MEGA BUILD Quad sli + PhysX?

[sgtopmobile]

Hello everyone, I am going to buy a work station, i already selected the pieces i need to build it, i will mostly use it for work (3D Rendering, some photoshop and MOST importantly PROGRAMMING, i am a PC lover since i have memory, i am also a old-school gamer (counter strike and Quake3) i DO NOT need a lot of raw power in my pc BUT,since money is not a problem, my son is a bit pushy and wants a high-end PC to play when i am not using it, and i am a pc lover, i am going to build a pc that i would not need to upgrade for 4 years, but i need your help.

I selected a i7 2600k CPU and a asus maximus IV mobo, the mobo has enough pci-e ports to fit 4 GPU`s so at first i wanted to get a quad sli setup, i was going to get 4 GTX 580, but what about a PhysX card? so i am planing to buy 2 GTX 590 and with the extra space get a GTX 580 for PhysX, i WILL overclock the GTX 590`s (i will water-cool them) to almost match the performance of 4 GTX 580`s, but anyway, is it even possible to combine a Physx card with a quad sli setup? will the drivers support it?

Thank You

 

[jmsellars1]

Assuming you have a single monitor @ 1920x1200 or less, any of those setups would be massively overkill. It would cost a lot of money and just run really hot and noisy without actually having any noticeable difference in performance. I think something like 2 x GTX 570 would be more than enough for one monitor @ 1080P, even for the next 4 years to be honest.

 

[Outlander_04]

I would sugest buying your son a gaming computer with a a sensible graphics card set up
maybe 560 ti's in sli
a 2500 k
etc

and build yourself a computer that you can be in the same room with without wearing earmuffs so you dont go deaf
Im pretty sure your work experience will be somewhat better if you can hear yourself think

 

[jmsellars1]

That's an even better idea, for the $2000 it would cost just to buy the 4 GTX 580's you could build a great PC including monitor/keyboard/speakers. You would then have the bonus of keeping your workstation quiet as mentioned above.

I just added up this kind of build at around $1700:

i5-2500k
8GB Ripjaws X
ASRock Z68 Extreme3
2 x EVGA GTX 570
Corsair TX-750
HAF 922
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
Samsung 27'' 1ms Monitor

That would still be less than $2000 if you added OS, DVD burner and a decent set of speakers or a headset.

 

[calinkula]

Buying 2 computers would be a better idea if you are talking that much money. Your son won't be bugging you to get off the computer so he can play games.

I bought a second PC for my wife for the very same reason.

 

[sgtopmobile]

oh god, how could i have forgotten noise.... Zhitt, well i wanted to get 3x 3D monitors, i need 2 for my work (not 3D) and for gaming 3 is the right number and 3D is a nice plus... well, i guess i would not buy the pc i wanted since a low noise level is really important for me...hell you know what? i will buy 2 pcs like the one listed by jmsellars1 the only diference will be that the work station will have only 1 GTX 570 w/ 2 monitors and my son`s pc will have 2 GTX 570 w/ 1 monitor and i will add 2x 120GB Corsair GT SSD in raid 0 to my workstation... thats it!

OOOOOH I ALMOST FORGOT.... IS IT POSIBLE TO DO THE GPU`S COMBINATION I WANTED?? 2x GTX 590 (4 GPU`s in quad-sli) + a GTX 580 as a PhysX card????




GUYS...REALLY, THANK YOU!!

 

[guavasauce]

No, good sir, its not.

not because of any resaerch i did, but because my opinion on that card for physx and physx in general would not allow me to sleep peacefully at night if that card (or the money itself) was wasted in physx.

but really, if you had 4 gpu's in sli, physx would still take but a small portion of a single card.

 

[jmsellars1]

That PhysX idea might work I'm not sure, as the previous post says though I doubt it would be worth it.

 

[sgtopmobile]

thank you all for your replies, i just made my mind up and i ordered 2 pc like this one http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/saved/1DGR2D .

 

[hunuok]

A good "common sense" build IMO.

A couple of tips:

1. If running SSDs in RAID, you will get good performance but you won't get TRIM. This will degrade performance over time. I had to format my RAID setup after 3 months and ended up disabling RAID altogether.
2. EVGA is top notch brand. They have excellent service and they have a 90 day step up program. If you are watercooling, make sure the cards are reference designs as most water blocks support reference only. EK have non reference water blocks but they recently had a Nickel plating issue. Also, the extra VRAM on your cards will help with multi-monitor gaming performance .

Good luck with your build.

 

[guavasauce]

yes, no trim for now, but there is still OEM garbage utilities for raid set ups to combat this.

 

[photonboy]

Gaming and graphics:

1. Micro-stuttering due to multiple GPU's. Read this:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-stutter-crossfire,2995.html

2. A GTX560Ti can max out most games all by itself. I recommend this or a GTX570, then swap for a different card in a year or two if you need better performance?

3. New graphics cards:
- AMD Q4 2011 (high-end not until Q1 2012?)
- NVidia Q2 2012
*the new graphics cards use the 28nm process for the GPU. Overall card power is expected to be HALF that of previous cards. NVidia in particular is adding better support for multiple monitors. Both should improve AA, Tesselation and other things. I believe NVidia is coming out with PhysX Version 3 which I think requires a 600 series graphics card, the PhysX software update, AND a game which was created with PhysX version 3 (none yet). This is the one thing almost forcing me to go with NVidia (PhysX currently is no big deal).

4. PhysX
They extensively tested PhysX with various card combinations and discovered something SHOCKING:
- if you use a second NVidia card for PhysX overall game performance was LOWER than that of the main card by itself. The only situation they found that was "better" was pairing a GTX580 with a GTX570. And why would you do that? You wouldn't. So, no second card for PhysX and SLI/Crossfire causes micro-stutters. Awesome. The answer is something like a GTX680 or better using a single GPU.

4. Drive setup I use:
a) 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 (or Agility 3) for Windows and programs. (non-RAID)

b) 2TB Western Digital Green hard drive for games, backups and multimedia. (I have "STEAM" and "GAMES" folders on my 2TB drive. I manually install non-Steam games to the "GAMES" folder and the "STEAM" folder I never touch after initially setting up Steam there (i.e. "E:/Steam").

Other:
- non-stock CPU cooler (about $40. See NCIX)
- two, 500-800RPM case fans (slow and quiet)
- PSU (estimate wattage using on-line calculator; estimate Amps by getting at least 1.25x the Amps that the graphics card requires. For the +12V rail. i.e. if a GTX570 needs 38Amps I'd get a PSU with at least 48Amps.)

 

[sgtopmobile]

@photonboy i have plans for the 4 GTX 570 i bought (2 for each build) i will sell them to my brother in law in a about 8 months if i like the next generation GPU, of it their REALLY improve performance, i usually refresh my builds every 2 - 3 years, i am upgrading from i7 920.