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The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition
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Any Flaming Results in a Temp Ban or Worse. Your Choice!!!
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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13. December 2008 @ 07:08 |
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Wow, that's odd, never seen that before...
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AfterDawn Addict
1 product review
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13. December 2008 @ 08:14 |
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Quote:
Some of the new 780 and 790 chipset MBs are side by side http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128373 , while others are odd and even http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130136 That ought to confuse everyone! LOL!!
I am aware of that and I posted to reflect that which is why I said "IF it is installed side by side THEN try installing in slots 1 and 3", and then to further clarify my statement I also said install them in like colored slots. So what was not clear about that?
Quote:
If you installed your RAM side by side then try installing it in slots 1 and 3. Memory slots are color coded so if the first module to the left as you look down is yellow then install the other module in a slot of the same color.
" Please Read!!! Post your questions only in This Thread or they will go unanswered:
Help with development of BD RB: Donations at: http://www.jdobbs.com/. This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 13. December 2008 @ 11:15
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Moderator
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13. December 2008 @ 12:44 |
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Hey people. Hoping one or more of you have some advice on the best (not ridiculously expensive) PC8500 ram. The Quad Core crashed today (first time it's done it) and subsequent reboots resulted in the dreaded endless reboot cycle.
Swapped out the graphics card, no joy (my m/board has a gazillion led's for troubleshooting but couldn't be arsed to look thru the manual plus didn't use another pc to google as was hoping it was only the ram). Anyways, took out all 4 ram sticks and tested one by one and in pairs until i found 1 stick that wouldn't allow the pc to boot. So put that one aside and a good one put separately.
Left the other 2 good sticks in and am back up and running again.
Anyways, i very much doubt that any other sticks are going to suddenly go pop but i'm very distrusting of elecctonics/anything electrical so want to check out potential replacement ram.
Mine are Crucial Ballistix 1GB x4. PC nor ram are overclocked but i still want to stick with 1066Mhz ram.
Still have to investigate whether i can return the faulty stick to Crucial, have had these sticks approx 1 year now..
Any suggestions ?
Main PC ~ Intel C2Q Q6600 (G0 Stepping)/Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3/2GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500/Zalman CNPS9700/Antec 900/Corsair HX 620W
Network ~ DD-WRT ~ 2node WDS-WPA2/AES ~ Buffalo WHR-G54S. 3node WPA2/AES ~ WRT54GS v6 (inc. WEP BSSID), WRT54G v2, WRT54G2 v1. *** Forum Rules ***This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 13. December 2008 @ 12:45
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AfterDawn Addict
2 product reviews
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13. December 2008 @ 13:00 |
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Corsair Dominators are one of the most reliable 1066mhz RAM you can get. They are not that expensive either.
Crucial ram is horrible these days. So what you get back from the RMA might not be that great.
EDIT: Also for best reliability get 2x2GB.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 13. December 2008 @ 13:03
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AfterDawn Addict
1 product review
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13. December 2008 @ 13:06 |
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creaky
It doesn't get any less expensive than this. If you're not running a 64 bit system then 4 gigabytes of RAM is only netting you about 3.2 gb of actual RAM. I don't know which operating system that you're using but if it's WinXP then just two of those sticks is more than enough, because XP can only allocate a maximum of .8 Gb for a single application. That should allow you more than enough time with no detectable loss of performance just using two sticks, and since Crucial RAM has a lifetime guarantee you should get a replacement.
" Please Read!!! Post your questions only in This Thread or they will go unanswered:
Help with development of BD RB: Donations at: http://www.jdobbs.com/. This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 13. December 2008 @ 13:07
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13. December 2008 @ 13:10 |
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Cheers abuzar; i remember the discussions (maybe as long ago as last year) re good/bad batches of Ballistix, and i'd been lucky (well so i thought) to have a good batch or few.
As to the reliability of 2x2GB, remember i don't overclock so surely 4x1GB would be more reliable (to me) ??, - ie where i am now is that 1 of my 4 sticks is dead so i can still use 2 good ones and still have a spare...
