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gallery doesnt work for me

here they are if they dont for anyone else
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3128383/Pict...11111/bf3.jpeg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3128383/Pict...1111/cry2.jpeg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3128383/Pict...1111/dirt.jpeg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3128383/Pict...11111/sky.jpeg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3128383/Pict...111/avgpow.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3128383/Pict...111/avperf.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3128383/Pict...1/lod-temp.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3128383/Pict...1/perf-wat.png

Dual-gpu cards from last gen are still boss I see..

Lol, yeah. A little bit of overclocking an HD 7970 (and I presume the GTX 680 as well) can net you performance parity with the GTX 590 though.

Precisely as I called it. The GTX 680 is better, but if you bought an HD 7970 you aren't missing much in performance. Not unless DiRT 3 is one of your most-played titles, which is funny because ATI cards have always sucked at DiRT 3 despite it being one of the AMD-backed titles.

Can't wait to see what some water-cooler GTX 690's will do.

1.5GHz Dual-CPU solution go!

I have a feeling that the GTX 690 is still a single-GPU card. That, or they'll save the fully powered Kepler GPU for GTX 780 the same way the GTX 580 is the fully powered Fermi.

Okay so it's Spring now and temperatures have skyrocketed. It's the first time I've used my PC in a climate higher than 20 degrees Celsius. At one time I thought that the stock cooler for my X4 955BE was good enough, but Jesus. I can't play anything without it heating up to above 50 degrees and the CPU fan runs at 4500+ RPM while playing Company of Heroes and 5200+ RPM while playing Civilization 5. That's pretty much full tilt. So obviously I need a new cooling solution.

I want to go with the CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ because it's cheap and damn effective. However, my case simply just does not have the space for it (the thing is massive). I was contemplating Corsair's Hydro line of closed-loop water coolers for CPUs. I'd be using the H40 version ($50 at local store). I have done the measurements and the radiator will fit in my current case. So maybe I should go with that.

Thoughts?

I must admit, I'm glad to see that the 'early adopter' 680 benches were considerably off. 680s outperforming my 590 by 40% was quite frightening while amazing at the same time.

And yes, I too, have noticed the dramatic rise in temperature. My new cooling solution should be installed Sunday. I expect my temps to drop back down after that.

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I have a feeling that the GTX 690 is still a single-GPU card. That, or they'll save the fully powered Kepler GPU for GTX 780 the same way the GTX 580 is the fully powered Fermi.

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The 680 is the 104 chip right? 110 should be the 690 and 695 should be dual 110s.

Well my chip still stays well below 60 degrees at 4.4GHz. Had to lower from 4.6 because new BIOS for board changed something and I'm to lazy to figure out new stable settings for 4.6GHz.

@Timo: Precisely. But they may look at their own sales and performance and hold off on GK110 for the next generation of cards and make the GTX 690 a dual GK104 solution instead. If I were running a business, that's what I would do. You only need to be just good enough to take the performance crown from your competition. Since AMD won't trump a GTX 680 with a single GPU solution until the Radeon HD 8970 comes out, it doesn't make sense for Nvidia to release GK110 now. They would save money on R&D that way.

Amit, will this fit your case? I have one on another computer in my house and it's pretty damn good. I would *not* recommend going with the H40; rubber tubing instead of FEP, loud pump, ineffective cooling. It's too much of a hassle for too little benefit. If you want water, either get the H80 (or better) or go custom. If Asetek's AMD-branded cooler was out, I would recommend that one because it is identical to their Intel one except for the mount (duh), and the latter has been pretty awesome for me thus far.

No, that cooler won't fit. The clip would hang over my first two RAM slots so I'd be forced to put my RAM in the the third and forth slots, effectively destroying my Dual Channel performance. The closed-loop water cooling isn't a hassle, but I've read reviews and it doesn't seem to cool a whole lot. I really wish that Zalman one would fit. So many people are having a great time with it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Warsaw

@Timo:

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http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...21/ytdJY-1.png

My RAM slots aren't blocked...does your RAM have those obnoxious fins or are your RAM slots just really close?

