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10. February 2009 @ 03:59 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Originally posted by harvrdguy:
(Another long post - damn Ray's gonna complain again!)

Rich
Don't say that, man
You know I like you posts [sometimes :P]

@ sam thanks for the link I was looking for a site with good wallpapers



(+[_]%) 1: 2.60 > 2.80 > 2.81 >3.03 > 1.50 > 3.52M33 > 3.52M33-4 > 3.90M33 > 3.90M33-3 > 4.01M33 > 4.01M33-2 > 5.00M33 > 5.00M33-3
My GAMING LAPTOP!! : Acer Aspire 5930G - P8400 2.26Ghz//4 GB DDR2//GeForce 9600M GT 512MB GDDR3
Ultimate Handheld/Portable Gaming Device :P
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10. February 2009 @ 14:58 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Nice going on the 30" screen. But I stand by what I said. And if I shrink the image down it's not using the whole screen so what's the point? I'd be better off using the 24" in the first place , purely IMO.

And on 30" monitors, AFAIK the routine is the same for most widescreens. A lot of newer games have no widescreen support at all without hacking the settings or patching.



AMD Phenom II X6 1100T 4GHz(20 x 200) 1.5v 3000NB 2000HT, Corsair Hydro H110 w/ 4 x 140mm 1500RPM fans Push/Pull, Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5, 8GB(2 x 4GB) G.Skill RipJaws DDR3-1600 @ 1600MHz CL9 1.55v, Gigabyte GTX760 OC 4GB(1170/1700), Corsair 750HX
Detailed PC Specs: http://my.afterdawn.com/estuansis/blog_entry.cfm/11388
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10. February 2009 @ 19:12 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
What's up guys? How much did I miss? LOL
harvrdguy
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10. February 2009 @ 19:26 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Oh, Ray, you know I was just kidding!! Lol

Okay, Sam, I'll try to stay on top of that config business - hacking the config file. For sure I'll try to educate myself - or ask you if I get stumped. Thanks.

But - let me ask, what does that do exactly? Doesn't the game actually have to have the texture depth at 2560x1600? If they didn't put that much detail into the textures - is the picture going to look all that good? Or, rather than bitmap, are they using vectors that will scale fine at the full 30" - with no loss of detail?

Yeah Estuansis, I remember you talking about widescreen hacking - there was a site you mentioned called Widescreen gaming or something like that. Sounds good - I'll have to become adept at that.

To begin to answer your question, Estuansis, for the times that you run the games in a 1920x1200 letterbox on the big screen, the border around the 23" image in the middle of the screen, in my opinion (but not yet having done it) will blend in nicely with the black Dell case color and the border should not be much of a distraction. That was what the 1600x1200 wallpaper images in the middle of the screen seemed to indicate.

But, to directly answer your question:
Originally posted by estuansis:
And if I shrink the image down it's not using the whole screen so what's the point?
..... the point is - to take directly from Sam's post about versatility, for the games where you can run full screen - you won't play the game and not notice the beautiful Russian girl soldier, like I did the first two times through COD2, lol.

You are a photographer, Estuansis, and a connoisseur of fine graphics IMO - if there ever were one. Sam too.

I am getting more and more excited about having this beast, now that I see I can actually successfully run some of my older games with my current system!

Maybe, just maybe, I am starting to get what all the hype is (things Sam has talked about - reviews on newegg) about 30" total immersion.

C'mon Estuansis, in your heart you know you want it! Hahahaha

Rich

Boozer, where'd you go - china? Go back one page and look at the Jiminy Cricket picture (near the bottom) - my brand new 30" sitting next to my newish 19".

This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 10. February 2009 @ 19:37

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10. February 2009 @ 21:15 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Sometimes I think you're just bitter about not having a 30"... :)
The reason why upscaling games that don't support 2560x1600 to that resolution is this:
Game textures are a fixed resolution (or multiple fixed resolutions, with draw distance). Consequently, when you stand right next to a texture in a game that only allows up to 1600x1200, it will never look totally crisp. However, as soon as its a slight distance away from you, it will look nice and sharp, sharper than using a low resolution to cover the whole screen. That make any sense?



