Your using the x1 slots? how much does that affect the mhash on the cards between the x16 slot and you are better off getting 4 more 5870's and another board or just get 6990's because you get a warranty on it having one of them break and not having a warranty...
No difference between x1 and x16.
One note through is that with the extenders try and get some with external power (4 pin molex) since most any board cannot deliver that kind of wattage unless specifically designed to do so...
What kind of extenders are those that have external power? The card gets 75W from the slot and everything else from the PSU. What I'm worried is having 4 cards each getting 75W from the mobo (4 slots). Which source has higher priority - the slot or the power connector?
Do you think it is wise to put 4x oc'd 5970 together in a case like this.
- Picture blocked so cant see, but in general it's not wise to put 4x 5970 in ANYTHING enclosed, only open setup. those are true monsters.
For the PSU I'm thinking of either
1x
Silverstone SST-ST1500 - No
or 2x
Corsair HX850 - Yes
the latter being one awesome PSU (I have 2 of these myself).
Do you think I might have any problems with
Gigabyte GA-770T-D3L which I currently use for 4x oc'd 5870.
Maybe not enough power coming through the PCI-X slots to the cards?
- Should be Ok.
I am running 2x 5970 on a crap mobo with a 1000watt coolermaster silent pro psu, rock solid OCed to 800mhz at 70degrees. You can easily OC it to 850 with a bit more work and trial/error and I seen people got it to run at 900 with voltage increase. One thing i notice is those cards do NOT like low memory clock, when I set it to 300mhz-400mhz as many people are suggesting they would constantly hang, once I set it to 500mhz no issues (same clock speed etc..)
Yes, the picture is of a completely open wooden frame where the cards have 5cm space between each and 3x CM Sickleflow 2000rpm are blowing from the top of the frame. With this setup my 4x5870 (960Mhz Core) are in the region of 65-75 degrees depending on the weather and the card. Currently with 16 Celsius outside they are around 69-70.
The thing is if I could buy 5870 for the price I paid 2 weeks ago I would go for them, but currently they sell for £200 which is too much.