External PCIe Expansion options

[Raoul]

Thanks PixelRocket!

All good info.. and good to her the netstor has a faster connection. I had one question though... you said you have to run reference cards in the netstor..?
Could you expand on that a little?
When I'm buying some 980ti's to put in the box, any recommendations on what i should be looking for? I'd like to avoid buying some cards that won't actually run in the box.

Cheers
R

[pixelrocket]

Thanks PixelRocket!

All good info.. and good to her the netstor has a faster connection. I had one question though... you said you have to run reference cards in the netstor..?
Could you expand on that a little?

If you look at the Nestor chassis, http://www.netstor.com.tw/_03/03_02.php?MTEx#, you see that there's not a lot of extra room inside the chassis. You can definitely run reference cards like this one http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.as ... P4-4990-KR

You probably won't have room for a card like this https://www.zotac.com/us/product/graphi ... mp-extreme

Running GPU cards on air is the least efficient way to cool them. This is why vendors run massive coolers on the overclocked cards. Tom has posted quite a bit of info on his blog and on this forum about the differences in air vs water cooling and how much faster GPU cards run on water. A quick search on this forum should turn up plenty of info.

Keep in mind, you will be putting those cards in a box. I don't know what the airflow is like in the Nestor chassis, but heat buildup could be an issue. This is one reason I went with the Amfeltec. Being able to run any card I wanted was another.

I don't have a Nestor so I don't know for sure what cards fit and what cards don't. Also, you will want to separate the cards in the case for better airflow. Maybe run one card in slot 1 and one card in slot 3. Running 4 cards in the box will not be ideal as they will be starved for air, and will end up thermal throttling at max load.

When I'm buying some 980ti's to put in the box, any recommendations on what i should be looking for? I'd like to avoid buying some cards that won't actually run in the box.

Again, if you look at the Octane Bench results, the 780ti scores a 103, and the 980ti scores a 125. While that's close to 25% faster, the cost difference between the two cards is much, much more. You can realistically purchase two 780ti cards off eBay for the cost of one 980ti. Something to think about if you want to speed up renders without breaking the bank.

Reference cards would be a safe bet. Beyond that, hopefully someone with a Nestor can provide some additional information.

Cheers
R