Afterdawn Addict // Silent PC enthusiast // PC Build advisor // LANGamer Alias:Ratmanscoop
PC Specs page -- http://my.afterdawn.com/sammorris/blog_entry.cfm/11247
updated 10-Dec-13
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10. February 2009 @ 22:08 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Ohhh DAMN NICE man. Did you also upgrade your computer? I'm too lazy to read back.

I've not been checking back here. Idk just been doing stuff and I kinda lost interest. I'm mostly back though... I think.

:D
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10. February 2009 @ 22:12 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
For the record Rich, I would probably advise against using Quad crossfire with your PC. You have no idea how unimaginably difficult it is to get it stable. I'm up to about 8 or 9 minutes before a BSOD in a game now, and no longer get any at the desktop, but I've a long way to go yet. I'm shortly going to order my third new power supply, will probably reinstall vista a second time, and maybe even order a new motherboard. As far as setting up technology goes, this is probably the biggest challenge I've faced so far, and by the end of it, will have cost me quadruple what I paid for the second card alone.




Afterdawn Addict // Silent PC enthusiast // PC Build advisor // LANGamer Alias:Ratmanscoop
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updated 10-Dec-13
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10. February 2009 @ 22:51 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
LOL maybe I am a bit jealous. But I'm not hurting not having one. My 1920 display puts out a crisp, sharp image but lets me play the more demanding stuff. I may have a decent budget for parts but a 30" display is just too expensive and too much of a performance killer to justify the cost right now. I never said I didn't want one. I just meant that 90% of gamers would be better off with the smaller monitor.



AMD Phenom II X6 1100T 4GHz(20 x 200) 1.5v 3000NB 2000HT, Corsair Hydro H110 w/ 4 x 140mm 1500RPM fans Push/Pull, Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5, 8GB(2 x 4GB) G.Skill RipJaws DDR3-1600 @ 1600MHz CL9 1.55v, Gigabyte GTX760 OC 4GB(1170/1700), Corsair 750HX
Detailed PC Specs: http://my.afterdawn.com/estuansis/blog_entry.cfm/11388
harvrdguy
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11. February 2009 @ 13:38 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Originally posted by abuzar:
Ohhh DAMN NICE man.
Thanks man.

Boozer, I've been wondering about you and shaff - like where'd they go? But I know what you mean - I've taken some absences too. How's the boat club? hahaha. Really you should do that man.

Anyway, yeah, booze, I upgraded! NOT!! Well, I started. I bought the case - that's as far as I have gotten!! Hahaha.

Once Sam figures out the technology, I'm pretty convinced I'm gonna run dual 4870x2s like he is doing. So that will result in some heavy system components, like 16x on each gfx slot. I see that Sam is maybe going to pick up another motherboard. If Sam continues to face major challenges, I may just settle for what I have now and see where ATI goes this summer with the 5000 series.

But I purchased the big 30" Dell monitor (the one that estuansis is bitter about that he doesn't have - to quote Sam - lol - just kidding estuansis) to get past the monitor issue - I had just read too much about how immersive the big monitor experience is, and Sam has always talked about gorging on pixels, so I just plunged ahead. But I really don't want to run anything that I can't come close to maxing out - so that will force me to wait to run the latest games until the new hardware.

However, with my present p4 and 3850 and 4800 3dmarks, I found I can run Call of Duty 2 (yeah 2, not 4) at full 2560x1600 max settings and about 45fps, so right now I'm happy - I just noticed a cute russian soldier girl that I never saw the other two times I played the game. I'm about to get on the big Dell for an all-day session again today.

Sam - I think I follow you on the game textures - if they were built for max 1600x1200, then when you get back a hair so that the texture is 1:1 pixel match - then it's crisp. That does make sense if I am understanding it right.