E: Also, you know you can flip AMD mounts around to put the clip on the other side, right? Or do you have obnoxious metal heatsinks and/or capacitors in the way there, too?

I don't buy ridiculous looking RAM. No fins. RAM slots are too close I guess. I could go with a Corsair H60 since it's only $10 more.

See edit above.

The primary reason I stayed away from Corsair's cooling solutions is that all of them, from the H40 clear up to the H100, have pump grinding noises with enough prevalence to make me nervous. They say it's a simple matter of tipping your case for a few minutes to fix it, but the bottom line is that such an issue shouldn't exist. It's strange, because Corsair's water systems are also made by Asetek (as are Antec's), so I don't know what the difference between it and Intel's hardware is that would cause that. I didn't want to chance it, but that's just me. I feel like a good air cooler is the better way to go.

Except for the H80 and H100 I've worked with. They don't have pump issues and the only noise I hear from them is the fans.

You know there was a recall on a bunch of them for pump issues right? I don't think the new/repaired ones have the problem.

Reviews on Newegg imply otherwise.

Most reviews on Newegg are bullshit anyways. The 5/5 and 4/5 ones are usually legit, though. My friend uses one of the discontinued H50 coolers and doesn't have an issue with it. He's had it for about a year and a half now, too. If I hadn't seen it in operation myself I wouldn't have even considered looking into a liquid cooled solution. Custom liquid cooling is the best for cooling, but it's too damn expensive and too much work to maintain, and then you have to worry about leakages.

90% of the bad reviews I read online for computer parts go along the lines of:

"The manual said I could install this PCI-E card into my AGP slot, but it wouldn't fit unless I put it in the case backwards. So I had to rip the audio ports off my motherboard to make it fit, once I did that and turned on the computer didn't recognize the card and I couldn't see anything on the screen. What a shitty card 1/5 eggs."

Depends on the product and how the review reads. You can usually tell which ones are legit and which ones are bullshit if you know enough about computers yourself, which you seem to.

I've also never seen a review that was that ignorant. Then again, I only consider products that have 4 eggs to begin with.

The H60 is the update to the H50. The H80 is the update to the H70, but the H70 is still around.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Amit

Custom liquid cooling is the best for cooling, but it's too damn expensive and too much work to maintain, and then you have to worry about leakages.

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Expensive? Yes, you'll be spending about 1/3 to 1/2 what you spend on your computer just for quality water-cooling components.

Hard to maintain? Not really, if you setup a drain-link in your loop near the bottom of the loop and run it down to the base of your computer you can just straddle your PC over a sink and let the plug out/release the valve to drain your loop. Fill it a couple times to clean the gunk out of it and you're good to go.

Leakages aren't a problem if you use quality compression fittings.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cortexian

90% of the bad reviews I read online for computer parts go along the lines of:

"The manual said I could install this PCI-E card into my AGP slot, but it wouldn't fit unless I put it in the case backwards. So I had to rip the audio ports off my motherboard to make it fit, once I did that and turned on the computer didn't recognize the card and I couldn't see anything on the screen. What a shitty card 1/5 eggs."

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You have to stop doing that. The memories alone are enough to kill me with laughter.

:saggy:

Rule of thumb for newegg reviews: Don't read newegg reviews.

Anything useful you can find from them you can also find from 5 seconds of searching on google.

Well, the newegg reviews are often useful. Sort from lowest to highest and go through all the 1 of 5 egg reviews. Ignore all the things like people sticking a PCIe card into an AGP slot because of manual and look for things like people having the same kind of failure. When the manufacturer (well, major companies such as WD, EVGA, etc.) doesn't step in to make a comment on those reviews, it's generally a hardware fault they try to sweep under the rug.

Rule of thumb for google reviews: dont read google reviews.

Except all the Google reviews I read come in the form of well thought out forum longposts on respected websites like Overclock.net and HardOCP. Much better then on Newegg since you get a bunch of replies from people countering the negative/positive comments the reviewer made.

Significantly better way to research a product than Newegg reviews. But yeah, reading the 1/5 egg reviews and looking for similarity sometimes helps. Most of the time it's still retards using the included drivers/firmware/BIOS and not the latest ones available from the website.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zeph

When the manufacturer (well, major companies such as WD, EVGA, etc.) doesn't step in to make a comment on those reviews, it's generally a hardware fault they try to sweep under the rug.

