Crossfiring 6870's with given PSU and Cables

[The Black Reaper]

So i have an Antec TP-650 power supply which is more then enough to power two 6870's. My main concern is the ability to connect the two 6870's to my PSU. My PSU comes with 2 x 6 pin connectors and 2 x 6+2 connectors. The catch is that each 6 pin and 6+2 pin are one cable each. Heres a picture of it....

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/4154/img0151rb.jpg

I was just wondering if it would be ok to use all 4 connectors, 2 cables altogether, to power both of the cards in a crossfire setup? I was thinking using both 6+2 pin connectors for one card and then attaching the 6 pin heads to the other card Allowing both cables to bring power to both cards equally.. I'm not sure though..... Should I have 1 cable for each card? one 6+2 and 6 pin connector powering one card each? (This would be one cable powering an entire card)

As you can see I'm stuck here not knowing if its possible and if it is, how i should manage the cables to power the cards.

EDIT: The third pci-e 6 pin connector you see is the other connector for the second cable.. As you can see i am currently using the 2 6+2 pin connectors to power my one 6870.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

yes its fine its ment to be that way

the cables are actually seperate if i remember correctly there just heatshrinked together, eitherway it will be fine, the connectors wouldnt be there if they couldnt push the power needed, and 6870s arent that power hungry, they actually use less power the the typical GTS 250 1gb so in reality you wont have any issues.

The gpus only use 2x 6pins anyway, 6+2 pin is ment for 150w and 6pin is ment for 75w fact is tho that the 2 extra pins on the 6+2 are just grounds meaning a 6pin cable can provide 150w anyway, what this means is the cables you have no matter how there configured will do the job and then some. so theres nothing to worry about.

just keep each card on a seperate wire

aka 6pin and 6+2 per card keep each on its own

the PCIE slot gives 75w 6pin x2 =75 + 75 for a total of 225w at max in furmark a 6870 only pulls 175w of power and on average when gaming its only 110-140

your nowhere near stressing the cables etc.

[The Black Reaper]

ok great! but is that still the case when the 6 pin connector comes out from the 6+2 pin connector? I'll try to get a better photo if you need to see what it looks like..

[Crazyeyesreaper]

it should still be fine, you need tor emember even if its split a 6pin cable can actually handle 150w, meaning that physically the gpus will only pull 75 per 6pin so even if done in daisy chain its still fine

--------150w curren------{ splits to 2x 6pins = 75w each see? still fine lol

now if you were crossfiring 2 GPUs that were 1 6pin and 1 6+2 then i might be worried but with 6870s theres really nothing to worry about ive done far stupider things in the pursuit of performance,

example 400w bestec psu aka oem crap no sata cables no PCIE cables, used a single molex to 6pin adaptor, and used molex to sata adaptors, to make a legacy rig run with a 8800gs lol still worked fine, for the most part till i overclocked but thats a bit different.

anyway again your perfectly safe. there wont be any issues, even with your system as it is your only gonna hit maybe 170+170+170 =510w-550w of power draw max load everything pushed to 100% still 100w of clearance. your typical load when gaming will only be around 380-440w

[The Black Reaper]

ok great! thanks for the help. Now i can safely upgrade my system before skyrim comes out.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

indeed you can good sir.

i make one statement tho for those less knowledgable, dont use adaptors unless absolutely neccesary even then replace the PSU with one that does have proper connections as soon as possible,

take if from me ive fried enough parts to know its a bad idea, most of the time and is really only ment to be done, when theres no other alternative.