Widescreen Gaming Forum

i take it you switched your mobo too? :)

bear in mind FSX isnt fully optimised yet, it might take some time :)

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1 x Antec Neo HE 550 (I'm betting this power supply will be enough)

A minimum of a 450W power supply is recomended for the 8800GTX ... is 550 going to be enough for two of them ?

Most of my gaming is car racing, GTL, GTR2, NFSU so can't comment much on the FPS games, I run mine with enough "eye candy" to look nice from the cockpit and it plays fine.

I like your choice of monitors :) as they are 2ms and native 1280x1024 60hz so perfect for TH2G.

I use mine 80% for video/sound editing so I spent the extra money on Raid 5 so I didnt loose any work, I'm sure the 8800-*** would be the way to go (hint- if Paddy has it thats the one to upgrade to)

taking a massive chance on that psu in my opinion. just remember if that pops under load how much will it take with it? you really need to be looking at the 700+ range surely. what do nvidia recommend for sli?

I read your comments and gave them a good thought. Eventually I will buy a certified dual GeForce 8800 GTX power supply but for the moment I have to use the Neo HE 550 and I'm actually curious to see if it works.

I think I'll be ok because:
1. A dual GeForce 8800 GTX system with a Core2Duo X6800 draws up to 462 Watts at full load according to this article at PC Perspective http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=332&type=expert&pid=10.
2. The Neo HE 550 delivers "its full rated power" according to Antec. With 85% efficiency it draws up to 632 W, which leaves a reasonable 170 W margin with the test.
3. I only have a Core2Duo E6700 which draws less power than the X6800 used in the test. This should compensate the increase in consumption due to switching motherboards (the nForce 680i consumes more than the Intel 975X).
4. Right now I'm using one 8800 GTX and one X1950XTX cards at the same time in my system, as well as 4 hard drives. No power problems! The final configuration will be two 8800 GTX and only 2 hard drives. The power difference between the 8800GTX and the X1950XTX is less than the power used by the 2 retired hard drives.
5. The Neo HE 550 has all the circuitry protection systems necessary to prevent damage in case of over/under voltage.

The only things missing were 2 PCI express (6 pin) connectors which Antec has generously sent me a few weeks ago. This is one of the nice things about a modular power supply.

I'll give it a try and I'll post the results here...

Cheers.

Hi,

After a long night (until 4 am) I'm posting the preliminary results of my new dual 8800 GTX system.

The Antec Neo HE 550 power supply is enough for two 8800 GTX, with a Core2Duo E6700, one nVGA nForce 680i SLI, one Maxtor IDE disk, and one DVD drive. This is a temporary solution, but it works. If you're building a dual 8800GTX system from the begging DON'T buy this power supply because it lacks 2 PCIe cables and leaves little power margin for extra peripherals.

The system runs hot! The graphics cards go up to 87°C! nVidia's security limit for these cards is a shocking 125°C! The system gets loud when all the ventilators spin up during stress testing. This is in contrast with my previous setup which was very quiet while also running one 8800 GTX. And I might have to add an extra large fan in the front.

The system scores only 8900 3DMark06 points with one card, and 9400 in SLI - very dissapointing. I had better results with one 8800 GTX card on the 975X chipset! I have to see why this is. Today I'll check all image quality settings, remove nTune, and update the chipset drivers.

Tomorrow I'm planning on installing the RAID0 set, Flight Simulator X, Matrox TripleHead2Go on a clean copy of WindowsXP.

Any ideas why the graphics benchmarks are so low?

I'll post the test results of Flight Simulator X in 3840x1024 with the above configuration.

Any ideas why the graphics benchmarks are so low?

No idea ... a clean system may help ... with a clean system I got (Specs below) ...

and I thought that wasn't good enough !

Hi Paddy,

My latest result is 12134 3DMarks06!!! No overclocking.

I'm happy now! This performance helps me forget the heat and noise of my dual 8800 GTX system :-)

I updated the chipset drivers, changed the 3D settings to allow the application to decide and cleaned the registry "run" hive. I'm not sure which one of these had the most impact, but what matters is the result.

The Matrox TripleHead2Go is now connected and running well. I'll install Flight Simulator X tonight and let you know what the results are.

High frame rates here I come!! :-)

My latest result is 12134 3DMarks06!!! No overclocking.

... now that is much better for your system ... 8) :D

I am very happy to find my old post being revived!
Just very glad to see all these new posts and inputs here.
Guys, Keep them coming! :D :D