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Or because they aren't going to bother replying to 'DOA' commends when they can guess it was due to the user mishandling the shit during installation then blaming shipping/newegg/manufacturer and returning it claiming it's faulty.

There's a reason newegg refuses to accept any CPU returns due to damaged pins.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zeph

look for things like people having the same kind of failure

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The 'expert reviews' for my video card had a number of complaints about driver restarts/crashes, some of them actually written well and seemingly helpful. Most of course blamed on the hardware, though some said it was adobe flash? Given my level of respect for newegg reviews I completely ignored them and got it anyway.

It started crashing/driver restarts, ok so they were right about one thing, I was surprised. But after seeing it for myself it showed all the signs of an unstable overclock. (this card is factory OC'd) what do you know when I bumped the stuff down to reference levels it runs like a charm. After looking it turns out the reference clocked version of my card has no such negative reviews despite identical hardware.

There were also complaints about heat levels, I can't say much about their systems but either they have poor airflow or live in volcano's. Right now its idling at 32C. Loads don't go over 45C.

Also yeah 680 on newegg for $500 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...20600%20series

E: I literally just watched all these cards go from available to out of stock in 5 minutes, holy crap.

For $500 I'm not surprised. This is the cheapest the top-end single card in a tier has been for a LONG time.

If I had the cash I would have jumped on two.

It's cheaper than HD 7970s were at launch, holy balls. If only I could have waited another three months. Oh well, you can't win them all.

E: After reading the AnandTech review, it appears to me that while a stock GTX 680 performs better (in games I don't play, mind you), the HD7970 has more pent-up potential. It looks as if the GTX 680 is clocked up and that's what's making it run faster. The amount of overclocking headroom on Tahiti is already known to be rather obscene. I'd be interested in seeing head-to-head overclocked match between the 680 and the 7970.

Also, if you do a lot of compute stuff, stay away from the GTX 680. It blows at compute tasks.

Still does CUDA tasks better than AMD cards since AMD cards can't do CUDA at all! :downs:

OpenCL.

cuda_supported_cards.txt
GeForce GTX 285
GeForce GTX 470
GeForce GTX 570
GeForce GTX 580
Quadro CX
Quadro FX 3700M
Quadro FX 3800
Quadro FX 3800M
Quadro FX 4800
Quadro FX 5800
Quadro 2000
Quadro 2000D
Quadro 2000M
Quadro 3000M
Quadro 4000
Quadro 4000M
Quadro 5000
Quadro 5000M
Quadro 5010M
Quadro 6000

Sorry about your lack of Adobe awesomeness support.
(you can actually just edit this list if your GPU isn't on it and it's newer than the 285)

LOL huge card:

http://static.techspot.com/images2/n...22-image-1.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cortexian

cuda_supported_cards.txt
GeForce GTX 285
GeForce GTX 470
GeForce GTX 570
GeForce GTX 580
Quadro CX
Quadro FX 3700M
Quadro FX 3800
Quadro FX 3800M
Quadro FX 4800
Quadro FX 5800
Quadro 2000
Quadro 2000D
Quadro 2000M
Quadro 3000M
Quadro 4000
Quadro 4000M
Quadro 5000
Quadro 5000M
Quadro 5010M
Quadro 6000

Sorry about your lack of Adobe awesomeness support.
(you can actually just edit this list if your GPU isn't on it and it's newer than the 285)

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I use GIMP bro. Adobe can go suck a nut with their bloatware.

Whoa whoa I didn't know GIMP did video and effects editing?!!

(Because it doesn't)

I can't wait any longer. My CPU temps hit 65 just by watching a single youtube vid with no other tabs open in Chrome. I trust Hardware Canucks' review, so I'm going to go with the Corsair H60.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cortexian

Whoa whoa I didn't know GIMP did video and effects editing?!!

(Because it doesn't)

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But you're talking to me like I need CUDA, and since I don't do video and effects editing, it's a wasted Nvidia/Adobe feelgood effort.

