Running Nvidia SLI and setting up a RAID

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Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

Hey tech guru's... I've got two things to ask some advice on.

The first, does anyone here have any experience setting up an Nvidia SLI configuration? I have two Geforce 8800GT cards (different manufacturers, but I read that it doesn't matter as long as the chipsets are the same) and I'm not really sure what to do to get this up and running.

Secondly... after Dave's hard drive failure I have decided I would like to setup up a RAID with two hard drives so that if one blows up the second should be fine (I have lots of video editing work that I would like to keep safe). I currently have a 500 GB drive in there... do I just need to buy another 500 GB model? Is there any other specialized hardware that I need to make this work?

My current computer is running an Intel Core 2 Quad core Q9300, 4 GB of RAM, one nvidia Geforce 8800GT, 500 GB hard drive and Windows 7 64 bit.

Thanks in advance.
 
Covar

Covar

hey there

SLI
Yes you can use two different cards for SLI as long as they use the same chipset. Heads up your chain is only as strong as the weakest link, so if one card is faster that won't matter. Setup should be as easy as installing the second card, the bridge, and configuring your drivers.

RAID
This is a tricky one. While you can do software raid this won't necessarily protect you. You will probably want to buy a raid controller for you box in addition to the second hard drive. Check your Motherboard, there is a small chance that you will have an integrated raid controller on it. If you do that means you only need the second drive, so that's worth looking at even if the odds are slim.
 
Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

Thanks for the help... I'll be getting the parts I need as soon as I figure out whether my power supply can handle the extra video card and hard drive without crapping out on me.
 
C

Chibibar

Azurephoenix said:
Thanks for the help... I'll be getting the parts I need as soon as I figure out whether my power supply can handle the extra video card and hard drive without crapping out on me.
Click to expand...
don't forget cooling. Extra drives and card can generate a ton of heat!
 
Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

I should be fine for cooling... the case has plenty of fans inside it and it's also huge so there is excellent air flow (components aren't tightly packed together).

I'll make sure of course though... no sense BBQ'ing all my nice hardware...
 
C

Chibibar

Azurephoenix said:
I should be fine for cooling... the case has plenty of fans inside it and it's also huge so there is excellent air flow (components aren't tightly packed together).

I'll make sure of course though... no sense BBQ'ing all my nice hardware...
Click to expand...
I figure. There are two things you generally have to worry about (well three if you don't have a tower) Power supply and cooling. My motherboard can hook up to 6 drives :) (yay) and can set up different kind of raid. Luckily I do have multiple fans to keep my system nice and cool inside :)
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Only one thing to add...SLI works better if both cards have the same chipset and RAM size.

Also, RAID1 is really only critical if you can't afford any downtime on the machine. If you can afford to spend the time it would take to do a restore, you might be able to get off easy (easier setup, lower price) by just using some good backup software along with an external drive.

--Patrick
 
Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

Both cards are 512mb Nvidia Geforce 8800GT's... the only difference is the manufacturer... but I believe they patched that a long time ago so it doesn't matter.

What's the difference between the RAID0 and RAID1?
 
C

Chibibar

Azurephoenix said:
Both cards are 512mb Nvidia Geforce 8800GT's... the only difference is the manufacturer... but I believe they patched that a long time ago so it doesn't matter.

What's the difference between the RAID0 and RAID1?
Click to expand...
raid 0 is basically putting two HDD together and make it as one. i.e. I have two 500GB drives and I want 1TB drive. Bad idea IMO

Raid 1 is mirroring. You have two 500GB drive with raid 1 = 500GB drive. Basically information are mirrored. This is pretty good if one drive goes out, you still have access to your data and just need to replace the drive.

more info here
RAID - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

RAID0 (stripe) = 2x speed, .25x reliability**, 1x total capacity (2x500 = 1000)
RAID1 (mirror) = 1x speed*, 4x reliability, .5x total capacity (2x500 = 500)
JBOD (n/a) = 1x speed, .5x reliability**, 1x total capacity (2x500 = 1000)

--Patrick
*A proper RAID1 will give you 1.5-2x speed on reads but still only 1x on writes.
**RAID0 reliability is equal to sqrt(single drive reliability) (lose one drive, lose everything on the entire array), JBOD is dependent on where the data is stored (lose one drive, only lose the stuff that was on that one drive).
 
Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

Thanks for all the info guys.

