Best Answer: For SLI you will need 2 or 3 of the same card, the manufacturer doesn't matter (it can be all xfx or an evga, a pny and a bfg). But they need strictly to be the same model.
A 3-way sli motherboard is much more expensive than a non-sli motherboard.
The power supply for a 9600gt sli system will be the same of a single higher-end one.
I recommend a single high-end video card rather than a 2-way or 3-way 9600 sli. 3-way sli doesn't mean you will have 3x the performance of a 9600gt. For example you see 100% performance with a single 9600gt, adding a second one in sli you will see 130%-140% performance, and adding a third one you will see 145%-150% performance (or no performance improvement).
Also, not every game support sli and you will see no performance improvements in some games or desktop crashing.
If you buy a single geforce GTX 275 or GTX 260 you will see even more performance improvement than a 3-way 9600gt sli.
About the cost, you will need the same PSU for a single high-end video card or a 9600gt sli. Besides that the 9600gt sli will need a sli capable motherboard so the cost between a GTX 260 or 275 and a 9600gt sli will be almost the same.
Re:Time to send the PC back to Monarch, bud! Sounds to me like an SLI hardware problem, which probabaly indicates some underlying mobo problems. I personally don't like Monarch, as they failed my 25 point question when I built the rig in my sig. I asked 15 different PC companies the 25pt questionaire and Monarch really disappointed me when we got down to almost doing business. I doubt it is the power supply from the data you provide, but it does sound like it is either a mobo problem or your video cards are massively overheating under SLI mode… What are your temps under full load? That can indeed cause the crashes you describe. How is your case and cooling situation? I hope Monarch gives you quicker support than they give many.
Re:I don't have a multimeter but the voltages in my BIOS are plenty strong and consistently well above the voltage rates per rail.
I have a Thermaltake case that has 6 fans in it as well, and the front panel controls which lists the speeds the fans are running at and you can adjust them etc. Would this draw a lot of power from the PSU?
I'd think a 535W PSU should be adequate for the hardware I have, but maybe it's not. I might pick up the OCZ 600 powerstream and see if that solves anything but it's gonna be a messy rewire job.
I did flash update the BIOS to 414-2 per someone's suggestion on another forum but that didn't solve anything.
The system passed 12 passes of memtest last night prior to my 15000th reinstall of Windows under the new BIOS. I just wanted to be sure. Overnight I ran 8 hours of Prime and it passed that too. I'm reasonably sure it's not the memory.
Re:It really sounds like some sort of driver issue since it works fine in anything but SLI. You may also want to try a bios update if one is available for your motherboard and see if there are any updated chipset drivers for your motherboard. Not sure how to check this, but if both cards are on the same 12v rail, it might be too much for the power supply.
Re:Just send the system to me. If it works, I'll keep it. If it doesn't, I'll send it back.
A faulty PSU would be one of my fist guesses. It could also be faulty memory. Try a few dozen passes of memtest86 overnight.
Re:Do you have a multimeter to test your voltages? If not, can you list the voltages showing in your BIOS for your 12v, 3.3v, and 5v (or in Windows, I suppose)?
I'm not a fan of dual rail PSUs. Not that they're bad or anything… I just don't know how the builder hooked it up. How is everything plugged in, etc?
I would test out a different PSU if you have one.
Re:Couldn't wait and called the wife — system that I left in HL2 had crashed. So apparently plugging in the unplugged power rail hasn't stopped anything.
Reports I'm getting from other forums also suspect the power supply. I just don't see how that can be, but hell, maybe it is.
Re:I'll be sure to pick up all of those on the way home.
Heh sorry for the pessimism, its just the way my luck has gone with this machine the past week — I find the one thing that I feel like I had yet to uncover and it may not make a difference. We'll see in about an hour.
Re:Originally posted by: guy
I'm kinda not banking on it though…
Now now. What kind of attitude is that? Lemme know how it goes, 'cuz I've got some other ideas. Do you have access to a live chicken? Good. It hasn't been exposed to lead has it? Good. Any astroglide? Good. You're also gonna need a bicycle pump (one that can reach 120PSI) and one of those big sausages from a deli.
Re:You were right — the FDD one was not connected! It is hidden unbelievably well, granted, but I can't believe a system builder as experienced as Monarch would overlook something like this, particularly on a shipped SLI system.
Of course it remains to be seen whether or not it will fix my issues — I connected it, rolled back my video card BIOS to 02.28 (which is what it shipped with), and restored my drivers back to 71.89 (76.xx was causing crashing in Windows with the high pitched noise emanating from the system even after I plugged in the rogue power connector). I loaded up HL2 and went back to work — if I come home and the system is still up, I will be very pleased. I'm kinda not banking on it though…
Re:here you go (http://www.{$MySite}/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2337&p=3)
One is right next to the NB fan near the top center.
The FDD one is almost smack right in the middle of the board… to the lower right of the CPU socket.
I'm not saying that this is your problem, just that it *could* be. A few of the things you point out in your post make me think "power".
Re:I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking for when I look for these. Just about everything on my motherboard that looks like a power plug has something plugged in to it. I'll check this ASAP though, once I know what I'm looking for. Perhaps I can find a link to the board layout.
Re:One problem with prebuilt is that you personally didn't get your hands in there and do it, paying close attention to every step along the way. How can we trust that the builder hooked everything up correctly? For example, the DFI board has 2 power connectors on the board itself (one HDD-type connector and one FDD-type connector) that aid in the stability of the board when running SLI (as well as better overall stability in general).
This would be one of the first things I would check.
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