My fanboyism > your arguements.

Overclocked results.

They trade blows. Fuck yeah, head-to-head competition is awesome. Also, it's looking highly unlikely that we'll see GK110 before the HD 8970...

Those results look more like immature drivers on the 680's part. That's usually the case when one card beats out another in some tests but then loses by a significant amount in others (like that Metro 2033 test).

HD7970 has immature drivers, too. The GTX 680 performs poorly in Metro 2033 and Crysis anyways, a result of the architecture this time around. At stock clocks, it still lost to the HD7970.

We could see cheaper SSD's soon: http://www.techspot.com/news/47829-marvell-announces-low-cost-high-performance-sata-controller-for-ssds.html

I saw a statement that they will have increased performance, power efficiency, and lower costs, but will they be reliable?

Well the Marvel controllers have been reliable in the past, it's what the Crucial M4's use.

The shitty ones are the Sandforce controllers, and I've heard that they've almost fixed all the issues via firmware now.

http://wccftech.com/ek-announces-wor...vidia-gtx-680/

Water cooling for 680's.

quad anyone? For those of you that freak out if you frame rate drops below 200 fps.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JackalStomper

quad anyone?

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You cannot SLI more than 3 cards except with those GTX 580 Classified Ultra-Awesome Super Duper Overpriced Edition cards from EVGA and a special motherboard. Unless they changed something and I'm just old-school.

Also, I plan to 3-way SLI cards like the 680 in my next build so hush!

One thing I noticed about that, is that since the power-connectors are stacked you're still forced into the double-spacing card width. Same goes for the stacked DVI connectors. Looks like I'll be waiting on a third-party option for single-stacking goodness if I use 680's for water-cooling tri-SLI in the future.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JackalStomper

For those of you that freak out if you frame rate drops below 200 fps.

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Wait... what? They go below​ that?

https://secure.newegg.ca/WishList/My...px?ID=16668891

Am I missing anything?? Oh right the water-cooling:
• Quad radiator: http://dazmode.com/store/index.php?m...oducts_id=1178
(Would go in the bottom of the TJ11 case)
• Triple radiator: http://dazmode.com/store/index.php?m...oducts_id=1012
(Would be custom-mounted to the back of the TJ11 case since the back of the case isn't used)
• Pump/Res combo: http://dazmode.com/store/index.php?m...oducts_id=1179
• CPU block: http://dazmode.com/store/index.php?m...oducts_id=1910
• Fittings: Lots and of varying sizes/shapes/angles, assume at least $200.
• Fans: http://dazmode.com/store/index.php?m...oducts_id=1148
(Probably at least 14 of these for the radiators alone, maybe 12 depending on constrains with the PSU and quad rad in bottom of case)

Well, there's my updated build for future planning. As always it will be updated with improved parts and such as I see fit. Est cost: $7,233 w/o shipping/tax.

LOL

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cortexian

You cannot SLI more than 3 cards except with those GTX 580 Classified Ultra-Awesome Super Duper Overpriced Edition cards from EVGA and a special motherboard. Unless they changed something and I'm just old-school.

Also, I plan to 3-way SLI cards like the 680 in my next build so hush!

One thing I noticed about that, is that since the power-connectors are stacked you're still forced into the double-spacing card width. Same goes for the stacked DVI connectors. Looks like I'll be waiting on a third-party option for single-stacking goodness if I use 680's for water-cooling tri-SLI in the future.

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Somebody is trying to one-up my rig. :realsmug:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Warsaw

Somebody is trying to one-up my rig. :realsmug:

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I've been planing a new build for a few years though.

I just never have the cash on hand because shit keeps coming up and my existing rigs keep breaking and forcing me to spend half my savings for a new rig in repairs.

So, I take it you won't be buying refurb cards this time, right?

I never "bought" refurb cards.

My GTX 285's died, I got replacements, the replacements died, I got GTX 470 replacements.

I would never buy refurb cards.

You seem to have an awful lot of graphics card failures. I've had one, and it was a dead 6600 GT. Oh wow, also an Nvidia chip. Eh? Eh?