Life has been busy and I only just finally got the time to check out what kind of power supply my computer has. Turns out it is 1000W... is that enough to run two 500gb hard drives, the intel core 2 quad 9300 cpu and two Nvidia Geforce 8800GT video cards?
 
Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

I just installed the second Geforce 8800GT and man... what a difference. This SLI setup kicks butt (for outdated hardware anyways).

Thanks for all the advice everyone.
 
Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

Grrrrr...

So, after working correctly for a while (or seeming to work correctly, I can't be sure it worked at all from the get go)... I have encountered a weird glitch with my SLI setup and was wondering if anyone here had any insight (or maybe has experienced the same problem).

The computer detects both cards, and when I enable SLI the operating system recognizes it and all that good stuff. However, when I load up a game (Noticed it acting up on Mass effect, Mass effect 2 and Company of Heroes... will test more games tonight)... the screen starts to flicker really fast as well as these weird red horizontal bars jumping all over the screen. Interestingly enough the problem goes away if I run these games in windowed mode, but fullscreen causes all sorts of problems.

I have all the latest drivers, directx, nvidia factory drivers, etc... so the software should be ready to rock and roll.

System specs:
Windows 7 Premium home edition 64bit
Intel Core 2 Quad 9300 cpu
4 gigabytes of RAM
2 Nvidia 8800GT 512mb video cards
500gb hard drive
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

No idea off the top of my head, I have yet to personally put together any SLI systems. The fact that it only happens in fullscreen mode means it's the 3D pane that's having problems, that usually means it's the fault of the drivers or DirectX. A quick check on Google shows you're not the only one (and the 8800 or its derivatives show up a lot, too).

--Patrick
 
Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

Apparently I'm a moron.

Allow me to explain... last night I finally solved my SLI setup problems and now the computer is running great and I'm actually getting measurable and noticeable performance increases (as opposed to the ones just in my head).

As to why I'm a moron... wait for it...

SLI bridge cable was backwards. Yup, that was it... after fiddling with it for almost two months I decided to try the one thing I should have done in the first place *facepalm*.

My benchmarks in 3Dmark06 improved and the performance test in Company of Heroes was much improved (minimum framerate jumped by 20fps and average framerate jumped by about 7fps). I just got a lot more life out of this rig for very little monetary investment (which is always good in my books).

Now I just have to get that RAID set up and I'll be golden
 
Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

Glad to have helped.

Of course, now I have the problem of one of my cards being too close to my sound card which gets overheated and hard locks the system.

I have to find a smaller SLI cable so the cards can sit right next to eachother and leave the third graphics slot empty (and I'm going to put a heat shield in to protect the sound card further).
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

A thin piece of corrugated cardboard is rather low-tech, but it can be used as a serviceable heat shield so long as there is no tape or other foreign material on the piece you use. Paper doesn't catch fire until you get well over 400°F, and the corrugations will insulate quite well. It's up to you to properly route the airflow, though.

--Patrick
 
Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

Sooo...

The heat shield worked great... the sound card was protected and my SLI configuration worked flawlessly until tonight. One of my stupid video cards just bit the dust... so I'm back to a single Nvidia Geforce 8800 GT (also known as bullshit).

I'm looking to get a new video card now... but I don't want to spend 500 bucks on a super top of the line one... what is good for around 200 dollars?
 
C

Chibibar

Lucky for you, the drives are getting cheaper. You can set up raid 5 (3 disk min) but for some reason, I can't go above 2TB so if you are using four 1TB drives, make sure you carve out 2TB partition and another 700GB partition (one of the drive is use for parity) and due to formatting of your OS (mine is Win7) I lose like 300GB somewhere.
 
Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

While I was monkeying around inside my computer and reading my motherboard manual I found out that I actually already have a RAID controller in there. Just gotta get some drives now.

As for the video card... looks like I'll be picking up a Radeon HD 6870. Can't wait to get one and get it installed.
 
C

Chibibar

Azurephoenix said:
While I was monkeying around inside my computer and reading my motherboard manual I found out that I actually already have a RAID controller in there. Just gotta get some drives now.

As for the video card... looks like I'll be picking up a Radeon HD 6870. Can't wait to get one and get it installed.
Click to expand...
Oh good. My motherboard supports it (upto raid 10 which is basically Raid 5 + mirroring but requires 6 drives)
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

You're probably limited to 2TB max because your HDD is formatted with MBR type partition table. In order to have partitions larger than 2TB, you would need to repartition with GUID partition type.

--Patrick
 
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