Call in Order for what is not listed online?

Originally posted by Menizzi You can not select 2x 3080Ti. Is that because because of what is going on and they want to limit how many cards you can buy or if you wanted 2x of said card you can just call it in?

Hi Bruce,

The 3080 Ti cards can't be used in SLI configuration, so there is no benefit for gaming with two of those cards. The only modern card that can be used with SLI is the 3090.

That being said, if you want two cards for non-gaming purposes, and your software can take advantage of two cards, then it might be worth having two.

James

Is this for mining?

Originally posted by Menizzi 1. Desktop/Velox/Core i9/Ultimate: You can not select 2x 3080Ti. Is that because because of what is going on and they want to limit how many cards you can buy or if you wanted 2x of said card you can just call it in? Same goes if you wanted 2x A4000 not listed but you could call it in?

@JamesAstro's mention of SLI limits is indeed a part of the reason. Another portion is even when software can utilize multiple GPUs, there are limitations. For example:

Using 2 GPUs to accelerate Houdini (OpenGL + OpenCL) | VFXArabia

Multi GPU setup | SideFX (Forum)
(Mentions the same restriction as the above article.)

In its own way disappointing, Otoy's OctaneRender has proven to scale very well (i.e., on average, two of the same model graphics cards are twice as fast as a single, three thrice as fast, ...), yet more graphics cards won't always be a benefit (e.g., using/sharing VRAM capacity):

Hardware Guide for OctaneRender | Otoy
(See Section 3: Multi-GPU Setups)

In other words, more isn't always better and simplicity has its own value.

P.S. Only DS will be able to inform you which special order parts/configurations they will accept/allow.

Originally posted by Menizzi 3. Why can't those founders 3090 be water cooled and you have to pay another $1000 for Normal 3090 that can be water cooled?

I can't/won't speak for Digital Storm, but there just aren't many Founders Edition water blocks. I've only seen two, one from EK and one from Corsair.

By the way, I don't know what you mean by "normal" -- popular? -- but the "Performance" cards cost more because they aren't normal. What DS is referring to as Performance Editions are graphics cards by the likes of Asus, EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI, etc designed with extra power handling and otherwise intended/expected to be extreme overclocked.

Originally posted by Menizzi 5. It also looks like you can get access to the all the m.2 slots so I can use my own nvme drives. Can you access these with out taking stuff apart? It sure does look like it from the pictures on the site.

The one below the CPU socket should technically be accessible. However, with the size of graphics cards as well as every other heatsink, etc on modern components, the process is obnoxious at best. As for the second slot, access will depend upon which PCIe slots it lays between (i.e., layout differs by motherboard model).

Edited by MrCheetah - 30 Nov 2021 at 4:18pm

I ordered a RTX 3080 on my recent order and got a top of the line EVG FTW3 Ultra Gaming RTX 3080 that has a boosted clock in my system. They put quality graphic cards in their systems.

Originally posted by Menizzi See post above. I called the system builders and the guy that answered the phone could not answer any of my questions so its up to you guys Bruce

Not so much IMHO. No doubt there are a few sales guys that are not so up to speed on specialized non-gaming use of the parts available at any given time. You may rest assured, though, that there a number of veteran DS employees that can give you chapter and verse of what's likely to be a productive set-up.

When you are ready to assemble a beast to perform for you, I'd suggest you send an e-mail directly to Alex, the head of customer service at [email protected]. He can arrange to hook you up with one of their experts. In my experience, that's very doable and can cut through a mountain of BS and speculation.

A year is a very long time in tech advancement these days. By then there will not only be a new set of GPUs, probably on both sides of the aisle, but the latest Zen 4 procs from AMD. These are known to employ a 5nm process, enable PCIe Gen 5, and thought to be DDR5 memory exclusively. They are rumored to be as much as 40% better than Zen 3 procs. Lots of improvement right in your wheelhouse it would seem.