Just giving you a hard time.

Never had any card die on me, regardless of brand.

Must be a canadian thing.

E: Though a radeon x1600 that I had gotten did fry the AGP slot on my mobo, does that count?

no but seriously,
you have THAT much trouble with nvidia cards and yet you still refuse to look at an AMD option?


what the fuck is wrong with you lancer.

Well, lets take a look at my options in sequence here for a second:

1. A GTX 285 dies:
a) Send it back to EVGA for a FREE replacement. Continue using the computer with the remaining card.
b) Buy two new cards of a different make/model since I was running SLI.

2. The replacement GTX 285 dies:
a) Send it back to EVGA for a FREE upgrade to a GTX 470 since their stock of 285's is now depleted. Continue using the computer with the other GTX 285.
b) Buy two new cards of a different make/model since I was running SLI.

3. The upgraded replacement GTX 470 arrives. It can't run my system in SLI.
a) Send the other GTX 285 back for another GTX 470 while using the replacement 470 I got. End up with two GTX 470's.
b) Buy two new cards of a different make/model since I was running SLI.

My choices in bold, probably the better deal since I was never without a computer and I got a completely FREE upgrade to GTX 470's. The replacement cards EVGA sends you are refurbs or something, but they carry the same lifetime warranty as the card you originally purchased. If these 470's die in the future I'll probably get 560ti's for free, however I probably won't be using these long enough for them to fail.

I just happened to get a lemon replacement. I don't refuse to look at AMD as an alternative, I refuse to buy cards with worse performance. At the time I was considering a GTX 590 or HD 6990. I was leaning towards the 6990 since it was more powerful (though louder) and I wanted to try Eyefinity on it. So if I had bought a card it would likely have been an AMD HD 6990.

So here's a question that I've been pondering for awhile.

Right now I have two intake fans on the front of my case, the rest are all exhausts. I've been thinking of reversing the rear fan so that the top two radiator/cpu fans have access to more "fresh" air. I'm not sure if this will work very well though because the exhaust from all of my expansion cards kinda pools behind the PC, and as we all know hot air likes to rise.

Visual representation of what I'd like to change:

I should think a better idea would be flipping the radiator fans over so they draw from the outside directly while leaving the rear fan as an exhaust. Switching directions of the rear fan is going to cause turbulence not only because of moving air but because of temperature difference. Turbulence reduces the efficiency of fans and ducting.

The most you will accomplish by flipping the rear fan is blowing more air over those fancy heatsings surrounding the CPU slot (like they need it) and/or cooling off your memory. While neither is bad, they aren't really parts that you need to worry about cooling as much as the CPU and GPU, as they don't tend to get as hot in my experience.

Yeah, I'm just a fan of sticking with the "hot air rises" airflow theme. Meaning I would dislike turning my top fans around.

I'll try it at some point though and see if it makes the temps any better.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Warsaw

Somebody is trying to one-up my rig. :realsmug:

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Is it me?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Warsaw

You seem to have an awful lot of graphics card failures. I've had one, and it was a dead 6600 GT. Oh wow, also an Nvidia chip. Eh? Eh?

Just giving you a hard time.

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Doesn't help that he overclocks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cortexian

Yeah, I'm just a fan of sticking with the "hot air rises" airflow theme. Meaning I would dislike turning my top fans around.

I'll try it at some point though and see if it makes the temps any better.

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That's more of an air pressure rule. In the space of a computer's case, it'll be negligible considering you have fans creating lateral movement. If that one fan on the back starts pulling air in the case, you'll wind up with the equivalent of blowback in VTOL aircraft. It'll slowly start sucking in warmed exhaust and cooling will slowly become less efficient. Keep your cooling linear.

No, it's not you.

Nah Warsaws new PC beats your new one Zeph.

Warsaw was talking about that newegg wishlist I posted a link to.

You really should pull back on the GPU overclock though. I mean, if that extra performance is worth that much then I'd spend up.

Stock operating temps on this card are acceptable at 90 degrees, so I don't see a problem.

The EVGA Lifetime warranty covers damages done by overclocking as long as the original cooler is installed, so if something DOES go wrong there's not an issue.