..i'm probably being blonde though :)
edit- Soph of course is also right; i do indeed only use XP 32-bit on this box and am only into video encoding, 2GB is more than enough for my needs so i'm certainly good for now.
I digress but today i rediscovered my fondness of Quake 3 Arena and 'WinQuake' plus i'm now hooked on 'Urban Terror', but 2GB is still all i need for now (all these games work on my netbook too!!).
I have a feeling i need to shutdown to swap the dimm slots over as i think i'm only running single channel mode at the moment - sorted that now..
Main PC ~ Intel C2Q Q6600 (G0 Stepping)/Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3/2GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500/Zalman CNPS9700/Antec 900/Corsair HX 620W
Network ~ DD-WRT ~ 2node WDS-WPA2/AES ~ Buffalo WHR-G54S. 3node WPA2/AES ~ WRT54GS v6 (inc. WEP BSSID), WRT54G v2, WRT54G2 v1. *** Forum Rules ***
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 13. December 2008 @ 13:43
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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13. December 2008 @ 14:05 |
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I haven't had any memory go bad on me except cheap nasty Nanya stuff a few years back. All the Corsair sticks I've used have performed admirably. The 2x2GB PC8500 Dominator set I use now will set you back £80 from Scan. As far as needing 4GB goes, if you are only ever using one application perhaps you will only need 2GB, but one main app and the rest of windows humming idle has often peaked me over 2 gigs, so I see no reason not to get 4GB these days, it's pretty much mandatory for big apps.
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AfterDawn Addict
1 product review
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13. December 2008 @ 14:22 |
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Quote:
The 2x2GB PC8500 Dominator set I use now will set you back £80 from Scan.
I have those same modules in my main rig because I intended to go 64bit, but in my most recent build I went to the 2X-1Gb modules because there was no evident boost from the extra RAM in the other 32bit system. I've found that with 32bit systems after 2 Gbs RAM bandwidth nets far more performance gains than going jts from 2 Gb to 4Gb.
" Please Read!!! Post your questions only in This Thread or they will go unanswered:
Help with development of BD RB: Donations at: http://www.jdobbs.com/. |
AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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13. December 2008 @ 14:31 |
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For solely video encoding, I'd expect that to be the case. When using the PC as an actual workstation as well though, particularly if you open several web tabs at once, it's nice to have the extra memory.
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13. December 2008 @ 14:43 |
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Yeah, trouble is i have too many machines, i'm a PC whore, but the bonus is that it doesn't matter if anything breaks, i just hop onto another box.
Lately all i seem to use is the netbook, with it's tidgy 30W power brick - bless it.
Main PC ~ Intel C2Q Q6600 (G0 Stepping)/Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3/2GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500/Zalman CNPS9700/Antec 900/Corsair HX 620W
Network ~ DD-WRT ~ 2node WDS-WPA2/AES ~ Buffalo WHR-G54S. 3node WPA2/AES ~ WRT54GS v6 (inc. WEP BSSID), WRT54G v2, WRT54G2 v1. *** Forum Rules ***
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 13. December 2008 @ 14:44
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harvrdguy
Senior Member
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13. December 2008 @ 17:20 |
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Hey all - a little bit of a delayed reaction since I had to catch up on 10 missed pages of thread - holiday relatives, and all. I hope everybody is partaking of the general atmosphere of holiday cheer, and counting our blessings - I know that greensman is. (Happy birthday again Greenie - just kidding - I know that was over a month ago, but I forgot to post on the actual day.)
Russ, getting back to that discussion about fan noise, which is definitely on-topic for this thread, I find it fascinating that you play a giant pipe organ (and also that your synthesizer comes so close to duplicating the sound right in your room.) I would say that kind of heavy musical involvement gives a lot of credibility to your assertion that benches are one thing and not the only indicator of real-world computing, as in your discussion about that entry-level AMD board with impressive on-board graphics, of about a month ago, and your description of the superb quality of the video rendering. (By the way, how's your AMD thread doing?)
