NightSky 421 wrote:

"Nada" wrote:

Has any hardware site offered input on the power consumption for the SLI?
I mean, this just has to drink more juice than your average PSU can offer.


That's a good point. I don't know of any hardware sites who have
specifically spoken about power requirements, but a dual video card rig is
something that requires some thought ahead of time. It was OK in the
Voodoo2 days, but here in the 21st century, power consumption and heat are
major concerns. You're going to need a monster power supply and a case with
excellent all-round cooling. This is especially true since you aren't going
to see dual video cards to (much of) their potential unless you have a
high-end processor, which means even more heat.

Right now, I have a 2.8GHz Pentium 4 Northwood C with a 9800 Pro video card
and dual 120GB 7200RPM hard drives. Last summer was brutal running that
computer sometimes because of the amount of heat it was spewing out. I
shudder to think what it would be like with two current-gen cards with an
even faster processor. I think such a computer in the hot summer climate
would strictly have to be a basement computer.

Stability is going to be an issue when the heat waves arrive in warmer
parts of the globe. I'm sure they'll manage in Iceland, but in Texas
and other warmer sides of the planet have a hellova lot to deal with. I
have roundabout the same rig as you do with AMD Barton, and while I
didn't have any lockups during the peaks of summer, it didn't exactly
give me a peace of mind to think there was a sauna inside my Chieftec
tower. The Pentiums up in their +3GHz will have a heckova hard time
dealing with two SLI 6800GTs installed when the processor is already
having major workload coping with temperatures exceeding over 70 Celsius
with an average heatsink. I personally don't like the idea that my PC
is sweating like a sprinter after a race. If I'd install an SLI combo
right now, I'd go for the 6600GTs instead of their big brothers.

The hardware magazines and online services should take a closer look on
this issue, because it will most deifnitely give some the enhusiasts a
headache.