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10255
September 27th, 2010 17:00
compatible power supply?
Hello, just bought the new Alienware Area-51 and am already looking to upgrade.
I'm choosing the stylish "Deep Space Black" chassis, and they won't sell me a 1.1KW power supply (or a second gtx 480) unless I select the ugly faux-brushed silver "Lunar Shadow" chassis. As a smoker (might quit soon ) I know this surface stains quickly. At 4000$ a unit I want to like it's appearance - however superficial this makes me.
I plan to put in a second Nvidia gtx 480 card running in SLI and will need to get more juice to run it.
What I was wondering was will these choices be compatible with my new system? They are from local stores so I can get 'em quickly..
GRAPHICS CARD ~ http://www.mysterybyte.com/part/16317/
POWER SUPPLY ~ http://www.mysterybyte.com/part/16015/
I will be choosing the 'stock' Nvidia GTX 480 sold with my Area-51 as my starter reference card. I know the cards don't NEED to be the same brand for SLI to work, but I read there are some factors that might cause it not to work.
markshaheen
2 Intern
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372 Posts
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September 28th, 2010 14:00
Do you have the 1k P/S? I might be wrong but I htink it will run both cards. 3 cards, not a chance, 2 it might just work. Anyone know out there for sure?
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
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56.9K Posts
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September 28th, 2010 18:00
I would just throw the second video card in there and see how our power supply does. No sense in spending more money if it works.
morblore
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2.4K Posts
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September 29th, 2010 14:00
They will not upgrade/change anything on the scratch and dent systems. They are sold as-is configurations. You gotta buy the parts as a separate order. So get the system,try the 2 cards and if it doesnt work call Dell and buy the 1.1k PSU.
For the cards you just need to make sure they have the same memory, same clocks and are the same model. You can SLI a Dell card and a XFX ( or whatever ) card so long as both of them are GTX 480. You can't SLi a 470 and a 480.
You can also SLi cards with different clocks/memory size but the one card will clock its memory down to operate with the other card so its not a good way to go. Same goes for clock speeds. While it will work it will also clock the one card back to match the slower card.
No point in buying a 2nd card that is faster and/or has more memory if its not going to be used, right? But if you have one laying around then why not:)