Well my experience is off to a bad start. Apparently there are two reference models for the 285 board. The Video Block I got is for the older reference and so of course I need the other one. Now naturally I did not figure this out until I had dismantled my entire liquid setup from the PC, Dismantled the stock GTX285 fan/heatsinks and went to actually put the new liquid block on. :o :( :( :P So now I have the GTX-285N Liquid Block on order for early AM delivery tomorrow and I need to RMA the one I ordered yesterday...Worst part, My PC is in pieces on the floor my GTX 285 is half assembled and both of my 8800 cards are already out and drained. I am not going to put everything back together just to disassemble it all again in the am so she just sits there staring at me like a lonely puppy...Enjoy Simon, hopefully I will be up and running tomorrow, Just waiting on another delivery LOL... :( And btw everyone talks about how big these boards are but I slid this one in even easier than my 8800 GTX's when I was trial fitting it so they are no bigger than the 8800 GTX boards. Sigh... guess I will clean the house LOL

Clean the house? I bet you spent the entire day thinking about FSX!I fell into a trap yesterday that my TBM had fell back to 40, and that was most decidely costing my FPS. Back to 70, and all is well and good again. All of KSEA, KSFO and KLAX all checked out with dense scenery/autogen, near full traffic (especially KLAX) and largely smooth 20+ fps. Fly Tampa Kai Tak was just something else, and it always has been. I thought I died and went to Heaven. Very dense scenery autogen, full MTX traffic, FPS over 30! Totally smooth too! Even loading up the CS 130 and PMDG MD11 did not remove the shine too much.Time for the FSPassengers to board now, as well as some cargo pilot runs.Simon

Clean the house? I bet you spent the entire day thinking about FSX!I fell into a trap yesterday that my TBM had fell back to 40, and that was most decidely costing my FPS. Back to 70, and all is well and good again. All of KSEA, KSFO and KLAX all checked out with dense scenery/autogen, near full traffic (especially KLAX) and largely smooth 20+ fps. Fly Tampa Kai Tak was just something else, and it always has been. I thought I died and went to Heaven. Very dense scenery autogen, full MTX traffic, FPS over 30! Totally smooth too! Even loading up the CS 130 and PMDG MD11 did not remove the shine too much.Time for the FSPassengers to board now, as well as some cargo pilot runs.Simon

Well after an interesting couple of days having 8 Epidural injections into my lumbar spine and 8 nerves burned away in my lower back I finally got the correct liquid block and everything is up and running. I was surprised at how smoothly things actually went once I got the correct liquid block for the GTX285. I now have a GTX285 and an 8800GTX playing nicely together in the same box running an SLI Video Block between the two... Was it worth it? Absolutely. Just did a flight yesterday from KEWR-EGLL using 32XS AA and my FS has never looked better. Not a single shimmer ANYWHERE! Exactly what I set out to accomplish... Not only was I able to crank my AA to levels that brought my 8800 to its knees but the fluidity of the sim is unreal... Nothing stutters, not even turning the LVL-D on the ground at KEWR using 100% AI and three monitors! For as good as my 8800's were the GTX just took it to a new level! Oh yeah, the GTX's also run much much cooler too! Where my 8800 was running at 40C (idle)-55C degrees(load) on the liquid the GTX is running at 32C(idle) and 36-41C under load...That is a massive difference... I am very pleased thus far. Time to update the sig and debate a new Power supply and putting this other 8800GTX card back in to run 3 cards...-Paul

What do you mean by "SLI video block"? Are you referring to the SLI connector? Cards of different generations do not operate together in multi-GPU mode. Individually certainly, but not co-operatively.

What do you mean by "SLI video block"? Are you referring to the SLI connector? Cards of different generations do not operate together in multi-GPU mode. Individually certainly, but not co-operatively.

It has nothing to do with how the video cards operate, it is a liquid block that is interconnected between two video cards for cooling... I have no questions on SLI or how it works nor have I ever enabled it since I started running multiple GPUS's 6 or 7 years ago... I have always run multiple GPU's for multiple monitors.-P

Oh, you mean a water block.

Oh, you mean a water block.

Yes sir... Just so you don't have to run any tubing between the video cards. -P

I didn't wanna start a new thread so I am just gonna use this one I created a while go. So I got the XFX 9800gt Card but I am still looking to find a PSU. The nvidia recommendation is a min of 400W plus 26A on +12 Rails. As I mentioned my config is:Q6600 STOCK 4 GB of RAM @ 800MHz 2 Hard Drives at 7200 RPMand now a GeForce 9800gtConsidering the recommendations above, I was looking to buy either one of these:http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...?Sku=ULT-LSP550or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817371004The 550W has 30A on the 12V rail and the 500W one has 36A on t he 12V rail.My questions: Does it matter which one I buy considering my specs?Do you recommend going with a PSU that's 600W just to be on the safe side?Thanks in advance!

So I went ahead and bought the Antec Basiq 500W found HEREAnd I installed it and everything is running fine. I have got a fairly good performance boost from the upgrade, main one being less stuttering. This is probably my last upgrade though since my computer is basically "maxed out."One concern I have though is that do you think that the PSU is enough for my unit? I mean I am seeing normal operations but could my PSU be holding my GPU back by not supplying enough juice for it? Or a PSU being under powered is usually easy to tell?Q6600 STOCK4 GB of RAM @ 800MHz2 Hard Drives at 7200 RPMand now a GeForce 9800gt (min. requirements is 400W and 26A on the 12Rails)And the PSU specs are: +3.3V@30A,+5V@30A,+12V1@18A,+12V2@18A,[email protected], [email protected]!