advice, but does provide the OP with an alternative view.

Your HX620 is Seasonic and has 50C caps.
His CG600 is CWT and has 40C caps.

That's a significant difference.
 
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mapocian

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You did not include any RAM memory. Do you think that RAM I have in place is enough for this configuration?
I guess I could stick with my old GPU for a while and upgrade it to GTX 970 4GB later- total spending is somewhat more than anticipated.
I was looking at Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 7 motherboard. Any opinion about this one compared to the one you recommended?
Thank you for taking time to research all above components, it is greatly appreciated!
Thank you for very informative replay.
 
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Mousemonkey

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An alternative view that is based on what? I was running two OC'd 560Ti's for more than a couple of years and for the vast majority of that time they were folding (which means they were running at 99 - 100% usage) and they were not consuming no 400w so where did you get that nonsense from?
 
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mapocian

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Thank you both for your opinions.
Just to add more info on the topic- I bought this PSU about a year ago (new) so I guess it should be in good nick considering that it is powering low speck configuration (GPU is the most advanced component).
 
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Mousemonkey

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My HX620 was bought in 2005 and in 2012 it was still capable of running SLi'd GTX560Ti's and today at this moment it is powering SLi'd GTX660Ti's, so I reckon you'll be OK.
 
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DonkeyOatie

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Here http://www.geeks3d.com/20110125/tested-asus-geforce-gtx-560-ti-directcu-ii-top-1gb-review/7/
Here http://www.geeks3d.com/20110207/asus-gtx-560-ti-dc2-gpu-overclocking-vddc-voltage-clock/2/
Here http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/356704-33-power-supplies
 
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DonkeyOatie

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I agree. If it's that young, it will do if you are not doing anything extreme.

I'd still suggest you look at the more modern build. That build will require more modern memory sooner or later.
 
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Mousemonkey

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160w for the "normal" 560Ti, the 448 is a different beastie altogether and may not be the one(s) the OP has.
 
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DonkeyOatie

DonkeyOatie

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You are right there but:


[Tested and Burned] ASUS GeForce GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II TOP Review




ASUS ENGTX 560 Ti DirectCU II TOP Review Index

1 – ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II TOP: Presentation
2 – ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II TOP Features
3 – ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II TOP OpenGL performances
4 – ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II TOP Direct3D performances
5 – ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II TOP Gaming performances
6 – ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II TOP DirectCompute performances
7 – ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II TOP Power consumption and overclocking
8 – ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II TOP Conclusion



7 – ASUS GeForce GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II TOP Power consumption and Overclocking

ASUS GeForce GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II TOP, FurMark 1.9.0


UPDATE
More overclocking here: (Tested) ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II GPU Overclocking Session: GPU reaches 1000MHz.



For the power consumption and overclocking test, I used the upcoming FurMark 1.9.0 (still not released due to a little lack of time but it should be there shortly! –already seen somewhere…). The graphics workload in the new FurMark 1.9.0 has been slightly increased, leading to more power consumption (few watts in more). But this extra graphics workload can make the difference with high overclocking settings.

The total power consumption of my testbed in idle with the GTX 560 Ti is 100W.

As I said in the first part of the review, GTX 500 power monitoring hardware (see here: GeForce GTX 580 Power Monitoring Details)
is an optional feature on GTX 560 Ti. ASUS has decided to not implement this power monitoring hardware on its custom GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II TOP. And honestly it’s a good choice, especially for a card with high quality components (chokes, capacitors, MOSFETs) like this one.

I say that ASUS has not implemented the power monitoring hardware but actually I have no confirmation of this fact. I base my assumption on my FurMark tests. But I’m sure that ASUS has tweaked or removed this power monitoring hardware because of the power consumption of the card: around 225W for the card alone with default clocks when FurMark 1.9.0 is ruuning.



With default GPU clock speed (900MHz), the total power consumption of the testbed stressed by FurMark 1.9.0 is 351W for a max GPU temperature of 78°C (FurMark settings: 1920×1080, fullscreen, Burn-in mode, dynamic background, no AA, no postfx).

Hey, just a detail: ASUS’s DirectCU II VGA cooler is a great product and GPU temperature at idle does not exceed 33°C. Really nice!