Stock operating temps are 90, and that's really high. It doesn't matter what they say it should run at, running hot reduces operational lifetime. Even still, they may be saying that temperature is acceptable because they figure anybody with a high-end card will replace it before it dies anyways.

Yeah well I'm only topping out at 80 degrees since I'm runnign a custom cooling scheme. It's louder than stock settings but it cools better.

good news: evga is releasing a liquid cooled GTX 680

bad news: its still dual slot

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=163342

Terrible water-block, get an EK or something better instead and enjoy the better performance and build quality.

Hopefully the GTX 680 Classified Hydro Copper from EVGA is non-reference with extra memory, 8pin + 8pin power instead of the dumb stacked one, and a better layout of the ports. Then we might actually be able to single-stack cool them.

single slot water cooled 680 supposedly on the way? http://wccftech.com/galaxy/

Looks like it might be time to upgrade the old CM690:
http://www.corsair.com/vengeance-c70...tic-white.html

The Carbide 500R looks similar to the 690: http://www.corsair.com/pc-cases/carb...ower-case.html

Hey guys. Currently looking into upgrading my computer at the moment becuase I'm going to be starting to work in Cry Engine 3 full time, and I want some pretty powerful stuff to use. I currently run a ASUS mobo (no idea what kind at all, I want to upgrade this), ATI HD Radeon 5850 (I run a dual 22" monitor setup btw), AMD 2.4ghz dual core processor (I'd like to upgrade this as well), 8gb of RAM, and a 750watt psu by Corsair... I also have 500gb harddrive and an external one of 500gb, if that counts. Basically, what should I upgrade, and or add, to help me run smoothly when developing? I'd like to not spend a ton of money, but who knows. I'm pretty out-of-date as to whats going on in this crazy tech world, so if someone could help me out, I'd really appreciate it.

AMD Phenom II X4 965 on Newegg for $109.99 GO GO Before they sell out! That's all you really need and upgrade the GPU, but if you want a beast CPU you should look towards the X6 line instead of the X4 or go for the X4 960T which you can unlock into a 6-core CPU and overclock it.

Im assuming this is the x6 line you are talking about?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819106012

For 30 more dollars I will probably get it, still pretty inexpensive compared to the intel processors.

Also, any thoughts on this mobo? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131767

It looks like it will work with the AMD CPU I linked above and the one you did as well.

It's a good motherboard. I was going to get it to run with my X4 955 Black Edition, but they were sold out at the local shop so I went with the Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 instead. If you plan to overclock go with a Black Edition Phenom II CPU, but if not, just stick with the regular editions. They are usually fast enough. The 970 series chipsets are not good for SLI or CrossFire, though. If you want that, go for at least a 980 series board to get 8x + 8x lane speeds. Or if you want mega performance in dual GPU configuration, go for a more expensive 990 chipset board.

Also, AMD released some pretty beast drivers yesterday: http://www.techspot.com/news/48346-c...r-hd-7000.html

NVIDIA recently launched its new tank dual gpu card: http://www.techpowerup.com/165064/NV...-Launched.html

I just ordered a 3770k BWAHAHAAHAAHA

(and a whole new rig)

enjoy your sandy bridge performance with an improved price IGPU

Better clock-for-clock performance, less power consumption, and a much better GPU (which I'll actually use for my TV; not sure if it'll be noticeable for what I'll be using it for though).

No, it's not a big performance increase from Sandy, but there is an increase. Anyone expecting huge performance gains was being unrealistic to say the least; it's a die shrink. It's a tick, not a tock.

And anyway, I'm coming from an e6750. I didn't wait this long to get something a year+ old to save a few bucks and then possibly later regret not going for Ivy.

I forgot about this. Someone should make new builds, I am not familiar with anything right now.

So I bought this off eBay:

http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/N...CII2DIS1280MD5

and they sent me this:

http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/A...HD7950DC2T3GD5

lol?

Hey man, they look the same. Must be the same right?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cortexian

Hey man, they look the same. Must be the same right?

