Crossfire vs Single Stronger Card

[CrazyCoder]

Turns out the Radeon HD 7850 is fine and it's google chrome that is issue.

 

Anyways I got two paths to play Doom 4.

 

1) Buy a second Radeon HD 7850 used for $70

 

2) Buy a new card and sell off Radeon HD 7850. Someone has got a used GTX 780 for $150, which isn't much more then a GTX 950 or GTX 960.

 

Should be able to fit one 12' video card in, by removing Upper SSD/HDD Caddy. There is a 3.5 external bay too, not sure if I can remove without having to remove the guts first.

 

One of my concerns is ventilation, I have one 120mm fan near motherboard. Planning to add a front 120mm fan later on, once I order the long case fan screws. Side fans are worthless since 120mm would not be strong enough due to physics. (Top, Front or Back would be ideal spots). The top fan slots are too close to motherboard to mount, unless mounting on an angle. So basically the case maxes out at two 120mm fans.

 

If ventilation is major issue then I might consider a HAF series case, Cube shaped cases ect. I would prefer a case with fewer larger fans (140-230mm) vs many 120mm fans.

 

It all depends if the Ostrog case will not turn into a steam room with two cards or one higher end one.

 

 

Computer specs:

Enermax Ostrog Mid Tower (Black and White model)

OCZ ModxStream 600w Semi Modular dual rail (80 Plus)

I7 2600k

16gb RAM

120GB SSD

1TB HDD

DVD Drive

Radeon HD 7850 (single card)

ASUS P8Z68-V ATX Motherboard

Windows 7 Pro 64bit

[ChknFngr]

radeon rx480 will be out next week.

killer card for 199$

Edited June 21, 2016 by ChknFngr

[Predat0r]

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO AMD   jk

[USMale]

read up on this coming and it's a great deal & card!! PS I use two R9 285 in Crossfire & love it to death!

As far as a great case & only case u'll ever need. Try this for only 129.00 @ Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Obsidian-750D-Performance-Tower/dp/B00EB6O4N8

Edited June 22, 2016 by Male

[fireurza]

up the card memory. that is where you will get your most bang.

[HellTiger]

A GTX 660 would be an upgrade over your HD 7850 so the GTX 780 would out perform your crossfire setup so I favor the GTX 780.

 

As far as a nice case I recommend the Fractal Design R5 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16811352050 The case only comes with 2 fans, 120MM front and rear. You can mount a fan or a couple fans anywhere on the top of the case. The case is very solid and functional. It also has noise dampening material on the sides, front, and top of the case. It has dust filters on the front and bottom of the case that are easily removed to clean out the dust. It is the best midsized case I have ever owned

[KaptCrunch]

wasting  time  on

P8Z68-V   witch is pci-e V2

 

​note when going CF/SLi with intel need to have a 40 lane CPU  to get the most out of hardware and pci-e V3

 

so no stutering

Edited June 22, 2016 by KaptCrunch

[KaptCrunch]

SSD  950 Pro Samsung  V-NAND-based NVMe SSD supports PCI Express® Gen 3 x4 lanes,

 

 16 (CPUs operate at 16)
(20 lanes on Z170 chipset)
(16 lanes on H170 chipset)

 

so whats left when 28 CPU = 12 lanes with SSD is 8

 

40 lane after CPU has 24 lanes  with SSD 20 lanes

[CrazyCoder]

Forgot to mention one of the PCI-E slots is used by WIFI card. I'll go single powerful card route. Will wait to see what RX 480 has to offer. Overall the specs seem worth the price, at the very least to should drive down cost of last year models.

 

What are you thoughts on a cube shaded case? I don't plan to use many 5.25 external drives. Maybe a Fan Controller + Supermulti drive. No need for 3.5 floppy/card reader already got usb card reader/writer. If I'm going to go through the whole disassembly and reassembly route, might want to have outstanding airflow. Cube cases seem to offer more 140/200mm fans, plus they are not too high height wise.

 

A few cases I have been looking into: Thermaltake Core X5, Corsair Carbine Air 540, HAF XB. I'd probably pick HAF XB out of those three, cheaper and almost as good as Core X5. Then again if Air 540 was the right price I wouldn't rule it out, would put in a card reader instead of sideways DVD drive though.