Wow Sam - you are facing some challenges!!
Originally posted by sammorris:
As far as setting up technology goes, this is probably the biggest challenge I've faced so far, and by the end of it, will have cost me quadruple what I paid for the second card alone.

Another power supply - maybe another motherboard!! I won't do anything rash until you have figured this out. I bought the case and it will just sit on the shelf in the garage for now!!

Rich
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11. February 2009 @ 15:15 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
For the record, the single 2 has been an absolute doddle, and runs a great deal of games at 2560x1600 already. The extra X2 just adds a bit of needed horsepower for games like Crysis.
As it stands right now, I believe the problem lies with my X38-DS4, as the stability issues I'm having now mirror the ones I had with the HD3870s last year exactly, which at the time I suspected at heat - then promptly destroyed the second card trying to install that damn cooler, so never found out. By the looks of things it may be the PCI express on my board that's the issue, but to be safe, I've also ordered a Corsair HX 1000W in case that is needed.



Afterdawn Addict // Silent PC enthusiast // PC Build advisor // LANGamer Alias:Ratmanscoop
PC Specs page -- http://my.afterdawn.com/sammorris/blog_entry.cfm/11247
updated 10-Dec-13
harvrdguy
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11. February 2009 @ 17:53 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Hmmmm. Well, if you're going to do that, I better switch back to Corsair 1000 on the wishlist.

Well, today was supposed to be gaming day but turned into torrent day. After 3 years of owning Bit Torrent, I finally figured out how to open up the listening port. It was the uTorrent client that helped me figure that out, from the razor torrent web site I went to, and the little speed test utility it has with a port checker. From that, and a bunch of reading later, I was led to download the apple airport exe (my brother had a mac over here and that is the wireless router), use the admin utility to log on, map the listening port, etc. So if anybody wants to know anything about NAT address translations, I am more of an expert now than I ever wanted to be!!

Also today, I read the Tech Report on nvidia's attempt to give us 3d gaming. What does anybody think about that? Apparently it really works well on L4D, but not much else, LOL.

This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 11. February 2009 @ 22:16

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12. February 2009 @ 03:32 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Funnily enough we're in the process of trying that in our house at the moment. I've found IZ3D which allows a similar effect with ATI hardware (since it basically CPU renders the effect, which has a hard hit on performance).



Afterdawn Addict // Silent PC enthusiast // PC Build advisor // LANGamer Alias:Ratmanscoop
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updated 10-Dec-13
harvrdguy
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12. February 2009 @ 15:57 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Yeah, the 3d has always seemed kind of gimmicky to me, but they said that Nvidia must have worked closely with Valve, because apparently it is quite fluid and realistic on L4D. In The Tech Report testing, when they started right out with Left 4 Dead, they couldn't get some of their buddies to take the glasses off for an hour or more - but as soon as they switched over to the other games everybody got bored quickly - it was a big turn off off.

Back to the dual 4870x2 issues, Sam, I am positive you have read the Jan 15th article in The Tech Report on the GTX 295 regarding the overheating issues with the Asus 4850 - nice cooler for single card configuration, but it doesn't work in crossfire:

Originally posted by The Tech Report (article on 295 - Jan 15, 2009):
We should go ahead and address an issue we found with these cards up front, though. You'll see in our acoustic and temperature testing that the Asus 4850 was among the quietest and coolest cards we tested in a single-card configuration, with GPU temperatures under load that are quite dramatically reduced versus the stock Radeon HD 4850. But look closely at that cooler design, and you'll notice that it has a fan, not a blower, onboard. That little fan collects air from above itself and pushes that air down over the cooler's metal fins, an arrangement that's very effective in a single-card setup. But if you place another video card in the slot directly adjacent, as happens in CrossFire configurations on many motherboards, then Asus' cooler becomes starved for air, and GPU temperatures begin to climb.

