First of all, as a first time builder, this was much easier to do than I thought than I thought it would be, even after having been assured by several people that it was a simple process. Took me a couple hours and booted up the first time. No sweat.
I do have a couple questions that I thought I’d throw out to the experienced PC gamers.
First, what’s the best way to connect an Xbox 360 controller? I have a couple wireless controllers that I’d like to be able to use for certain games. I’ve seen a wireless adapter on Amazon, but the reviews are scaring me off from it. Do I need to bite the bullet and buy a wired controller? Can I buy a wire for my existing wireless controller?
Second, I bought a crossfire-capable motherboard, thinking maybe I’d add a second video card down the line. Now I’m wondering whether my power supply has enough connectors. The card I have takes two six-pin PCI-E connectors from the power supply. If I add a second card, do I need two more? My power supply only came with two, so does that mean I’d need to get a new power supply to add a second card?
Generally, yes, you need to have a power supply that has enough connectors for multiple cards. With modern cards, that often means 4 of the connectors.
If you do this, make sure your power supply can handle the load. If you overclock at all, you’re going to want at least a 500W - 600W PSU for 2 graphics cards.
You’re going to need to buy another controller to use your controllers on your PC. You can buy a straight-up wired controller that’ll work without issue. You can also get the Wireless Xbox Controller For Windows or whatever Microsoft calls it. The reason for the latter is that only the full controller kits come with the real Microsoft wireless adapter. The standalone adapters are made by third party companies and they don’t work very well. Be warned that Play 'n Charge (or whatever it’s called) doesn’t work on the PC, so maybe you want a wired controller regardless. Tough call when you have a bunch of a wireless ones already.
On amazon, this XBOX 360 wireless receiver for windows is what I bought awhile back. It certainly works but I had to download newer drivers than what came on the the little disk and there is a recurring problem: if the USB cable is disconnected, I have to reinstall the driver manually upon reconnection. It’s not that big of a pain and it’s worth it to have the controllers for PC. So many games for PC are ports from consoles that the controllers work really well with them.
As for your power supply: Yes, you will need 2 more connectors for the next graphics card. Some power supplies do not have the extra connectors and some have 4 pin to 6 pin (8 pin?) adapters, but I would be a little hesitant if the power supply did not have all 4 at the start. That said, in getting advice, it also helps to say what kind of set-up you have. You should include the power supply make and model.
. It’s just the drivers that are lame, and it really is not that big of a hassle unless you are constantly unplugging the thing.
Thanks for the help. Hopefully, I won’t have a need to add another video card for a long time, but I do kind of wish I’d bought a power supply with four PCI-e connectors (I bought this one). As for the controller, I think I’ll just buy the controller for windows. It’s not all that much more than the adapter alone.
Adapters exist, so you won’t necessarily need a new power supply, assuming you can handle the needs of a second very hungry video card. There’s not really much reason to bother, though. A single top line video card is way more than enough horsepower by itself to handle anything you can throw at it in this era of crossplatform games designed around console hardware limits. The only reason to go with a twin rig would be if you want to do a multi-monitor setup with full antialiasing. With just a single display, you’ll have a hard time making that video card break a sweat for the forseeable future.
I have this wireless receiver dongle, and once I had the software/driver installed, I could plug and play switch it between my desktop and my laptop with no fuss at all. Let me tell you, it’s a hell of a lot easier to sneak and lockpick in Skyrim using the controller instead of mouse/keyboard.
I have 2500k at stock clock and 2 6870s w/all the typical other parts. I have a similar brand psu but it is 750w. I draw 450w when I run furmark and Intel burntest. You will never really stress it like that. I think your psu is probably fine for xfire.
Warning: Many crossfire and SLI setups need matched pairs of cards with the same firmware revisions to work properly and this can be very difficult to do later on. They have become more tolerant lately but Dual video cards in X-Fire/SLI are not something you generally do “after the fact” unless you are planning on replacing both cards.
Given that the CX600 V2 only has 40A on its 12v rail, I wouldn’t be in a rush to XF anything with it. Not even power-efficient cards like the 6800 series. Probably why it only has the two PCIe connectors too.
Don’t listen to drachillix. You don’t need the same BIOS on your GPUs to SLI/XF. That’s nutty.
AMD has more sophisticated dual card systems - you can even put a crappy model from the same series in with a good model and it’ll distribute the load 75%/25% or whatever so both cards are being used to their potential. But I’ve never done SLI/CF - usually it’s easier and better just to get one good video card. Although I’ve been thinking of adding another 5850 to my current one rather than buy a new card since they can probably be found on ebay for cheap.
Regarding the 360 controller. A while back, microsoft sold just the wireless to usb adapter for $15-20. At some point they decided they were giving consumers a fair deal (someone I suspect it was their xbox accessories division, the same people who decide to charge $100+ for a 60gb hard drive), and decided that they’d instead force people to buy a wireless gamepad/wireless adapter at the same time for $60. Which they damn well know screws people who just want to use the 360 controller they already have for their xbox on their PC.
But you can still get these adapters alone on ebay I’m sure. That’s the route I’d go, rather than going third party or buying another controller.