Hey guys.  I'm new here and I'm still trying to figure everything out.
 
You can either read my wall of text or just skip to the bottom. :)
 
Up until now I never cared about tuning anything in my Video cards and of course I had to replace video cards every few years.  I'm assuming they were burned out but whatever it was they weren't working.  And I didn't know enough to find out.
 
I dont know alot about computers but i know some things. I usually buy a basic set up from best buy and then replace the power supply and the video card to last me awhile.  Last one I had was a 8800 GT OC, was awesome but that one burned out (i was told so anyway) so I had to replace it.
 
I decided to build a computer on my own from scratch.  A guy at Microcenter helped me pick all the parts out so they would work well together.  I spent about 2k on it but I think it was worth it.
 
I put it together myself following some online instructions I found and *knocks on wood* it's been working fine since August 2010.
 
The rig is
I7 930 2.8ghz
932 Haf Full Tower
12GB Ram DDR3 1600Mhz
1536MB 480 GTX OC
1.0 TB 6GB/s HDD
ASUS P6X58D Premium Motherboard
1000 Watt Corsair Power Supply
Windows 7 64-Bit Prof
 
 
I planned everything around the fact that I want to run 2 of the 480gtx SLI.  So I just ordered another one.  It's in the mail, should be here tomorrow.  But, after reading alot of the posts on these forums I'm a little overwhelmed.  I don't really know what to do.
 
So, I was hoping I could get people to help me figure out what to do to keep the computer running well and to make sure everything is copathetic
 
Any suggestions ideas for a noob like me will be apprecaited.
 
Thank you for taking your time.

You may need to start overclocking that cpu! 2.8ghz will bottleneck sli 480's.

Thank you Paul, and how would I overclock the CPU and would it be safe :)  I'm willing to learn EVERYTHING!

Yes, it is the stock cooler.  I'm not crazy about overclocking the CPU just yet if I don't have to.  First i want to get the cards set up.  The second GTX is here.  Now, i have a 3 way SLI bridge that came with the motherboard, as stupid as this may sound.  Can i use that to connect just two cards or does it have to be a 2 way exactly.
 
Also, I have the Precision, what should i do with it besides trying to overclock - which i'm still reading up on - and will worry about later.  What speed should I set the fan to?  Cause i see the temperatures ont he card going around 85 on auto when i'm gaming....when i set it to 100% fan speed it drops well but it's very loud.  Should i just leave it on auto and trust that it's going to take care of itself?  Or should i set up custom profiles?
 
Thanks again guys.

RomanM82

Yes, it is the stock cooler.  I'm not crazy about overclocking the CPU just yet if I don't have to.  First i want to get the cards set up.  The second GTX is here.  Now, i have a 3 way SLI bridge that came with the motherboard, as stupid as this may sound.  Can i use that to connect just two cards or does it have to be a 2 way exactly.

Also, I have the Precision, what should i do with it besides trying to overclock - which i'm still reading up on - and will worry about later.  What speed should I set the fan to?  Cause i see the temperatures ont he card going around 85 on auto when i'm gaming....when i set it to 100% fan speed it drops well but it's very loud.  Should i just leave it on auto and trust that it's going to take care of itself?  Or should i set up custom profiles?

Thanks again guys.

 
Yes a Three-way bridge can work with just two cards. I personally like the way the three way bridge looks, too. 
 
I don't have 480s; I have a 470, so I don't know what you should set your fan speed to. I think auto-fan should be good, but I personally use a user-defined auto-fan setting in MSI Afterburner (I'm not sure if Precision has the same setting). 
 
I have my single 470 set to have 40% fanspeed at 35C; and a straight, upward-slope until it reaches 90C where the fanspeed will be 70%. My card is overclocked, so yes I do see temperatures up to 90C.

Ok thank you.  I'm about to install it.  Now, i looked at Precision, when i click on profile it saves the current set up.  How does that work, will it automatically switch to that fan speed when the card is at that temperature?  :)
 
Also, i would probably be looking for some better cooling for both cards to keep the temps down as you said, what would you recommend?  

RomanM82,
 
Setup a Percison profile like I have here, this gradually raises the fans speed as it gets hot in stead of setting the fans at a preset speed. This will keep the cards cool with relation to the heat the card generates during different loads on the cards.  Make sure the cards are in sync.
Here is a pic of my Percison settings, you can change as you see fit.

 
Also look at my Mods Rigs Pics to get an Idea of what you could do with fans cooling helping in the case.
 
CorpsMaker

If you're worried about heat, you could put your second gtx480 in the white PCI-Express slot instead of the blue one. The thing is, the white slot gives less bandwidth than the blue ones. 
 
I wouldn't be worried about less bandwidth though; In real life gaming, you shouldn't even notice a decrease in performance using the white PCI-E slot. Maybe like 2 FPS less, but thats all.
 
 

First get a good CPU cooler before you overclock!!!!! Then install it before you do anything with OCing the CPU.
 
CorpsMaker

You can set up a water cooling system to cool your GPUs pretty good, though its very expensive....
 
I don't think regular aftermarket heatsinks/fans are an option for you because I'm pretty sure all the good ones take up too much space, and an SLI setup wouldn't fit.
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong though. 

I will tell you right now you will need to change the single side fan with 4 x 120 mm fans to keep it cool

That fan should work. It should come with the correct 1366 mounting bracket (which is the one you need), as well as mounting brackets for 1156/1155, 775, and AM3.

Ok I'm back...so far everything has been good.  
However, last night when i tried playing Rift Beta with everything at max (temps were ok) but both of the guards were working really hard, my 1000 watt power supply i guess kept going nuts.  Cause the battery power supply i have started beeping and beeping as if the power was out.  So i'm guessing it's drawing too much power?  I'm not sure and I'm not sure what to do about that...

Run without the battery backup unit and see what happens.
 
CorpsMaker

Roman Mate Get a Good Cooling for the i7 930
i am usin the same CPU at 4GHZ well is gonna Bottelneck Two GTX480 a litter bit some result on my Old EVGA GTX 470 Sli
on Lost Planet Bench Test B 19x1080 Max DX11 High 32XAA 45.2AVG and 51.7AVG W/CPu OC 4GHZ