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Fine with me. :haw:

There's one less DVI port on the 7950. I assume you'll be keeping it and make the same "mistake" the shipper made by thinking it was still the GTX570? You could get away with it. And triple slot? Jesus fuck.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Amit

There's one less DVI port on the 7950. I assume you'll be keeping it and make the same "mistake" the shipper made by thinking it was still the GTX570? You could get away with it. And triple slot? Jesus fuck.

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Yeah, I had to use the DVI to mini-DisplayPort adapter that came with it to hook up my second monitor. As for it being absolutely huge, well, I have no intentions of ever running two cards, and I have more than enough space for it, so it doesn't concern me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by king_nothing_

As for it being absolutely huge, well, I have no intentions of ever running two cards, and I have more than enough space for it, so it doesn't concern me.

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Pretty much the same here. Wouldn't bother me too much other than the looming thought at the back of my mind that it might be so heavy as to snap the screws that hold it in place.

Screws would only snap if you're using shitty quality screws.

I suppose. Sometimes it makes me wonder, though, especially for the GPUs that have motherfucking retention brackets included with them lol.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by =sw=warlord

Screws would only snap if you're using shitty quality screws.

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and even then, they'd only snap when you're tightening it from torque.

Or your computer falling at terminal velocity.

Soooo, I have a bit of a dilemma here and I need some help. I am in the process of purchasing my new gaming computer, but I have run into a problem when it comes to the CPU, I was intending on getting myself a regular i7-3770 Ivy Bridge CPU to go with my ASRock Z68 motherboard, but after doing some research I found conflicting information when It comes to compatibility between the two. I read a bunch of reviews on NewEgg and found that for a bunch of people the IB processors needed a Bios Update on the Z68 motherboards to be compatible, but the Processor actually has to post first before you can update said Bios, but the IB processors won't post in the first place without the update, a bit of a catch 22 it seems. My alternative is a 10 dollar cheaper i7-2600k. Im just curious if anyone else here has any knowledge on the subject and might could give me some advice on how to proceed at this point...

Check Asrocks site to see if the boards ship with the updated BIOS, those reviews might be old. Some said the same for my 990x board in regards to bulldozer, but that wasn't an issue with mine as it shipped with the latest BIOS.

Ivy bridge itself is at most a 10% performance boost compared to its sandy counterparts, with its main appeal to gamers being PCI-E 3.0 support.... with ivy chipsets. You won't get this with a Z68 board, so unless you're anal about TDP and iGPU performance it shouldn't effect you that much.

But then again why get a z68 at all? Get a 7x series board and you won't run into any of these problems anyway.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JackalStomper

Check Asrocks site to see if the boards ship with the updated BIOS, those reviews might be old. Some said the same for my 990x board in regards to bulldozer, but that wasn't an issue with mine as it shipped with the latest BIOS.

Ivy bridge itself is at most a 10% performance boost compared to its sandy counterparts, with its main appeal to gamers being PCI-E 3.0 support.... with ivy chipsets. You won't get this with a Z68 board, so unless you're anal about TDP and iGPU performance it shouldn't effect you that much.

But then again why get a z68 at all? Get a 7x series board and you won't run into any of these problems anyway.

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Well, at this point the problem is that I already ordered the Board, based on the advice of a friend of mine. I only discovered this issue last night xP And I am trying to decide what is best at this point for me to do as far as a CPU is concerned.

You can sometimes get motherboard makers to update the bios for you though it will cost a pretty penny.
Note:
http://www.sixtiescity.com/Anderson/PENNY1.jpg
This is not a pretty penny.

short 670, because who needs footlong cards.

http://www.techpowerup.com/img/12-05-07/54a.jpg

Makes me wonder how the heatsink would work

My PSU is starting to cut out, 2 power cuts in a week (wasnt a real power cut as my monitors were still powered). I think I might RMA it when I go on holiday as its within 3 year warrenty.

Starting to think I may make a new rig, hopefully won't have same issues as last time (faulty mobo, hdd, gfx card from all brand new items).

Thinking I might get 680GTX, 128GB SSD for default hard drive.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JackalStomper

short 670, because who needs footlong cards.

http://www.techpowerup.com/img/12-05-07/54a.jpg

Makes me wonder how the heatsink would work

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How did they manage that?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Amit

How did they manage that?

