NVidia SLI on Windows - basic manual

[Vasudev]

add another 10-15W for case fans instead of 800W modular psu.

[humbert]

add another 10-15W for case fans instead of 800W modular psu.

The 720W PSU was already there, I installed it when I bought the first GTX-660 because the previous one didn't have enough power and kept crashing during games. When I installed the 2nd card I went out and bought the largest fans I could install, i.e., a 92mm fan in the back and an 80mm fan on the side.

When I'm not playing a game, the air coming out of the fans is just slightly higher than room temperature. It's much hotter when you're playing, a little like the heater in my room.

[Daniil]

@Humbert
Glad that your SLI works fine.
As about overheating - it's the same as with my pc case. I have a troubles with heat removal since my previous PC. I live in a small room, 12m², so even a dual Xeon heated it up well. Now AMD with 2 GTX-770 raise the temp for 3-5 degrees C up with easy. That's great at winter - when you came back from work, turn PC on, play a shooter for about an hour, and you can wear only underwear and T-shirt. But at summer that's a trouble.

I set up 2 fans (92 and 120 mm) on intake, and two 120 mm out on back (one 120 mm plus 120 mm PSU fan also works as out). They (and big cooler on CPU) allows keep the temp less than 65 under load.

Also, you can monitor the temperature of CPU and GPUs with SpeedFan.

[Vasudev]

Humbert there's a new card coming this Feb. based on maxwell called nvidia gtx 965. You could SLI cards for heavy price & buy 970 or 965 with lesser power consumption.

[humbert]

@Daniil - 12m² is no room for anything. Where is your bath and shower, and where is do you prepare food? Where you you put your heavy winter jackets and other clothes?

How big is your case that you were able to fit 92mm and 120mm fans on it? Did you cut holes or what?

You mentioned it's better in winter than in summer. That makes no sense. Obviously your place has heating or you'd freeze to death, which means the temp inside should be somewhere around 20°C. Even in summer I believe you said once A/C was unnecessary.

Speedfan won't read my fan speeds except for the CPU fan. I had to use the PSU's Molex connectors to power them. They didn't work when plugged into my mobo because its fan power has 4 pins and all fans I looked at had only 3 pin connectors. Fortunately they did have Molex power inputs, which I had to use. At least the temp does work.

[Vasudev]

This case can contain 3x120mm fans See Here

[Daniil]

@Daniil - 12m² is no room for anything. Where is your bath and shower, and where is do you prepare food? Where you you put your heavy winter jackets and other clothes?

You mentioned it's better in winter than in summer. That makes no sense. Obviously your place has heating or you'd freeze to death, which means the temp inside should be somewhere around 20°C. Even in summer I believe you said once A/C was unnecessary.

12m² is only my own room (where I sleep, study or so, and where my computers stand). I said, now I live with parents in a flat, so we have 3 bedrooms (each about 12 m2, one my and two other for parents), main room (kind of a living room, about 20m2) and also there is other rooms (kitchen, bathroom, storeroom).
Well, it's heating, but not enough. In Russia most part of heating is centralized, and all heating systems is old. So they doesn't work well. I mean, in heavy frost temp in a room is about +15, that's good but not comfortable. Troubles at summer is troubles only of my room. Our flat on 3-rd floor, and my room is close to slope of a roof. At summer roof heating on direct sunlight, and at night it starts to emit heat to air, specifically, to air near the ceiling of my room. Hot air circulation stopping, and room doesn't cooling well. (Sometimes I had hang a fan under ceiling, directed down to the door. It throwing hot air out of the room and cold air from other rooms comes to it place, cooling the room).

Of Course all of this does not go to any comparison with tropical heat in Texas, when temp of cpu under load is lower than temp of environment air.

How big is your case that you were able to fit 92mm and 120mm fans on it? Did you cut holes or what?

Speedfan won't read my fan speeds except for the CPU fan. I had to use the PSU's Molex connectors to power them. They didn't work when plugged into my mobo because its fan power has 4 pins and all fans I looked at had only 3 pin connectors. Fortunately they did have Molex power inputs, which I had to use. At least the temp does work.

I have Intel SC5275E case, it's full-tower case, so it have places for 92mm and 120mm from the factory.

Did you try? 3-pin fans connects to 4 pins without troubles (ofcourse you must connect it follow the plastic key on connector).

[humbert]

Here in my house I too have central heat and, just like with you, it doesn't circulate evenly. I solved that problem buy buying small electric heaters with a fan. I just move them around from place to place as needed. In summer the same situation exists. That's why I have standing fans that I move from one room to the next as needed. Can you do the same?

During summer can you open a window in your room to allow the heat to escape?

BTW, here in Texas the summer heat isn't tropical - it's desert heat which is hotter. Miami does have topical heat - the temperature on the thermometer is less but the humidity will kill you.

With my case fans I tried what you suggested before installing the Molex connectors and the fans did not come on. In fact there's even a slot on the connector to make sure you install it right. Even like that it didn't work. Only after installing it on Molex did it work. This is something I don't fully understand - why would Asus make a motherboard whose fan connectors aren't compatible with most of what's out there? I found no case fan with 4 pin connectors.

[Daniil]

Here in my house I too have central heat and, just like with you, it doesn't circulate evenly. I solved that problem buy buying small electric heaters with a fan. I just move them around from place to place as needed. In summer the same situation exists. That's why I have standing fans that I move from one room to the next as needed. Can you do the same?

During summer can you open a window in your room to allow the heat to escape?

Yes, I can and do. We have standing fans in each living room, in summer it's the only salvation. As about windows - yes, we can, but we prefer don't do this. It's old city center - narrow streets, lot of cars, smog, CO₂ well, you understand.

With my case fans I tried what you suggested before installing the Molex connectors and the fans did not come on. In fact there's even a slot on the connector to make sure you install it right. Even like that it didn't work. Only after installing it on Molex did it work. This is something I don't fully understand - why would Asus make a motherboard whose fan connectors aren't compatible with most of what's out there? I found no case fan with 4 pin connectors.

It's strange. I saw many ASUS motherboards (they are wide-spreaded here, 3/4 of my friends have ASUS mb-s in their PCs), and never faced such problems. We just plugging 3-pin connectors of fans to 4-pin and they started.  Maybe your case fan connectors are turned off in BIOS?

[humbert]

It's strange. I saw many ASUS motherboards (they are wide-spreaded here, 3/4 of my friends have ASUS mb-s in their PCs), and never faced such problems. We just plugging 3-pin connectors of fans to 4-pin and they started.  Maybe your case fan connectors are turned off in BIOS?

I think I'm doing something wrong somewhere, so let me explain what I did:

(1) My conclusion that it didn't work is based on connecting the fans to the motherboard pins, turning the board on and the fans not doing anything. I'm now thinking they kick in when the motherboard heats up. True? I should mention the socket on the fans has a slot to prevent an incorrect connection.

(2) My motherboard settings for Chassis Fans are:
Chassis Q-Fan Control                 ---   Enabled
Chassis Fan Speed, Low Limit     ---   600 RPM
Chassis Fan Profile                      ---  Standard

Am I doing something wrong? Other than this my board works perfectly