Video Card Thread (Mostly Gecube x1950xt)

I think I've been looking at that one too.
But aren't those rims you can "open" annoying for the front access?
That's something I don't like on cases, doors and things in front of the ODDs.
The Antec 900 is about perfect for me I guess, I'm just worried about a lot of dust getting in. XD

But actually, I forgot I can't buy from Newegg, since they don't ship internationally as far as I know.
A good similar alternative would be TigerDirect, but when I search for the Antec on their website, I find very expensive high-end systems built into that case or similar.

I've e-mailed them about if they also sell the case separately, but they don't reply.
I never get replies from stores, prix... (sorry, just pizzes me off)

 

I'd rate that over the 900 I think, mainly because of the extra room you get, plus the large side panel fan is nice.
The 900 also gathers dust like you wouldn't believe. I have one and I can tell you that your concerns are well founded.
As for case doors, they're not to everyone's taste but I think they come in useful. If done right they can also slightly quieten down those noisy optical drives.

 

Yes, but I also really like the 200mm fan on top, 120mm in back, optional 80mm on side I believe, 2x 120mm in front.
Plus a PSU could take out hot air, would be great if it's a Zalman with heatpipes, it's so quiet and cool.

And for the dust, I would take my chance on it since this specific system would end up in my room.
And I can clean that up pretty well and maintain it.
I mean, it's also usually closed up there, not people walking around bringing in dust and stuff moving around a LOT of air all day long, like currently with this system in the livingroom.


But about the PSU that would be lying on the bottom:
I guess it would be upside-down then or something, but does that matter for one?
And also, for the cooling it doesn't seem that logical, since hot air goes up normally, but of course the top fan does that job then.
But will the PSU help any, or just slightly less?

 

The 200mm fan on top of the 900 is quite slow, and while it pushes quite a fair bit of air without that much noise, don't think it counts as 'extreme cooling'.
Funny you should mention the Zalman PSUs, believe it or not Corsair ones not only run cooler, but also quieter. Zalman seem to be getting beaten in pretty much every area they make products in. Scythe, Nexus and Sharkoon make better case fans, Corsair make better power supplies, Thermalright and Tuniq make better heatsinks, and so on...

As for the dust, my room doesn't see that much activity, yet the PCs get covered in dust easily. Funny, since the shelves in this house don't attract anywhere near as much dust as back home in Essex.
The PSU will cool itself fine, don't worry about the naysayers, having a PSU upside down works perfectly well enough.

 

gave up and sold my x1950xt on ebay

moving onto dual 8800GT next week.

was fun guys..xD

well actually it was more headache setting it up -.-

 

the forum post that will not die.......

 

Well, to be honest, I like my current Zalman PSU.
The only worry I have is that the air might move slow through the PSU.
But I guess that's a combination of heatpipes and a slower fan to reduce noise.

But what I think of the Antec is, that you could create a nice steady and consistent airflow with the cooling-features it has, also at the right spots.
Many fans at a low speed, even added up, would seem to me it would be less noise than like a couple of less fans at higher speeds.
I would add a Arctic Cooling fan with their patented construction on the side panel.
I love mine, no noise and vibration almost at all, just the moving (also meaning sound) of wind.

And if the stock fans make too much noise, even at the lowest setting, there are always good aftermarket ones.
There might not be many 200mm's, but I guess since you said so it doesn't make too much noise.
I would like it to just turn at a lower speed as some extra cooling on top anyways.
And considering it's size, it might or would indeed push out a lot of air.

I've looked at many other cases, but couldn't find almost any that got even close to the construction, features, just the look and setup-up or interface, you know how to work with it and all.
Maybe just 1, which I don't remember anymore...
Most are just like, really simple, small fans and also the standard 2 or 3, a lot of closed fronts, etc. etc.
And they're also expensive a lot, especially considering the lack of features compared to the 900.

 

That's right, and surprisingly few people realise that. "Mmm, lots of fans it must be noisy" - no, lots of fans means slow fans, and therefore quiet!
The arctic cooling fans whilst quiet don't push very much air at the same speed, so work out about average in the scheme of things. They do have a smooth noise character though, useful in a "low noise, but not silent" environment.
There are no aftermarket 200mm fans, but I don't really see the top fan on the 900 as a problem, you just have to undervolt it so it spins slowly. Really slowly though, one wonders whether it's worth having it move at all. The front grilles with visible fans offers a marginal airflow improvement over most cases for the front fans, but the side-effect of this means they are much louder than normal fans. To keep mine silent I have to run them on low at around 5V, running at around 500rpm. That obviously results in tiny amount of airflow.

 

Well if anyone wants to buy my X1950XT AGP with the HR-03 it'll be on Ebay next week! (hopefully) Have ordered a Evga 8800GT SSC and an Asus P5N32-E SLi. Getting uber fed up with the instability of my system at anything above 2ghz on the cpu so I thought I'd bite the bullet as the 8800gt is clearly the best bang for buck card that's been out for ages and I should be able to get the 25-50% overclock on the cpu I'm after with that m/b. Gonna put a cheapy E2160 in my old board and give it to my dad as he's still running a XP2400+!! Only thing is I hope they are able to get the card in and deliver before xmas. (I'm sure all these current stock shortages are just so they can get the gts' out of the way!)
For anyone getting a 8800GT, I noticed this post on the Evga forum;
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=149429&mpage=1&key=
it seems the current drivers (they seem to agree on the Nvidia drivers) are not ramping up the fan speed when the card heats up so rivatuner from day one is a good idea!

