2-3 Way Crossfire R9 290x build advice..

[Turnsky]

Now, i'm planning to (hopefully) build myself a new rig and in the interest of future proofing (hence the overkill on the cards) i'm centering it around either two or three of the big radeon cards. (i do have a preference to the AMD cards, they've treated me well over the years.)

I'm trying to sort out whether spacing will be an issue, as these Asus R9's are big chunky cards and i'll need advice in order to get these to run right..

so i'm looking at either a Intel core i7 4790k rig, or a Amd FX-9590 rig.. with Maximus vi extreme or crosshair v formula-z boards respectively.. (water cooling rig of the corshair hydro series h100i persuasion)
currently looking at Corsair's Vengeance Pro Series 32gb DDR3 1600mhz, in four 8 gig sticks.
Three hard drives of 512gb & 1TB ssd w/ 3tb HDD in tow for data
parked in a corshair carbide midi tower case, and i'm hoping the 1275w psu should have enough juice to run this mad thing.

What i'm really asking is whether i could get away with three of the big cards without heat becoming an issue later on, or would it be wiser just to get the two and see from there..

[X-ROG]

Heat will be an issue - you will need a case with side-facing fans for sure.

i7+M6E would be the best option for your investment, and M6E has enough PCIe lanes, but ultimately 3-way graphics will mean they are stacked very closely on top of one another to some extent - unless you use slots 1, 2 and 4, but then the bottom card hangs off the end of the board and some cases dont support this.

Unless you watercool everything, but then your budget goes ++

2-way CrossFire can use any ROG board - go Z97 in that case, like M7F or M7H.

What 290X cards are you buying?

[Turnsky]

http://www.techbuy.com.au/p/311289/VIDEOCARDS_RADEON_PCI-EX_R9_290X/ASUS/R9290X-DC2OC-4GD5.asp these ones in particular, so yeah, dual cards it is, then, good to know.

[Arne_Saknussemm]

Yeah,..triple is more expense, more problems to run in physical terms and in terms of drivers etc and doesn't give the performance return to balance this out. I Think dual is the way to go....

[madcratebuilder]

Dual Crossfire works very well with the current drivers. I tried 3 way 1 time and it's not worth the trouble. I run EK blocks with backplates and temps are 30C lower than on air. Remember Crossfire does not work with all games and benchmarks.

[Heini]

Turnsky wrote:
...so i'm looking at either a Intel core i7 4790k rig, or a Amd FX-9590 rig.. with Maximus vi extreme or crosshair v formula-z boards respectively........What i'm really asking is whether i could get away with three of the big cards without heat becoming an issue later on, or would it be wiser just to get the two and see from there..

1st....I built a CVFZ/FX9590 system with two R9290X DC2OC cards and it was a very effective "HEATER"! So much so I had to seek an alternative. Thus the system in my sig is the result. The 4790K is a better alternative with the 1150 board that best fits your needs.
2nd...I wouldn't bank on multi-gpu's being future proof. If possible get the best single card you can for now and upgrade when the next generations come out. The 290X's run warm so two can add enough heat to be a concern.

[01_Wolverine]

1275 watt psu will not due 290x 3x crossfire