OTOY Forums

Hi all, after carefully studying the very helpful advice on this forum I'm about to pull the trigger on an upgrade on my system to add 3x 1080 Hybrids. Aware the Ti's are just around the corner but they look like they're going to be expensive. In any case it's quite a pricey move and I'd appreciate any advice!

Currently: i7 3930K overclocked to 4.2GHz, Asus P9X79 Mobo, H100 cooler, 32GB Ram, Win 7.
I create 3D graphics and motion design in Cinema 4D.

A few questions:

• CASE: In order to accommodate all the new fans of the cards I'm looking to upgrade my silverstone TJ09 case. From other posts on this forum the Thermaltake X5 seems to be a safe bet, although it's a rather hefty looking beast and I'm keen to know if there are any sleeker alternatives! Would something like the Thermaltake V51 or Corsair Air 740 be large enough and provide adequate ventilation?
  
  FTW CARDS: Is it work spending extra money on the FTW cards? My main concern at the moment is temps, as I frequently render overnight and leave my machine unattended at my studio, so I want to avoid the whole thing overheating and burning the house down or something similar! Would it be better to just go with the 'vanilla' hybrid cards or will the watercooling keep even then FTW cards cool?
  
  WINDOWS 10?: I'm currently using Windows 7. I'm not a huge fan of the interface and I'd love to upgrade to windows 10, however some of the posts on here make me think it's not a great idea due to the VRAM-stealing issues. Are these on the way to being fixed or is it better to stick with 7? Would even upgrading to windows 8 be ok? I just hate the feeling of being stuck in time with 7...

Sorry for yet another build post, any advice here would be massively appreciated! Thanks.

Windows 10 using more vram is still a thing. Sitting on W7 for now is better.

As for cards, there's little to no difference if You woukd use base or some sort of "better" / "improved" PCB design, since in any case You would be limited by chip & it's capabilities. Avoid insane overclocks if You care about stability.

As for case, simply try to look for one that allows You to mount all Your rads & some extra fans =) in the end it's also a bit about Your taste as well.

I have 4 980ti hybrids in my rig using a thermaltake x9 case. It fits all the rads great + a corsair h115 as well.

The main thing to keep an eye for is the hoses for the hybrid cards are pretty short, so you'll want to make sure they'll reach the walls of the case. I think I've seen 3x hybrids in that case, but if you wanted to go 4 cards eventually you might want to get a bigger case.

Also, I believe the price of the 1080s are dropping once the 1080 TI hits, so might be worth it to wait a week or so. (Maybe they already dropped)

As for heat.... my 4 980ti hybrids even overclocked never go over ~50, and I do animation, so sometimes rendering for 24hrs a day. I wouldn't worry about the heat, especially since the 1080 uses a little less juice.

Yeah, go X9. It is like 7" longer than X5, has 8 fan/rad spots up top, and has enough vertical room to even do push/pull (fan sandwiches) on your hybrid and CPU rads (even CPU 240mm), all up top.

Thanks all for the really solid advice. The 1080's seem to be much cheaper already but worth waiting a few days I suppose!

The X5 was already looking a bit big for my small workspace so I'm not so sure about the X9 - it looks like a tank! Although I'm sure it's definitely worth it if you're rocking 7 GPUs.
Currently I'm leaning towards the Corsair 750d, I've seen a few guys on here with hybrids in that.