The reference clock of the GF114 is 822MHz. There is already a factory overclocking of +78MHz. Let’s see if we can go further.

FurMark 1.9.0, GPU core: 900MHz, Vcore: 1.025V, Total power consumption: 351W, GPU temp: 78°C
FurMark 1.9.0, GPU core: 940MHz, Vcore: 1.025V, Total power consumption: 360W, GPU temp: 80°C, stable in Burn-in test, stable in Xtreme Burn-in test
FurMark 1.9.0, GPU core: 950MHz, Vcore: 1.025V, Total power consumption: 362W, GPU temp: 80°C, stable in Burn-in test, UNSTABLE in Xtreme Burn-in test
FurMark 1.9.0, GPU core: 960MHz, Vcore: 1.025V, UNSTABLE in Burn-in test, UNSTABLE in Xtreme Burn-in test



Then without tweaking the GPU voltage, the max stable GPU clock is 940MHz (or +118MHz compared to the reference clock). And I’m sure that with a little boost of the GPU voltage, we can increase again the GPU clock speed (up to 1000MHz?).

We can the calculate the power consumption of ASUS’s GTX 560 Ti with default GPU clock. The Corsair AX1200 PSU has an efficiency factor of around 0.9 (see this article, there is a graph of the AX1200 efficiency).
P = (351-100) * 0.9
P = 225 watts

225W is rather far from the TDP of 170W. It’s normal. The TDP is not the max power consumption of the card and ASUS’s GTX 560 Ti is already overclocked. Then a GTX 560 Ti with an overclocked GPU stressed by FurMark can exceed without problem 220 watts.

and I said 'could'. Even 2 x 170W is 340, plus 100W for bits and bobs, is 440.

Now I know the OP's PSU is only a year old, I'm less concerned. As I mentioned above, your HX is quite a bit better then the OP's GS.
 
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Mousemonkey

Mousemonkey

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Furmark places an unrealistic load on the GPU which is why both AMD and Nvidia consider it a "heat virus" and as such Nvidia have measures in place that throttle the GPU back if Furmark is detected as running which then makes any "test" null and void. Look it up if you don't believe me.
 
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mapocian

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@ Mousemonkey & DonkeyOatie
Thank you guys for plenty info. Based on this and with cost in mind I think I am going to stick with what I already have.
The questions I still have is it make sense to go SLI with GPU I have or go with Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card as Somber sugested?
Which makes more sense: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 7 or MSI Z97-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard?
Is it realistic to expect that my current RAM can cope for a while or should I change it? If the later do you have any suggestions on what?

Thank you.
 
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mapocian

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This is some food for thought. I am going to crunch some numbers and decide. Thanks
Any input on motherboard and RAM dilemma?
 
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Mousemonkey

Mousemonkey

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Hardly a dilemma, for motherboard I would suggest thinking about whether you want to run more that one card and if so get one that has appropriately spaced PCIe slots and as for RAM just get the best that you can afford that will work in whatever motherboard you choose to go with.
 
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mapocian

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Assuming I am going for SLI configuration (if not now in the future) which one of the two mentioned above? Something different altogether? And what kind of RAM specifically to go in pair as an example?
 
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Somber

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It is always better to run one single Powerful GPU rather than 2 weaker ones. Alot of games are not configured to run 2 GPU's plus its just less hassle. With the ram 8gb is what you need i thought i added that but i guess i didnt. If you really want a good computer buy things that are future proof meaning you wont need to upgrade in a year. The build i showed, the GPU is brand new, came out a month ago. The i5's are great cpu's that arent going out of date anytime soon. 8 gigs of ram, 1tb of room is suffecient for most gaming needs, and the mobo is a great z97 if you ever decide to OC.
 
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Somber

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And about the Mobo's the gaming series is really only paying for the name, its not smart to go with a crazy expensive mobo. Yes it has some features but i doubt anyone really uses them. You want a reliable mobo at a good price. The one i suggested has good reviews and is sli compat.
 
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Mousemonkey

Mousemonkey

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Really? SLi'd 560Ti's were more powerful and cheaper than a single GTX580 and SLi'd 660Ti's were cheaper and more powerful than a single 680 so that blows that "theory" away and I have found that MOST AAA titles support SLi on the day they are released, yes there are a couple of exceptions but for the most part SLi is really well supported.
 
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