 

Should have gotten a HD 3870. 8800GT is very good though.

 

Nah, not really. For a start I've had more probs with this ATi card than I've ever had with all my gfx cards. All my Nvids have been fine. (Yep, definitely bias! Once bitten twice shy and all that!) 3870 isn't better than a 8800 anyway, and falls noticeably behind if you use AA/AF (and I do use AA) Crossfire has loads more bugs than SLi, performance is well below 8800gt SLi and I've bought the SSC edition which is runs 700/2000/1600 so it will kick any 3870's ass!!

 

It's a little slower, but it gives better image quality, which is the entire point of upgrading GFX card, to make the games look better.

 

Hmm, well I'd say that the ability to run AA is enhancing image quality even if the colours aren't as vibrant. And for me, fps is the primary indicator of performance. Highest fps card will last the longest in terms of new releases and future playability and I don't want to have to buy a new one in 8 mths time! (Probably will though!)

 

I'll happily take the HR-03 but you can keep the X1950XT thanks!
I think you're stupid not to buy another ATI card just because you've had issues with one ATI don't even officially support!
I see you've been turned to a complete nvidia fanboy as you have the facts all wrong on the 3870. A shame really. Well, enjoy your expensive and outdated 8800GT. The rest of us can enjoy highly defined Anti-aliased better rendered graphics!

 

I don't thing GeCube is known for making great products so that's why you probably had a bad experience. Now if you had a HIS card it would be different.

 

Indeed. However, it stands to reason that Gecube are the only company to try that experimental card. Why do you think the other manufacturers didn't follow suit?

 

I didn't realise I'd cause such offence! Well sure, Gecube did a rubbish job, and I have had good ati cards like the 9800s, I'm certainly not a fanboy, I just pick whatever I think's best. HD3870s are worth getting if you are going to crossfire as they are cheaper (sorry about that nowhere near as good as SLi bit - not technically true!) but card vs card the benchmarks say the 8800gt has it, otherwise they couldn't justify the price premium.
I don't have £300+ just to blow on gfx, and as the G100 and R700 are due soon I don't really see the point on buying two current gen cards now. I think the 8800 is clearly the best option (for me as I don't want to buy DDR3 either or settle for a cut-down X38 to use my DDR2)
Just out of interest Sam, what was the last Nvidia card you owned?

 

The bit about crossfire being rubbish compared to SLi was the only truthful thing in your post!
The 8800GT is, without question, faster than the 3870. However, the difference just isn't that big, and considering in most games the frame rate difference is less than 10%, I'd go with the card that's futureproof.

As for the last nvidia card I owned, it was a Geforce 4 MX440 PCI. A long time ago eh? I had no problems in it, and I'm happy to acknowledge it worked fine for me. The fact that I've subsequently owned ATi cards has simply been because they worked out better for me at the time. The Radeon 9200 was part of a pre-packaged PC deal, the X800 pro that replaced it was because there were no 6800GTs to be had, and that the X800Pro had VIVO. The X1900XT was pretty much for the same reason. I would be more than happy to buy an 8800GTX if I had a high budget, but I see no reason to, when an HD3870 would suffice for a much lower cost and has more features, but above all renders a better quality image, and isn't that why you get a more powerful graphics card in the first place? The low frame rate vs high frame rate is neither here nor there, if the frame rate was too low you'd turn the detail down, so I'm quite happy to get a few fewer fps, because it earns me a better quality image! I much prefer decent looking games to having frame rates in the hundreds.

 

Well, of Arctic Cooling I only like the one with the special constructions, so the ones that have this rubber suspension thing, which is just great.
While the propellers themselves aren't covered on the sides, which worries me about losing air-pressure/flow, they blow pretty hard at full speed and quiet.
I do not like the conventional construction of their fans, the 120mm's I have had, even 2 or 3 types, were noisy like ODDs.
However, that was at full speed since I could not change that, so they might be quiet(er) at lower speeds.

But I thought the 900 had a switch for 3 settings or something?
I saw the video-review by 3DGameMan on the official Antec-website, and he showed and let hear 3 different settings.
To be honest I only like the lowest setting, which seems to be quite enough to me for airflow with the amount of fans and their sizes.
Plus you have to think of that there will also be extra noise from a PSU, 1-2 HDDs, CPU-fan, GPU-fan and maybe an extra side-fan.

 

If anything you should get a 8800GT, GTX is a waste of money and has even weaker points VS the GT, it's the new standard man.

And I agree, I also want quality of course, I would already be happy if my games would NOT hit under a framerate of 30-40, meaning it will always be at least smooth.
Which is more than playable if it can do that, I can know because I always play games with framerates varying from 10-20 to 30-40, plus stutters/pauses, which I hate.
I also hate those people which say a framerate of 30-40-50-60 isn't good enough and not playable, because that's simply not true.
Personally I like anything between 30-40 to 60-80-100, as long as it doesn't hit a moment under that.