We first noticed this problem during our performance testing, when our test system would lock up at random. There wasn't any particular pattern to it, except that we could run a game for while on it without issue, but eventually, inevitably, the screen would go black and the system would lock. Once we started troubleshooting with a eye toward a thermal issue, the problem became clear almost immediately. We didn't even have to make use of both GPUs. So long as a second card was nestled up against the Asus 4850, the Asus would overheat in a matter of minutes. You could watch it happening. Temperatures would rise, the card's fan speed would peak, and GPU temps would continue climbing. Eventually, within five to ten minutes, the temperature would climb past the 100°C mark, and shortly thereafter, the screen would go blank. Bam. Game over.
I mention that because, in the 5th line of the quote, they say ".... you'll notice that it has a fan, not a blower, onboard." So I am beginning to get the idea that crossfire - in addition to all the other challenges it poses - makes one look closely at the particular type of cooling each crossfire card has - especially the second card which can become "starved for air."

I know you have already thought about this - but with the BSODs you are getting, have you been able to log your gpu temps on the second 4870x2?

Rich
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12. February 2009 @ 23:14 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Ironically, by far the best cooler to use with the HD4850 in dual configurations is the stock cooler, as its single slot, and gets plenty of air with two cards there.

One of the most important things to consider when using dual graphics is slot spacing. You need to allow one slot's worth of air to reach a card or it will almost definitely overheat. With single slot coolers this is easy, as the PCIe slots only have to be one space apart, but with dual slot coolers, you need two gaps between them. With a triple slot card, basically, you're screwed.
Interestingly enough, there are almost no i7 boards with double spaces between their PCIe slots, I count one DFI and one MSI, that's it. Neither Asus or Gigabyte or Biostar seem to provide a board with the spacing needed to use a dual slot card in crossfire, which seems a little short-sighted really, as i7 is perhaps the best CPU to make use of dual graphics technology.

You will note that the P5E3 Premium used in TheTechReport article only has single slot spacing.

The temps have not been a problem for me as I have double spacing on my board. The Auto fan speed controller is very temperature sensitive, and I can get a BSOD with both fans spinning very low (35 and 30%). I have also tried forcing 75% on each with no effect. On top of this, I can run the OCCT graphics stress benchmark for 15 minutes, which whores the cards so much even the auto fan speed reaches 100%. This suggests it isn't a heat issue. Right now I'm confident it's the board, and I have a X48-DS5 at university ready to collect (or so I'm told), along with the 1000W Corsair HX, just in case.



Afterdawn Addict // Silent PC enthusiast // PC Build advisor // LANGamer Alias:Ratmanscoop
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updated 10-Dec-13

This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 12. February 2009 @ 23:15

harvrdguy
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13. February 2009 @ 17:11 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Well Sam, then would anybody really want to run two triple slot Palits in crossfire? From what you're saying, it sounds like both boards would be right up next to each other, starving the second set of fans.

Seems like you have eliminated heat as an issue - your fans don't really speed up past 35% - and on the stress test when they both reach 100% you don't have that problem. So you suspect the board. The x48-DS4 is the board you have advised me to get with full 16x on both pci-e slots. I see you're getting the DS5, which as far as I can tell is the same as the DS4 except with 8 3gb satas instead of 6. Any other difference?
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13. February 2009 @ 20:00 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
I think the DS5 has better power regulation and temps compared to the DS4. DS3, DS4, and DS5. I've used versions of the first two and found the DS4 to run cooler and OC better than the DS3.



AMD Phenom II X6 1100T 4GHz(20 x 200) 1.5v 3000NB 2000HT, Corsair Hydro H110 w/ 4 x 140mm 1500RPM fans Push/Pull, Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5, 8GB(2 x 4GB) G.Skill RipJaws DDR3-1600 @ 1600MHz CL9 1.55v, Gigabyte GTX760 OC 4GB(1170/1700), Corsair 750HX
Detailed PC Specs: http://my.afterdawn.com/estuansis/blog_entry.cfm/11388
harvrdguy
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13. February 2009 @ 21:26 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Ah, good information estuansis. They're probably both the same price - and newegg has neither of them.
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14. February 2009 @ 04:17 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Rich: They would in a 775 system, in an i7 system, they wouldn't even fit.
I eliminated the heat issue by turning my side case fan to intake from exhaust, dropped my idle temps in Vista (with forced lower fan speeds) by 31ºC.
The reason I got the DS5 over the DS4 is actually purely because I couldn't find the DS4 in this country. Lots of places sold it, but none could guarantee delivering it within a few days. The DS5 is actually substantially more than the DS4 (£195 versus £165) but since I needed the board by the weekend, that's what I had to settle for.



