multi system hardware use/configuration

[MindCrime]

Since I've joined SUSA i've collected a bit of hardware, nothing to the point of some of our members but more than I can personally use. I guess a little back story...

Last winter TankMaster made me an amazing deal on a highend ivybridge setup, the only issues were it needed an OS and that the 7970 wasn't working. I bought a used 7970 for it, and it runs well but loud and very hot on double precision. It's been really good on poem. It also has two rather slow and small HDDs, no SSD.

Specs:
3770k 4c/8t
Asus Maximus Extreme z77
7970 ghz
16gb ram
corsair 750watt gold
2xslow hdds

My personal rig:
3570k 4c/4t
asus sabertooth z77
r9-270x
16gb ram
corsair 650watt
1xSSD
1xHDD

Right now i feel like the 270x isn't enough for some of the games/settings I want to play. The 7970 is way too loud to use in its current form in personal rig. I bought an Antec h2O 650 closed loop cooler to mod the 7970. Question is: if all goes well with the mod results do I move it into personal rig? Is the power supply enough? Should I just rebuild the systems, combine the parts of the two into the best personal config? If i did that I would pretty much have to reinstall everything on both. This almost feels rhetorical and just trying to think out loud but any input would be great.

[scole of TSBT]

Ivybridge only supports 16 PCIe lanes. If you put both GPUs in one Z77 system, each will only get 8x lane speed assuming it's even wired to give the 2nd slot 8x speed and not 4x speed. Not sure the difference between 16x speed and 8x speed is huge, but there is a difference. Just depends on the project. Einstein is sensitive to that. Other projects not so much. Also, if you have trouble keeping the GPU temps low enough with one installed, it gets much tougher with two.

Will that Antec fit a 7970? There are solutions for a 7970 like this...http://www.arctic.ac/us_en/accelero-hybrid-7970.html

On 2nd look, those mobos should support 8x on both if both used.

And if you think Milkyway is heavy, run that 7970 on Moo! Wrapper. I had to downclock mine to keep temps reasonable.

[MindCrime]

Will that Antec fit a 7970? There are solutions for a 7970 like this...http://www.arctic.ac/us_en/accelero-hybrid-7970.html

I'm doing something dubbed as "the red mod" over at overclock.net, "the green mod" for nvidia cards. It's pretty much just throwing closed loop coolers on gpus with zip-ties/brackets/custom hardware.

I wasn't planning on putting them both in the same machine but swapping out my main rig's gpu for the 7970. And if my power supply in the main rig isn't enough I might as well just switch rigs to the 3770k build, transfer the ssd/hdd, and leave the 270x and 3570k in the crunch closet...

I've already come to a stopping point on the cooler mod, the 7970 has a raised bezel around the gpu nearly flush with the gpu thermal surface. It's come to my attention that you need to use a copper shim to ensure your cooler isn't mounting against the bezel instead of the gpu itself. Frozen CPU sells it for about 4 bucks but I can't check out of their store. EK water block sells it too but it costs nearly 20 dollars in shipping and minimum order is 10 Euro.

And if you think Milkyway is heavy, run that 7970 on Moo! Wrapper. I had to downclock mine to keep temps reasonable.

Yeah I dabbled with Moo on it shortly after I got it and it errored out quite a bit until, either it or i selected a profile/app i did notice that the gpu vcore was down a good few tenths as well but so far nothing runs hotter on it than maxed out milkyway up around 80-87c depending on ambient.

[Al]

Yeah I dabbled with Moo on it shortly after I got it and it errored out quite a bit...

Moo! error out??? I've never seen that before. Moo! doesn't check anything. I had a nasty 5970 that error everything out on the back processor, except Moo! Weird!