9800gtx Power Supply/SLI/GPU advice?

[mangoose]

I have a 9800 GTX in my current system, and am trying to upgrade to a quad core. I am thinking most likely an i5 because of price, but maybe an i7 if it will improve it significantly (so far im not convinced). At any rate, I am wondering if I am going to need a different power supply and or video card if i want to set up SLI. My current Video card is here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150297
and my current Power Supply is here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182030

It says its SLI ready, but is only 550w, and only has 2 6-pin connectors. I have a converter from 4 to 6-pin, but am wondering if there will be a loss in performance because of this?

Sorry if these questions are somewhat elementary, but as new technology comes available, i am finding i dont know as much as i thought i did

Heres what i would like to know:
1. will i be able to find a video card to pair with my current one, and if so any suggestions?
2. will my power supply be able to support the increase in power demand of a quad-core system as well as a second GPU?

 

[Mousemonkey]

I would not use less than a good 600 - 650w PSU myself.

 

[jyjjy]

Yeah, SLIing 9800 GTXs on that PSU is not a good idea so it will need to be replaced.
I'm unsure but you may be able to SLI with a 9800 GTX+ or GTS 250 as they are the same card in many ways. Someone else should confirm/deny that however. If not ebay is probably your best option for finding another 9800 GTX.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Yeah, SLIing 9800 GTXs on that PSU is not a good idea so it will need to be replaced.
I'm unsure but you may be able to SLI with a 9800 GTX+ or GTS 250 as they are the same card in many ways. Someone else should confirm/deny that however. If not ebay is probably your best option for finding another 9800 GTX.

Chances are that won't work as the cards BIOS's will be different.

 

[jay2tall]

1) Your card is currently factory OCed. You would need to find another card just like it to keep that clock, unless you manually OCed it. You can still find 9800GTX+ cards which should work in SLI with yours.

2) No. Please do not take offense, but Rosewill PSU's are not really well know for their performance. Well they are actually know for being kinda crappy. It is <72% efficient and only has (2) 18A rails. Some of their newer higher end ones seem to be ok though. It is probably fine in your currently setup, but to be honest during an upgrade you may want to replace it, especially for a 2nd card. A GOOD quality 550W could handle (2) 9800GTX cards. But really to be on the safe side I'd be looking at a 600-700W PSU for that.

 

[mangoose]

Yeah, SLIing 9800 GTXs on that PSU is not a good idea so it will need to be replaced.
I'm unsure but you may be able to SLI with a 9800 GTX+ or GTS 250 as they are the same card in many ways. Someone else should confirm/deny that however. If not ebay is probably your best option for finding another 9800 GTX.

Yea, my issue is that my card has been discontinued! But I have heard you can pair it with another 9800 GTX maybe of a different brand, provided they have the same clock speeds. If this is the case, would i be better off starting from scratch with a new card (maybe a GTX 260, 275, 280, or 285) or trying to find another 9800 GTX? I am trying to have something that will do all my video editing and gaming on my tv (i run 1920x1200). Price is important, but I also dont want to buy a 2nd 9800, then decide that the 2 together are sub par and replace both later on...

 

[jyjjy]

You don't need the same brand. The only issue, as jay pointed out, is that your current card has a factory OC that you would need to duplicate on the new card but I doubt that will be particularly hard to do.
He is also saying a GTX+ should work. If so you can still find them new;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048%20106792522%201067942261&name=GeForce%209800%20GTX%2b

 

[jyjjy]

Also 2 GTXs should be pretty nice performance wise. Those cards you listed aren't going to be better. If you do want to just get a new card I'd recommend the new DX11 cards from ATI, not an old Nvidia card.

 

[mangoose]

Thanks to all for your input, and kudos to this forum for quick replies and helpful participants! After your comments and some research today, I think this will be my upgrade:

Current System:
Core 2 Duo 3.0Ghz Wolfdale (LGA 775)
Old Motherboard (Biostar
Rosewill 550w Power Supply
9800 GTX 512mb 256-bit card DDR3
4GB DDR2 800 RAM (Corsair XMS2)
1x1TB drive @ 7200
1x250GB drive @ 7200
42" Monitor @ 1920x1200

New System:
Core i5 2.66Ghz Lynnfield (LGA 1156)
New Motherboard (MSI P55-GD80)
Corsair 850w Power Supply ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009 )
2x 9800 GTX 512mb 256-bit card DDR3 (old card, plus another with identical stats)
4GB DDR3 1600 RAM (Corsair XMS3)
1x1TB drive @ 7200
1x250GB drive @ 7200
42" Monitor @ 1920x1200

If anyone see any glaring problems with this upgrade, I would very much appreciate any feedback, and thanks again to all who replied!

 

[Mousemonkey]

Chances are that won't work as the cards BIOS's will be different.

Disclaimer update: According to this it will work as long as the memory sizes are the same.