Unpgrade to dual graphics cards

[Guest]

Hi i was wondering if i could run dual e-Geforce 9600 gt cards on my computer. I have one 9600 gt to begin with and was wondering if i could get a second. My specs are windows xp, intel pentium 4 3.2 ghz, 2 gb of ram, 460 w power supply, and i have a dell xps gen 4 i'm pretty sure that my motherboard is a DP/N DH686 motherboard that comes with the computer. So would i be able to run a second card and is it worth it.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

If your motherboard supports SLi then go for it.

But you need to upgrade that CPU for yours.

 

[Guest]

do you think i have enough power to run both cards

 

[esquire468]

do you think i have enough power to run both cards

The specs for just one 9600 GT requires a 425 w psu with 28 amps on the 12V rail. You will probably want to upgrade to at least a 600w, preferably one that is SLI certified. Keep in mind you'll need one 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connector -or- Two 4-pin Molex supplementary power connectors, provided your card comes with an adapter, for each 9600 GT in your system.

Also, pay attention to the power supply's amps per rail. I prefer having a single rail. Check out this PC Power and Cooling 610w with 49 amps on a single rail. Not sure if that will do it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703005

Nvidia has a list of recommend psus based upon various SLI configerations. Granted, yours is a little older and not listed, but it will give you a good idea of what you'll need and what brands they recoomend.

http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_psu.html

 

[Upendra09]

I agree with Bluescreendeath, that pentium 4 is pretty fast but it isn't dual core. If u don't upgrade, then it could bottleneck the GPU performance

I would recommend a Core 2duo but a pentium dual core would work fine.

Good Luck

 

[frozenlead]

If your motherboard is socket 775, with a BIOS update and some luck, you might be in order for a core 2 duo. What's the chipset on that motherboard?

 

[Guest]

Best answer selected by mottongaba.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey