The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition

HDDs don't need much airflow to cool down, my pair of drives running at 38C and 32C in a room around 28C are proof of that (one of them is an HD753LJ funnily enough, the 32C one) and that's with a 120mm front fan not only at a minimal 800rpm, but also behind a dust filter.
HDDs that get above 50C are usually in stagnant air, so I'm willing to bet there's no front fan there at all, hence the high temps.

 

Yes like Sammy said. Links make it even better.

I personally think a stock cooler will work but you need GOOD case air flow and NO OverClock to be sure. An after market cpu cooler could be in order but NOT necessary. The motherboard temp is a little elevated as well. Have you messed with the voltages at all?

....gm

 

guess i was a bit late there. lol. AIR FLOW is what you need.

....gm

 

greensman..No everything is as is, I haven't touched a thing
The only Difference might be that the side cover is off

 

Side off generally = bad unless you introduce airflow from outside, e.g. a desk fan or something.

 

abuzar1,

You are not understanding the point I was trying to make. It's two HD-4850s, not one, that share the same PCI-E slot and has 2GB of DDR5 memory! They have taken 1 fairly large board and built two complete video cards on. They are Connected together internally for CrossFire, and share a single PCI-E 16x slot!

Read Anandtech's conclusion, and spare me that you don't like Anandtech, please. They are spot on in their conclusions! Bandwidth not can, but will be a problem depending on the game! I think that's why the GTX-280 SLI kicks it's butt in Crysis! Not enough bandwidth! The card is putting double the load on a single PCI-E slot, and the performance suffers! The first thing that I've seen on the x2 was the Techreport that I linked you. By the time I got done reading the first page, after reading specs at the bottom, I had figured all that out in my head!

With all due respect, I've been working on Microprocessor circuitry since the mid 70s, before there was a home computer, and many years before the PC even came out! Hell, the stuff I work on now, deals in Tera flops! MRIs, Cat Scans, Imaging x-rays, Electron Microscopes, and so on. The people who design all this "Star Wars" stuff have designs drawn already for the top Nehalems. 16 of them on one board! This is all cutting edge, high tech Medical and lab stuff you find in Hospitals that costs Zillions of dollars. It's what I did for a living for 30 years. Today, it's a lot easier to make service calls because everything is modular, You swap out a module to get them running again quickly, and take the defective module back to the shop for repairs! Simple and quick! Back before that, you had to diagnose and repair them on the spot! Lots of pressure! LOL!! Most companies send the modules in for factory repairs (at a Premium Price). That's where I killed all of my competition! I'm one of the few Techs left, who can still repair this stuff! It's like a lost art!

I'm only telling you all of this so you can see by my background, that I know a fair amount about this stuff! Not bragging, just stating my credentials! The HD-4870X2 is two video cards, sharing a common slot. It should not be compared to CrossFire and SLI, not single GPU Cards! They would be correct if it was billed as the fastest single slot video solution, but it's not really fair to call it the worlds fastest single card! It's not cheating, but..... That's strictly my opinion though!

Respectfully,
Russ

 

It isn't, Russ, no offense mate, that's not how it works. The HD4870X2s kick serious ass in Age of Conan, it's driver related. Dual graphics never have worked well in Crysis for either manufacturer, and as it happens, nvidia get it right better than ATi for that particular title, bandwidth has nothing to do with it. Maybe it's an issues if you don't use a PCIe 2.0 slot, but on a normal basis, the HD4870X2 can take care of itself in the bandwidth department.

As far as I can see, the 4870X2 has every right to be compared to dual graphics solutions, as it does not only match, but outperform it's standard dual card system brother, the HD4870CF combo.

 

abuzar1,

I wasn't complaining about comparing them to dual card systems, I was complaining that the article was often comparing the X2 to the single GTX-280! I was of the understanding that Crysis is a very bandwidth intensive game, which is why I made that statement!

Russ

 

Crisis issues are not bandwidth limited. The game is inefficiently coded for multi GPU, and especially Crossfire.

Also, GTX280s in SLI are twice the cost of a single 4870X2. Why compare them when they are miles apart in price?

P.S. That's Sam you're quoting up there

 

Even so, I don't expect PCIe 2.0 to be limited until we start seeing 2560x1600 playable on very high with AA.

 

abuzar1,

I don't know squat about games anymore, although I do want to get Pacific Storm and Pacific Storme Allies. It's a WWII game, the Pacific war! Looks like fun!

Russ

 

Indeed it does, but World War II imo is a slightly overused genre.

 

sammorris,

Not when the last one you played was the original Ace's of the Pacific! ROFLMAO!!

Russ

 

Haha. Well I'm not really interested in any games right now except for Dead Space and Rage.

To conclude this. The GTX280 SLI tends to outperform the 4870X2 in many games. But only by a small margin. The 4870X2 is half the price of GTX280 SLI and needs less power. The 4870X2 is the SAME price as a GTX280 and outperforms it EASILY and by large margins.

I know what I would pick.

 

Dead Space and Rage, agreed there.
I'm interested in Project Origin (FEAR 2 by any other name), Crysis:Warhead, Far Cry 2, and various others I remember being excited about and forgetting...

 

Count me in on Far Cry 2 as well. Oh and Dead Rising 2. That should only be for consoles but I can't wait!

Russ, try COD2 if you want excellent WW2 games.

 

There's going to be a Dead Rising 2?
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
lol

 

I know right. Amazing game that was.

 

rob,

9 is the highest possible multiplier for an E8400. the speed the bios is posting is not correct. cpu-z is. always trust what cpu-z reports over all else.

where that fine cpu tweak of + 5 will be nice is when you can't run your memory at it's rated speed (or fairly close) using the 8x or 9x multiplier at a particular clock speed with the available memory multipliers. it will help you tweak your memory to get it at or closer to it's rated speed by using a multiplier of 7.5x, 8.5x etc. it will vary of course with different cpu's with different maximum multipliers. you can only increase the multiplier over default with the extreme edition cpu's (high dollar).

 

abuzar1,

Not the scenario I was interested in! These are Naval battles on Pacific Storm and Pacific Storm Allies.

Thanks for the thought though,
Russ