Upgrading GTX 480 air cooled, to 580 liquid cooled

Hey Folks,

I have an awesome Digital Storm gaming rig, and I'm getting ready to soup it up even further. I'd like to know your thoughts about the upgrade.

Here is my current system:
     Digital Storm 950Si case
     Intel Core i7 965
     EVGA X58 3x SLI motherboard
     Liquid cooled CPU with one radiator
     1200W power supply
     Three NVIDIA GTX 480 video cards (air cooled)
     30" display

I really love my current system, but I want to max it out for playing BF3. I also want to reduce noise by upgrading to liquid cooled video cards. I'm the type of gamer who loves playing games at 2560 x 1600 with 4x AA, and a quiet environment is important to me. That's why I'm building such an extreme system.

What are your thoughts about upgrading this system as follows?
     * Remove the GTX 480's. Then add three GTX 580's with liquid cooling.
     * Upgrade the liquid cooling system to handle the CPU and 3 video cards.

Regarding video cards: Are liquid cooled video cards very quiet when compared to air cooled cards? Do you think three GTX 580's are the best choice for max performance? Would two GTX 590's be better? What about two liquid cooled ATI 6990's?

Regarding cooling: What would be involved in upgrading my cooling system to handle the CPU and three video cards? This is one area that I don't know much about, and I have no idea what it might cost. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Whatever I choose to do, I'll have DS perform the upgrades for me.

Thanks for your help everybody. I can't wait to hear your suggestions.

James

Originally posted by DST4ME I think its a bad idea to upgrade, if you do, the performance gain is not gonna be much. to lc the gpus, I think you looking at $600 or around there with DS I think. yes lced gpus have no noise vs the air cooled gpu and all the noise its little fan has. tri sli 480/570/580 beat quad sli/cf (2 x 590/6990) if you want to upgrade wait for new cards in 2012 and see if its worth it and stay away from dual gpu cards like the 590/6990.

at least i would wait to see how the game runs lol.

Originally posted by JamesAstro Yeah, it sounds like I should wait. This is what happens when I have too much free time on my hands while waiting for a good game. :)

i know it feels. Im dying for bf 3, diablo 3, the old republic and a few others lol