Thoughts
DIY Quad SLI is a reality that's available to anyone with ~£800 to spend, or thereabouts, presuming they have the rest of a PC infrastructure that'll support it. The driver is publically available (and about to be updated by NVIDIA with specific fixes and fresh compatibility), making running four GPUs in your PC system something you can do if you really want to.
It's whether you really want to that you'll have to decide. SLI itself is caveat-laden, be that in terms of power, heat and noise, game compatibility, multi-monitor restrictions and other myriad minutiae that aren't present with single board configurations.
Quad SLI adds double the considerations in a physical sense, and you must certainly make sure the rest of your PC is up to the task, in many ways. However, if it's something that appeals, then the tools are at your disposable for enjoyable high-res gaming in a number of supported games titles. It begs to be paired with a high resolution display (we tested on 24 and 30 inch widescreen LCD monitors, which are the definite target display to connect), and in our opinion the ideal partner is something like a Dell 2405 or 2407, 24" widescreen display.
The pixel count lets you run 1920x1200 at good framerates, and in games where Quad SLI simply eats that up, 8x SLI anti-aliasing becomes a usable IQ enhancement that you might never have enjoyed with 2-GPU SLI, the same hardware as a given. Stability seems decent, NVIDIA apparently fixing a lot of the warranted criticism with 7900-based Quad SLI first time around, making it much more appealing from the end-user's standpoint.
Therefore if you're prepared to put up with the compatibility with games and hardware, you have the rest of a great PC to host the boards and you have a suitable display for it to draw only, DIY Quad SLI has certain appeal. It's expensive, but then that's rarely stopped those who enjoy a powerful beast of a PC.
A niche product at the very best, but one which mostly works. Caveat emptor, of course!
As concerns the specific eVGA examples, the Black Pearl e-GeForce 7950 GX2 is, we think, the most boutique and speedy graphics board that money can buy. That says volumes on its own, standing head and shoulders above the rest, should watercooling be up your street. And if it's as easy to fit and maintain as eVGA have made it, why wouldn't it be up anyone's street if the price was right?
No more involved, honestly, than changing an air cooler, as long as you're patient and considerate. The silence and performance at 600/700 afforded by these Black Pearls makes them seriously appealing if your bank manager thinks you rock.
Recommended, for what they represent.
HEXUS Awards
eVGA e-GeForce 7950 GX2 Black Pearl