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Guess the advances made in gk104 allowed them to cut down on the VRM required to run the card, and therefore the length. Meaning if you want to overclock you're going to have to go with the good old giant version.

Rumors abound that AMD is gearing up to release a 7970 'ghz edition' to compete with the 680/670. (recent benchmarks have the 670 putting up competition against 7970's)
Not sure if there would be any actual changes in the design or if its just a factory overclock with marketing hype.

I really hope AMD's next card series are better than this, because they totally shafted early adapters with this one.

But damn. That new GTX 670 is even shorter than my old Radeon X1600 PRO. Ghz Editions are just marketing hype mostly. OC yourself and save the money. Btw all HD 7770's are Ghz editions really, so they are just a bunch of bullshit.

More on that short 670, this time with the heatsink on

http://wccftech.com/wp-content/uploa...X-670-PCB1.jpg
http://wccftech.com/wp-content/uploa...-670-PCB-1.jpg
the blue pcb is an 'overclocked edition' 670, which is really just a 680 pcb with a 670 chip.

I don't understand why they would go through all the trouble with designing that short PCB, and then ruin it by using a blower added to the end of the card :/

So I have a rough set of parts that I am thinking of getting and I was wondering if you helpful chaps can like fill in the gaps and make sure the ram is the right type and all that jazz.

Heres what I'm currently thinking.

EVGA 680GTX
Intel i7 3.4ghz
120GB SSD (Probably OCZ as they are on sale, or a Crucial)
Coolermaster HAF X Case
Corsair 16GB RAM
BR/DVD Burner
Wireless PCI Card

Okay so PSU and Mobo, I have no idea. Corsair are good ones but I have no idea what wattage I'd need, and I'd want the possibility of SLI'ing later down the road, maybe a 850W or 1000W?

Mobo I have absolutely no idea, obviously it would need to be the same socket as the i7. Manufacturer? I have no idea, ASUS perhaps?

Any help is appreciated :)

...what model of i7? Guess it doesn't matter i7's all cost an arm and a leg anyway.
I would suggest getting an ivy bridge board for the PCI 3.0 ability (which a 680 will take advantage of) and other doodads like native USB 3.0 and such.
I've been going with ASUS for years and they haven't let me down. Gigabyte would be a secondary choice and MSI after that.
AsRock also seems to be pretty popular but I haven't used a single product of theirs.

Corsair PSU's are horrible on the low level and all their models only have one 12 volt rail, that dies and poof psu evolved into paperweight.
Not that this is common but I'm paranoid :tinfoil:
Prefer Antec myself.

For SLI, you shouldn't need anymore than a 850watt these days. This is especially true with the crazy power consumption numbers that the HD7000's and g600's are getting.

Here's what I just built (didn't get everything from Newegg):

Intel Core i7-3770K
ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 LGA 1155
SAMSUNG 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 x4
SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC128D/AM 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive
Phanteks PH-TC14PE 140mm UFB (Updraft Floating Balance) CPU Cooler
CORSAIR Professional Series HX650 (CMPSU-650HX) 650W, Modular
COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Advanced
Ordered: ASUS ENGTX570 DCII/2DIS/1280MD5 GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5
Sent: ASUS HD7950-DC2T-3GD5 Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit GDDR5

I'm pretty satisfied with everything so far.

When I was researching SSDs, it seemed the most recommended ones were the Intel 520 and the Samsung 830. I don't remember if it was the OCZ or Crucial drives, but I think I remember hearing about reliability issues with one of them. The Samsung drives are apparently incredibly reliable.

Also, before you laugh at my ugly, heat spreader-less RAM, you should know that that RAM is recommended like CRAZY. It overclocks very well. I know shit about RAM overclocking, and I have mine at 1866MHz. Once I figure out what the hell I'm doing I should be able to get it to 2133MHz. Some people are getting it to 2400MHz. It's also very low profile, which I needed for that Phanteks monstrosity.

That gigantic CPU cooler is working well for me as well. I'm at 4.7GHz completely stable (24/7) right now, with hyper-threading on.