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14. February 2009 @ 12:14 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   



Afterdawn Addict // Silent PC enthusiast // PC Build advisor // LANGamer Alias:Ratmanscoop
PC Specs page -- http://my.afterdawn.com/sammorris/blog_entry.cfm/11247
updated 10-Dec-13
harvrdguy
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14. February 2009 @ 18:10 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Wow, is that the beautiful Zalman with the heat pipes - it sure is longer than the Corsair. The photos of the guts of the Zalman from last year were really impressive. The only thing that puts me off Zalman is the six 12 volt rails and having to balance out the load - the Corsair HX1000 moves to two rails vs the one rail of the 850 - I wish it were still one rail - I think we decided architecturally it is basically two 500 watt PSUs in one box - but anyway two is easier to balance than six.

All this time I thought your side fan was intake - mine originally also was exhaust and I converted it to intake about six months ago after reading about side "intake" fans on the tempest and other new cases, lol. Your temperatures dropped through the floor with that change - 31 degrees centigrade - wow!

Regarding the Palits, so you're saying Sam that on a 775 board as opposed to i7, it would be possible to fit two Palits. But still, there is that issue about the second board possibly being starved for air, correct?

. . . . . . . . .


To reference the Tech Report article - the Palit uses two fans sucking air in from the top, not blowers which might suck in air from the sides or the end. Is that what he meant when he said blower?

Wait a minute!

The Palit fans are completely shrouded, like the Sapphire design that the Tech Report reviewer liked better than the Asus in terms of not being as susceptible to the problem of being starved for air - he mentioned that the sapphire, whereas in single card configuration does not cool as well as the asus, is better-engineered.

The sapphire is the typical reference HD4870 and 4870x2, with a completely shrouded fan at one end of the card blowing through the sinks out the back of the case. I wonder if that is what he meant when he said "blower."

The asus 4850 fan is also shrouded, now that I look at it - but perhaps not the complete shrouding of the sapphire. As long as there is plenty of air available, the design cools very effectively, and very quietly. The sapphire is perhaps more completely shrouded. The air makes more noise than the asus as the low pressure sucks it through the shroud, but on the other hand, the shrouding gives the air no chance to move in any direction other than into the "blower" and through the sinks and out the back of the case.

I wonder if shrouding the fan this way turns it into a blower, at least in the mind of the Tech Report reviewer. I could see that the shrouding would promote a more aggressive, albeit noisier, suction effect.

I recall that one discussion on newegg about the asus 3-fan 4870x2, ASUS EAH4870X2, on an asus deluxe i7 mobo, sitting in the second 16x pci-e slot under a two-slot sapphire 4870, and apparently working okay that way. I see now that each fan of that board is fairly well shrouded - again perhaps more well-shrouded than fan of the asus 4850 - I'm not sure, but maybe.

Originally posted by full metal mouse on newegg:
I am reminded of the one i7 reviewer of the Asus 3-fan two-slot 4870x2, who was running a saphire 4870, using those 3 gpus to drive a 30" monitor, and he was claiming respectable frames on crysis at high settings - I don't recall if he said "very high" or not. You said that you had found that crossfire in that way did work, although ATI said it didn't. I believe he had to put the asus 3-fan 4870x2 in the second slot to clear some other mobo components - I seem to recall him saying that he had tested it both ways and it was okay - he was using an asus deluxe mobo. In the first slot was the two-slot sapphire. So according to him, the space left over for the asus 3-fan design was enough on the i7 asus deluxe board.

