The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread

not a great deal, in my experience slot coolers like these are largely useless. Radial fan blowers tend only to work at immediate contact with the heat surface.

 

Really? it dropped my 6200 XFX 12C. I suppose current cards are a bit more extreme though LOL.

This was in a VERY tight case too!

 

Depends on how good your case ventilation is then perhaps. In any situation where I have a half decent case I find they do very little.

 

Estuansis and Krj, - I'm definitely gonna do i7 and the DFI board, DFI Lanparty X58 T3eH8 - it's not on Newegg - they have the H6 version that Sam is not too thrilled with from the standpoint of chipset cooling, but the H8 can be found around the net for about $300. Yes, it's 16x on both main gpu slots, and offers those "hot slots" on slot 2 and 6 for what looks like the best spacing of all the X58 Crossfire boards. (You can run a tri-sli card in slot 4 but then you don't get 16x on all three slots.)

I will undoubtedly need a ton of help from everybody about working through that DFI bios.



I am truly amazed about the 24/7 computer usage! Well, no way will I be doing that since I will only be using the gaming rig once a week - and probably pulling 900 watts the whole time from what I have read!! Plus, don't those 4870x2 cards pull a bunch of juice - like maybe 100 watts each - even in idle? I think I read the 4890x2 will pull slightly less, but I forget why.

So all of you guys are saying - leave the hard drives running all the time and don't cycle them up and down? Hmmmmm. Okay I'll increase the shut-down from 15 minutes to an hour. Omega, I wouldn't have thought about turning off speedfan either - pretty clever checking SMART and seeing the extra time on the drives. Good thing Sam's around to keep everything straight. LOL

Jeff, thanks for the great partial review on Tom Clancy's HAWX - "nearly photo realistic" sounds fantastic! I'll have to see what you are talking about!

I haven't caught up with Tom Clancy since the first ghost recon in Mexico City. I got frustrated 2/3 through the game - playing at hardest - and gave the game away but now I want to get the full package on Steam and try all the Clancy's again. How does HAWX compare to the Rainbow - Las Vegas versions?

So, Omega, your case isn't on your sig, but aren't you the other one with a HAF? I remember somebody talking about a private After Dawn HAF club - was that you? Did Sam get his HAF after you raved about yours? LOL

We WERE discussing the HAF about a year ago, when the Tempest was Sam's favorite to recommend - hey speaking of that - what happened to the Tempest and why did you get the HAF instead, Sam? - probably because Omega told you to, right?

I have that exact blitztorm pci slot cooler - Travis a year or so ago recommended it, when everybody was in Gecube mode. But I took it out of my case after I modded the ceiling fan - interesting cooler with combination of radial fan and turbine - and you can leave it turned down until you need it (it's noisy turned all the way up though.) If you have the HAF, Kevin, I doubt you'd see any help from it - or am I confusing you with some other HAF person?

Rich

 

You can't really compare the two. HAWX is a flight sim

@Sam

Whenever you get it installed, I'd love to play HAWX against you on hamachi or Garena.

 

What the hell is a flight simulator - you mean - like Flight Simulator? You're in an airplane like you're flying? How do they make that into a game? LOL

- clueless Rich

 

It's a combat flight sim ;P

 

Yes, I was/am part of the HAF club. LOL! And yes, I bought mine before Sam. Perhaps I played some role in Persuasion, but he seems like both a thrifty and wise shopper sooo...

I suppose I should put that in my sig. It deserves to be presented in my sig!!! Its quite possibly the best case I may EVER own. Well...ok, maybe not ever LOL!
OK, I'll update it tonight!

 

I'm still quite partial to my Thermaltake Armor. It's heavily modified of course

 

The 4870X2s use a load of power at idle when they aren't using Powerplay (i.e. the full clock speed bug with 9.2 and 9.3 until you open ad close a game), total system draw is arund 450W a.c. at this point. When they are running in powerplay the system draw is around 300W. Idle system draw for a normal PC with an overclocked quad should be around 180W however. so the X2s are probably drawing around 55W (DC) each at true idle, 120W each at idle without powerplay, and around 200-230W each in gameplay. What is worth noting is that you can Linpack Stress Test a GPU in the same way you can a CPU. If Linpack stressed, you can get the power consumption of the X2s up to about 300W (DC) each. Under such conditions the fan speed will reach 100% on the first X2, with automatic control as even at 100% the GPU temperature reaches 97ºC within 3 minutes. Needless to say, I don't do this often!

