Hi Guys, Does anyone have any experience with p67/z68 motherboards which can fit 2 graphics cards (2 slot coolers) with a pci-e sound card comfortably? I've got my eye on the Asus Maximus IV Extreme (p67 or z68) but am happy to listen on any other recommendations if they fit the bill. This will all be housed in the FT02-RW and hope to get all 3 cards in with enough room so that heat/noise is manageable. Thanks, Zebedee101
I dont't have much experience with those boards, but i've been looking at them for my upcoming build. The only real advice I can give you is that you get gfx cards with reference coolers, or at least coolers that blow air out the back of the case, most cards that blow air downwards inside the case will be harder to cool in SLi and an extra occupied slot.
My advice would be consider getting a board like my P8Z68V-Pro, like a lot of boards it has a 1x PCIe in the first position near the I/O panel, this means that your sound card is well out the way. Having said that my board halves the lanes on 16x lanes with them both populated, so ultimately my advice is for two cards at full speed find a board that does not do this and has a pci-e 1x lane in the stated position.
Halved lanes aren't the end of the world are they as long as they are still 8x? Performance has always showed to be on par with x16 lanes. Whether this will change with pci-e 3 though I don't know. As long as there is enough spacing between them I will be happy. Thanks for the recommendation. Will look up that board. Sarneus - I agree that exhausting cards would be best, but I'm having difficulty identifying which cards/brands do. Is there a hard and fast rule to identify them?
General rule: The reference designs usually exhaust. In practice look at the coolers, from bit-tech the reference 560 ti against the MSI Twin Frozr 560 ti: As you can see the twin frozr's cooler has a very open design, the reference has not. The 560 Ti is not even the best example of this, a real exhuasting card will have turbine style blades mounted at the top of the card to force exhaust heat out the back like this: So for exhausting solution cards look for these traits.
Thanks for the pictures. Makes sense. Open design, air everywhere. Closed design, exhaust. Presumably closed design cards won't mind being sat closer together as much as open cards. Went over reviews of the Asus Maximus again and realised that it is capable of 3 way sli/xfire, so in theory there shold definately be enough room for 2 gfx and 1 sound card. Can't wait to get this build under way!
Oh dear - starting to doubt my motherboard decision again. Is it now safer/more future proof to buy a gen3 board to ensure compatibility with Ivy bridge & pci-e 3? Older boards like the maximus not likely to support it? Thanks again.