So if the Palit is more of a blower, because of the shrouding, than the open air Asus, maybe it could handle very little space between the two cards. However, you said
Originally posted by sam:
You need to allow one slot's worth of air to reach a card or it will almost definitely overheat.
Does any mobo provide enough room for two Palits?

Rich
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15. February 2009 @ 03:20 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
On most 775 boards (not all) you could fit two Palits, but look at the shape of the cooler, it's flat topped, they wouldn't see ANY air, and would almost certainly overheat. Then don't forget that's six slots used for video cards, unless you had a system with the PSU at the bottom, the second card would also be starved for air, and if you did have your PSU at the bottom, all the red hot air from the X2 is being thrown into it. As they say on the internet - "Do not want."

You're correct, blower refers to the typical radial style fan in coolers that exhausts air through a peripheral slot. The clue is the huge number of blades, or more like fins, that make it up.

As it happens, yes, some mobos do allow the space as there are boards with three PCIe slots, one at the very top and one at the very bottom, and you could do it this way, again, provided you had a bottom mount PSU that wasn't too fussed about getting quite hot.



Afterdawn Addict // Silent PC enthusiast // PC Build advisor // LANGamer Alias:Ratmanscoop
PC Specs page -- http://my.afterdawn.com/sammorris/blog_entry.cfm/11247
updated 10-Dec-13
harvrdguy
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15. February 2009 @ 05:50 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Ah hah, yes I see the picture now - the Sapphire utilizes a blower type fan design - with the blades spaced along the outer edge like spokes holding a large inner axle.

Looking at the Palit, I can see we're back to a twin fan design, not blowers. So spacing is extra critical. But you're saying it can be done. That sounds good.

If I understand you, then it would be essentially a triple sli motherboard, separate out the Palits and leaving the middle slot empty. If so, then which 775 motherboard do you like for two Palits like that?

Regarding the PSU, I was a little confused - wouldn't the great amount of heat coming out of the boards tend to be thrown more up, rather than down, especially with a top exhaust vent fan?

For top vent, the Antec 1200 has a 200mm fan, which equates to roughly the same surface fan area as the dual top vent 140mm fans of the Tempest. Also I would hope that more than 50% of that hot air would go out the rear card vents, especially with a 3-slot design. Are you saying it's inevitable that the PSU - even at the bottom - would end up pulling in a lot of that hot air?

On the 1200 that's still in the box on a shelf in the garage, I'd be using a bottom-mounted PSU - the Corsair HX1000 that you like. I can't remember if it's the Antec, but one of the cases I was considering has a metal lid over the PSU to keep it separate from the rest of the case.

Anyway, should I presume you have confidence in the Corsair's ability to run a little hot?

Rich
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15. February 2009 @ 06:02 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Heat rises naturally, but the force with which it is extracted from these cards in order to keep them cool definitely means it will be thrown downwards. The fans on the card may still 'suck' towards the GPUs, but given how long the 4870X2 PCB is, it practically partitions most cases, leaving nowhere for the air to go but remain in the chamber it has created.
A great deal of air will probably exhaust through the rear slot in the card, but why do you think the sides are exposed?
I have confidence in the HX1000's ability to run hot, but it runs loud. I'm aware the 4870X2 is hardly a quiet card, but even two of them with their fans at 100%, the Corsair can still clearly be heard over the top. Throwing that heat at it isn't going to make that any better.
I'm going to stick the 850W Zalman back in later today to see if the system runs as well as it does now with the X48 board (I have every confidence it will). If it does, then the Zalman is the PSU I recommend for this, purely on how much less noise it makes.