I decided to go with the HAF over the Tempest when I decided on a dual X2 system, primarily as it has more than one 120mm intake fan. I didn't consider the Armor as it doesn't offer any better cooling than the NZXT does, which is a far more easily transportable, lightweight, quiet and to a personal level, better looking case.

 

Well the Armor has always offered sufficient cooling for my needs(and, IMO, it looks badass). I just needed a big tough case that could stand up to abuse for years and be easy to manage the wiring. I had to mod it for the latter, but it's been faithful and strong for almost 3 years now. My PC doesn't really move anywhere that often so the Armor was fine as far as portability. That's why I have a secondary build. The main rig has seen very few LANs

If I had to go for a case right now... probably a CM Stacker(uber sexy) or an HAF like you guys are so excited about. All good cases

My Armor is the really old version, BTW, without the 250mm fan. I've done extensive wire work and fan grill mods. Not to mention moving the top 90mm fan to the front just under my DVD drive to provide more direct airflow to my Tuniq.

Cooling has never been an issue AFAIK. My chipset, my cards, and my CPU have always had good temps.

 

True, but they're more big server-grade systems with loads of drives. For cooling big GPUs and an overclocked CPU cases like the HAF are better.

 

I know what you mean XD I've been considering a new case for a while now. If I wasn't using ATi, I would have gotten the super sexy CM Stacker Nvidia Edition by now.

Also, I had a dream about passing up stealing two water cooled BFG GTX280s for a 4870X2... like 20 minutes ago right before I woke up XD

 

Lol, I'd take the 280s, rip the waterblocks off, sell them and buy two GTX280 Acceleros...

But then, I'd also have to steal an i7 system to use SLI... Ho hum.

 

I know. I woke up and I was like WTF why didn't I nab the GTX280s? XD

But again there's the problem of SLI vs Crossfire. All of my boards are the latter. Supposing I could try a custom BIOS flash XD

Either way, I find myself dreaming about computers more and more lately. In anticipation of a new hardware upgrade decision maybe? IDK

 

Lol I tend not to dream about computers. Often Sci-Fi 20-years-in-the-future societies though, weird. SLI for socket 775 can get lost, to be honest, as cool as three GTX285s would be (Will happily admit that's even better than two X2s)

 

hey people, I'm here looking for advice because I sure as hell can't make a decision.... I want to get either a gtx295 or a 4870x2 but I can't decide! I play everything at 1920x1200 and the 4 or so reviews I have read show the gtx295 pulls ahead at that res, even with max AA and AF enabled - it only loses out to the radeon at 2560x1600 with high AA. However, the gtx295 is upwards of $120AUD more expensive (which sort of matters, but it depends).
Anyone got anything to swing me either way?
Would two 4890s in crossfire outperform either of these 2 cards? Obviously that's even more expensive again, and I haven't seen any reviews yet, but I'm just curious.

 

Being that I also game at 1920 x 1200 resolution, I can comfortably say, save your money and get the 4870X2. It will play all of your games maxed easily. The only place the GTX295 will have a noticeable advantage is Crysis. And even then the 4870X2 is quite capable in Crysis. The price of the GTX295 doesn't really justify the performance.

Of course, if price is no object, the GTX295 is still quite a bit faster ;P

 

The GTX295 isn't leaps and bounds ahead of the 4870X2 at 1920x1200. In all but Crysis, you may not even notice the difference unless you use crazy levels of AA. For the vast price difference, it is certainly not worth the money. For the record, two HD4890s are expected to outperform a 4870X2 by around 15%, which makes up the gap between the X2 and the GTX295.

 

Ok, so if I DO use crazy levels of AA, the 295 will come out ahead?
Edit: meh screw it, I'm just going to get crossfire 4890s