The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition

Hey Russ just remember you've still got 2day . Nobody knows about tomorrow 4 sure, and Yesterdays gone
TALK ATTCHA LATER

 

Hears a good deal
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/SKUSearch_v3.asp?px=MP&scriteria=SA02303

 

Looks like I'll be replacing an led or 2. Half of my led has burnt out! Has it been 4 yrs already LOL! I guess this gives me the oppertunity to switch to a Black light/UV led
Yes, I know. Dusty. Believe it or not, I can't keep up with the amount of dust this area see's...
It takes a considerable time for the LED to light up too

 

3kJodo,
In my opinion, this would be a good compromise.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150482
You could do CrossFireX using two of them, for little more than half the cost of two 5870s. Not a two slot solution, but that would make it a bit easier to get the heat out of the case when using the Coolit ECO. I've noticed that some two slot solutions still retain a lot of heat inside the case. The single slot video cards are more open, and can remove the heat with a side cover exhaust fan, and doesn't increase the CPU temps either. 625MHz, 256 bit interface using DDR3 memory, for an effective memory clock speed of 1990MHz. For the money it would be tough to beat, and I have nothing but the greatest respect for XFX video cards! VGA, DMI and HDMI output, as well. They are excellent cards for the money! I plan on at least one for myself in the near future. It would keep you out of the doghouse with the Little Woman too! LOL!!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Oman7,
Yup! Walking is a bitch! LOL!!

Russ

 

Hey... I have a BLACK light tube if you're interested!!!

 

Hey mister... you can say "hi" to others too!!

 

I can't wait for the LED's on my fans to die...although the fans will probably be dead by then :\

If gaming capability is a main goal than I would suggest spending a bit more on the gpu. Buying a "tie" over anything is usually a waste of money as what ever you get later will most likely not have come down that much in price. If you tell us the desired budget we'll be able to give better advice instead of "this is better than that" stuff.

About a month ago I took a serious look at the 5870 (wanted one for my system) and came to the conclusion that it isn't worth the extra money over a 5850. If you need more than one 5850 to get what you want you'll probably need two 5850's.

 

yeah, IMO 2 5850s > 5970. exactly same peformance, very much less money.


i surely doubt you will need more power for a LONG time. plus i doubt in the end you will CF the 5970 as by that time new cards will be out.

 

I was going to get the xfx card that Russ suggested but the wife is irritating me so 5850 it is

 

I like the idea of 2 5850's. But darnit...I know nothing about crossfire. I know nothing about bridging ANY GPU LOL! And given how much power is required, I think I'll stick with the 5970(though it's also power hungry). As soon as I can get it that is. I think my current PSU can handle a 5970, but I don't know about 2 5850's. And most importantly, there can be bugs involved in crossfire/Sli, as well as games simply not supporting dual GPu's. Which is total BS. I'm not even a programmer, and I can see the ability to program in such a way, that 2 or 4 GPU's should not matter. Heck, the same goes for CPU's...

 

Only in the US for some reason, in the UK two 5850s and a 5970 are the same price.

 

You should be fine with 2 5850's. I'm about to sell my CM-850 Plus for cheap if you're interested in that. It'll handle those with NO issues if you like. Heck I'll make ya a heck of a deal on the Black light and PSU!!! PM me if interested!!

I agree on the programming but I'm pretty simple too Oman7.

 

omega, you have a HX750, unless you want 2 5970s or 2 GTX480s your PSU will eat up anything else.


your right sam, i just checked, and im shocked. The 5850s price has increaced loads! They are all near 250 or above now. And i don't get why, seeing as the 5830 has dropped to about 170. Its stupid really, but seeing the 5970 down to 500 is good.

 

@russ

i see what you are saying. Well i couldn't really give any sort of real world results for the h50. I changed case when i put it in, going from the SG02 to the SG03, where fan placement, hdd placement and fansize are completely different, not to mention its a verticle case, and no horizontal. Also i swapped from a 45nm E5200 to a 65nm Q6600. So i never used any other CPU with the H50.

in my case i have 2 fans, both in the front, both 120mm. For the H50 i use the stock case fan and not the corsair fan, though this might not be the best idea, because those fans really don't push that much air, but they are dead quiet. I also placed the H50 on the top fan (both fans touch each other vertically) and made it an exhaust, which i don't think is working great either. The other fan cools the GPUs. Any idea on what 2 fans to get?