Afterdawn Addict // Silent PC enthusiast // PC Build advisor // LANGamer Alias:Ratmanscoop
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updated 10-Dec-13
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15. February 2009 @ 06:24 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Hopefully this will work:
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=1cb7b...04e75f6e8ebb871

This is a recording I produced when I run the OCCT Graphics stress test. I cut the graphics fan speeds to minimum when the test finishes so you can hear the PSU fan better, as it starts to slow down back to idle (this is the Corsair).
It's quite funny when the mic gets in the way of the exhaust air from the X2s... :P

(Skip through the first few minutes, they're me setting up the test, oh and using the good old fashioned 'finger' test to check the speed of my case fans :D
The most useful parts of the file are from 4:40 to 5:40 and 7:45 to 9:00)



Afterdawn Addict // Silent PC enthusiast // PC Build advisor // LANGamer Alias:Ratmanscoop
PC Specs page -- http://my.afterdawn.com/sammorris/blog_entry.cfm/11247
updated 10-Dec-13

This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 15. February 2009 @ 06:35

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harvrdguy
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15. February 2009 @ 21:06 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Hi Sam,

I listened to the test.

But first let me say congratulations - you say things are working great with the x48 card. That is terrific!!

Are you saying that no more BSODs in 8 minutes under stress - for how long have you let the test run?

Listening to the sound test, I heard some hissing, which got quite loud, but I perhaps should have turned my bass down because the overall rumble of what I think was the air passing over the mic obscured the other sounds. Sorry, I really couldn't tell what was gfx and what was Corsair.

But I have a suggestion:

If you do that test again, it would perhaps be really helpful if you narrated your way through it, cockney accent and all - just kidding :) Also, it just occured to me, why would you put the mic inside the case - don't we want to hear what everything sounds like outside the case?

But either way, with mic inside or outside, I visualize the narration going kind of like this:

Originally posted by Sam narrating fan noise test:
This is me, Sam, setting up the mic. I am talking in a normal voice. THIS IS ME MILDLY SHOUTING, FOR COMPARISON, AT PROBABLY ABOUT 40 DB, and now this is me back to talking normally again at probably about 25db. This is how I'll be talking for the rest of the test. Now I have closed the case, so you're hearing my voice down to about 10db from outside the case. [or, "now I have closed the case and the mic is outside the case, so you are hearing me at the same sound level as before."] Now I'm starting up the graphics stress test, which will run for about two minutes before the gfx fans really start spinning at 100%. If you want to fast forward two minutes that should be about right. Now two minutes have passed, and both 4870x2 fans are spinning 100%. But listen closely because right about now you will start to hear an extra fan begin to kick in, which is the Corsair PSU. There it comes, hear it? Okay, another minute has passed, and the Corsair is spinning away, and now we've got all fans running near max. We'll let that run for about 30 seconds so you can get the feel for how that will sound as you're slogging through the tough parts of warhead. Ok now I'm turning off the test, and manually cutting the gfx fans to minimum, so what you're going to hear in a few seconds is just the PSU. Ok the gfx fans are down to inaudible, but the Corsair hasn't yet cycled down - that's pure Corsair hiss - pretty significant, huh? Fast forward about a minute from now if you want, to see the reference sound when the Corsair cools off. Okay, this is back to how we started, everything running at idle, and all fans at minimum.


Just a thought. Lol.

I did some more reading about the zalman, and watched a video review of the 1000 - same architecture as the 850. The basic thrust is that the heat pipe design keeps the PSU cooler, allowing the fan to run at lower quieter revs.

I have to admit, the heat pipes are impressive. If you find that the noise reduction is significant, then I guess I'll be able to work out the load balancing.

Rich

Hey - I'm on newegg again and reading some reviews. Get a load of this one:
Originally posted by random new egg reviewer regarding 4850x2:
What is truly surprising is the quality of the images it displays. I had a 9800GTX that was a decent performer but this card simply has better visual quality on the desktop and in games. Everything just seems more vibrant and colorful (which is good because I'm a graphic artist and I need accurate colors). I don't know how that can be other than the green team might be cheating a little bit on visual quality

Hahahahaha! I think a guy named Sam once mentioned the same kind of thing! LOL

This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 16. February 2009 @ 00:35

 
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