GTX 580 Lightning Extreme SLI question

[jjj651]

I am looking into buying the XE's but I just wanted to ask you guys if it's a recommended buy given my setup. From what I understand they exhaust all their hot air directly back into the case and I am planning to get two.

Do you guys think it is going to cause significant overheating problems in my NZXT Phantom? Would the two 200mm fans up top and the 120 in the rear be able to exhaust the hot air quick enough for sli?

I am planning to put a sound card or tv tuner card right under one of them so will that cause significant overheating problems for the 580? Because in that set up the sound card/tuner card will end up covering one of the fans on the 580.

I am also going to have a h100 cooling a 3930k right on top of it so I was wondering if the hot air exhausted by these cards would greatly affect the cooling of my processor since the h100 rad will be mounted right under my top 200mm fans.

If it's not a viable then I might EVGA 3GB 580's since those exhaust out of the case. But from what I've seen many people can only overclock the core to about 850 whereas the XE's will overclock past 900.

Any input would be appreciated.

 

[ilysaml]

The lightening using the Twin Frozer III technology in heat dissipation it's 20 C cooler than the ref card and 5.7 db quieter.
No way the 580s lightening would cause any problem, those GPUs gets 57C at full load , 31 C in IDLE mode, and with any decent case air folow you're more than fine, the majority of us using non reference design cards and no problem at all.

Just ensure there's a space between the 2 cards.

 

[jjj651]

Can I add a tuner card or sound card right under the Lightning Extreme? Because in that setup, one of it's fans will be blocked by the card. Would it cause it to overheat?

 

[Warmacblu]

A PCI card sandwiched between two GTX 580's may be an issue. I am sure your on-board sound will be good enough. I would rather have two GTX 580's and deal with on-board sound than a single GTX 590 and a sound card.

 

[ilysaml]

Can I add a tuner card or sound card right under the Lightning Extreme? Because in that setup, one of it's fans will be blocked by the card. Would it cause it to overheat?

What MOBo do you have ?

 

[jjj651]

What MOBo do you have ?

I am lookin at a rampage iv extreme. Do you think that I'll be able to add a tuner card and sound card without overheating? I will have two 200mm fans up top and a 120mm in the back for the exhaust of the hot air produced by the cards.

 

[jjj651]

A PCI card sandwiched between two GTX 580's may be an issue. I am sure your on-board sound will be good enough. I would rather have two GTX 580's and deal with on-board sound than a single GTX 590 and a sound card.

What if I use evga 580's? Those exhaust out the back.

 

[monsta]

Only the reference cards I believe exhaust out the back of the card and then again you might be restricting the airflow to the card with a pci card sandwiched in the middle of it.

 

[17seconds]

An excellent article comparing the heat characteristics of several GTX 580 models and their impact on the rest of the system components.
http://www.behardware.com/articles/840-1/roundup-a-review-of-the-super-geforce-gtx-580s-from-asus-evga-gainward-gigabyte-msi-and-zotac.html

MSI Lighting:
"The MSI Lightning is the best-cooled card overall in this report. In load however, it sends more hot air towards the bays and hard drives than most other cards."
"While there are no temperature problems, the readings do highlight a double record in terms of noise levels. First of all the MSI GeForce GTX 580 Lightning is the only GTX 580 that is truly silent at idle. Next, it's the noisiest card in load. With a rotation speed of 100%, it seems clear that MSI has calibrated its cooling system to keep the GPU temperature low at any cost."
http://www.behardware.com/articles/840-8/roundup-a-review-of-the-super-geforce-gtx-580s-from-asus-evga-gainward-gigabyte-msi-and-zotac.html

Reference (compare to the EVGA reference cooler):
"The reference GeForce GTX 580 is relatively well cooled given the GPU energy consumption levels."
http://www.behardware.com/articles/840-3/roundup-a-review-of-the-super-geforce-gtx-580s-from-asus-evga-gainward-gigabyte-msi-and-zotac.html

 

[ilysaml]

@OP
The MOBO you mentioned has plenty of PCIE slots, what TV tuner will you use ? the MOBO has only PCIE slots, anyway it will fit normally without a heat issues, even the 580 in SLI would be apart from each other.

 

[jjj651]

Only the reference cards I believe exhaust out the back of the card and then again you might be restricting the airflow to the card with a pci card sandwiched in the middle of it.

Would airflow be restricted even if I had the EVGA 580's? I mean the fan on those cpus are on the far end of the card. I don't really think a sound card or tv tuner card is long enough to cover the fan, or am I wrong?

 

[Warmacblu]

The eVGA cards may exhaust more hot air out of the back of the case but they aren't MSI Lightning Xtremes'. =)