OC - is a chance so you might not be able to OC the way you think. I do not understand why would it be quieter, if you use water cooling there noise is the same no matter how many GPUs you have. Single GPU consumes less power as well as you won't run into any issues caused by Crossfire. And the new gen GPUs are rumoured to be up to 25% faster than current gen. And the new GPUs can also be OC'd.
I'm confident I will be able to OC well, I've been doing OC for many years, memory, CPU and cards. My OC i7 2600k is currently doing fine
It will be quieter than the stock coolers by quite some margin.
So by WC both the GPU and replacing the stock coolers it will be much quieter.
Single GPU does consume less power, but I'm not concerned about power use personally very much, and I agree in most cases using a more powerful single GPU is definitely easier, and often a better solution. However, that is just looking at this clinically and raw power, with being ok to discard a perfectly good card to replace when a new more powerful one as it comes along. Those brand new ones are pricey!
Rumours are rumours until they are out and tested, and who knows when that will be? Also the cost of a new top grade GPU is usually huge - one of these on launch will cost at least £450, maybe more. 290x currently are somewhere around the £430 margin. A GTX 780 is..maybe £350 or so? A Titan is something crazy like £700. Not something I will pay.
Then it comes to throwing out a decent enough card, the 7870 - I play all my games (including Elite) with no problems at all currently.
but for me the most important points for me personally :-
1. The looks. Yes it's vanity, but I want my system to look great while being fairly quiet. Having a new Phantom 820 case, with the custom wiring and lighting I'm fitting, and the twin G10 and X41 systems installed, eventually also with a x61, will simply look great.
2. Up until now I've only built air cooled systems, and this will be my first step forward into watercooling. While not a true custom watercooling system, WC both the GPU and later the CPU in this way is a good first step.
3. Cost. Spending £450 or so on a top line card and throwing away the 7870 really annoys me. Instead I spent £70 on another 7870 for Crossfire which will deliver a lot more power in most cases. It also means I can get triple monitors working at decent frame rates without too much worry.
The extra cost I'm putting out will be 2x £30 G10 = £60. But these can be used again for any new card(s) I buy in the future. More an investment.
For 2x X41 WC system = £140. Again these can be used on any future cards, so more of an investment.
So to me I'm laying out about £270 compared to £450 or so. And a lot of that, £200 of it really, can be used in the future easily enough.
Such are my reasons for doing this project, and while I understand why it doesn't make sense to everyone doing this, it makes perfect sense to me
I actually explained it to my wife this way, and while she doesn't understand all of what I was saying, she understands that spending £270 instead of £450 on my "useless lump of metal" is a better deal.
I didn't tell her I bought the Phantom 820, I already have an original Phantom case and explaining that part to her would never work out