 

Shaff.. shhhhhh!! I'm trying to get rid of this CM-850.

He's right Oman7 but the offer still stands.

 

The 5850 has been £240-£250 for many months. The HD5970 price has come down. The 5850 was only £220-£230 or less in the first couple of months after its release.

 

LOL gm. I think I'm set on PSU's. Not because shaff said so...

I had a feeling I was fine, but I don't like pushing the limit. And I DO have a lot of hardware. I'm not sure what I want to do with that led yet. I'm definitely keeping the case though. After all that modding, I'm definitely keeping it

I'm not sure when I'm gonna buy the 5970 yet. I want it more than words can say. That's a fact. But my car is definitely top priority. My brother suggested my getting a jeep. People do speak pretty highly of their jeeps. I once worked for an oil changing shop (Valvoline). People like their jeeps But I also want to drive my current car into the dirt. I don't like the idea of offing it to some poor unsuspecting fool. The engine seems to have its near full potential, but oil leaks, sensors are failing, muffler is about to fall off. Its pretty much a lost cause LOL!

It'd be my luck, to buy the 5970, and then my car fails HARD! I currently have 550$ saved. Not long now

 

Shaff,
I would like to try one of these R4 Series Cooler Master 120mm fans.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103061

With a fan controller and a bit of tuning they might do real well. I also am looking at arctic cooling.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186033

I've been thinking about your use of the top fan position, and wonder if it would do better on the bottom fan. Then again, there's the heat from the Video card(s) to consider.

The biggest problem I ran into was that when I installed the 955BE, my motherboard temps jumped way up. That's why I put the Video card in the bottom slot. After I installed the ECO, the motherboard temps shot way up. The main problem was getting enough cooling air to flow over the NB heatsink. I resolved that problem by sticking a 70mm fan in between the ECO pump housing and the plastic thumb screws, on the bottom, blowing down. It fits snug enough not to need mounting, but I will get a long zip tie and go under the mount and over the fan to secure it, just to be safe. Not very elegant, but it looks good and it does work. The air that comes out of the fan is actually very cool to the touch. Surprisingly quiet qt 3200 rpm. I guess being so open, where the air can flow freely, makes it a lot quieter fan than when it's attached to an AMD CPU cooler. I was able to move the video card back to the top 16x slot, and the motherboard temps are now solidly in the mid to high 30s, the CPU hasn't exceeded 48C, stressed to the max.

I'm not going to do anymore long stress testing, as I've found it to be a bloody waste of time. I'll do some short stress testing, just no more long runs! What's the point of stress testing it for 10, 12, or even 24 hours and pass, only to crash the computer running DVDRB/CCE. From now on I'm going to let the computer do some folding for 24 hours, once I think I have it right. If it completes all the work units, it should be stable. Temperatures were not the issue here at all, the problem was processor errors, not heat! Max CPU temp is only 41-42C running DVDRB/CCE, 2 pass.

Here's my latest temps and voltages. It's only 78F/26C in here at the moment, and I don't see how I could get any lower temperatures than these.



It's getting scary in that it's almost June, and we've only had 6 days the entire year that were 80F/29C or higher. It's been like this since that big Earthquake in Chile, 4-5 months ago. We are used to sunny bright blue skies, and we aren't seeing them. Even when we do, it's not all that warm. Less than a week ago we were in the mid 40s, overnight. Earlier in the week they had enough snow on the mountain, to make chains mandatory! Something just isn't right! Maybe 2012 isn't so far fetched after all.

Best Regards,
Russ

 

sammorris,
Wasn't it Nzxt that had a case with three static air fans mounted behind the drive bays, that just moved air within the case? I remember seeing something like that, but I'm not sure where.

Best Regards,
Russ