Anyway, although I find that you guys often disagree - (AMD versus Intel) - you and Sam must be among the most discriminating posters here regarding subtleties of graphics and sound. That's pretty much why, until Sam tells me to jump ship, I'll follow him in ATI fanboyism - (even though Nvidia CUDA folds faster than dozens of cpus combined - when I start folding I'll pay attention LOL) - I've seen his side by side game screen shot comparisons. Also when Sam tells me the Tempest moves a lot of air, quietly, that recommends that case highly. (That was a very interesting full tower bottom-inhaling case somebody posted linking to a russian web page a week ago - although I'm not sure I want a full tower for the future new build - size and weight considerations - a new coolmaster as I recall.)
Back to your musical interests, Russ, I bring up the pipe organ, because unlike some of our friends from Florida, or across the waters, I am right here like you in the OC. If you don't mind telling me, where do you play, somewhere like the Crystal Cathedral in GG? I have a musical background myself - clarinet and oboe - which hopefully contributed to my "good ear" for foreign language pronunciation (I'm working on Spanish.) I wouldn't mind "catching you in the act" one day - is it a church somewhere around here?
Happy holidays to all, Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Ramadan, did I miss anybody (yeah all of Asia lol.)
- Rich
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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13. December 2008 @ 18:11 |
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I'll be honest with you Rich, while the ATI vs nVidia Image Quality issue still exists, it's far more slight since the GTX260's release, in certain games such as Far Cry 2, there's no discernable difference between the two at all. In games like Crysis, the differences still remain, however, and I still recommend ATI cards, for one because they still work out cheaper, and for two because the control set for the cards isn't so limiting in terms of what you can do with the rendered image (I discovered recently that geforces basically have no mipmap control options at all)
There are full towers and then there are full towers. Some are only 'full tower' because of their height, others, it's the whole lot. Genuine full towers are absolute monsters, and a pain in the arse to even slide, let alone transport.
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harvrdguy
Senior Member
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13. December 2008 @ 18:21 |
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Thanks Sam - somewhere in the dim recesses of my brain mip map resides along with pow. But I'll take your word for it.
Yeah, the tempest is virtually a full tower, comparing it to a YouTube HAF review I watched - like maybe a half inch narrower, one inch less deep, one inch less tall. I have it written down somewhere. But it still seems like plenty of room for me - way bigger than my present mid tower - so I'm sure probably big enough.
By the way, what do our Pakastani Moslem buds celebrate - was I right about the Ramadan?
Rich
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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13. December 2008 @ 18:46 |
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The Tempest is a lot smaller than real full tower cases, I assure you.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 13. December 2008 @ 18:49
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spamual
Suspended permanently
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13. December 2008 @ 18:47 |
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I'd say if u want raw power on the gfx side, the new forthcoming GTX295 is what you will want :). I may sell my 4870x2 for it.
Creaky, as for ram my personal recomendation will be what I bought. For £75, 2x2GB Geil Black Dragon PC8500 1066MHz. they have no heatspreaders yet I can run them at 1150 with it getting barely hot to the touch under 2.25V and they have pretty lights LOL. But if your not OCing PC6400 2x2gb of OCZ or Corsair can be had for under £40
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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13. December 2008 @ 18:52 |
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Given that the HD4870X2 surpasses GTX260 SLI in a few titles, I'm not expecting too much. If there were two 280s in there, maybe I'd have a different idea... The thing's likely to cost like £450 though, so I'm still not interested.
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harvrdguy
Senior Member
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13. December 2008 @ 19:02 |
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Shaff, let's face it - the only reason you are hung up on that memory is the red LED's. But other than you, who is ever going to keep the door open all the time so they can admire the brightly lit dragon eyes? (I kid - MUHAHAHAHAHAHA!)
Was I right about Ramadan?
So Sam, you're telling me that even the HAF full tower, is not really a FULL FULL tower, like that bottom-inhaling coolmaster with the big knob in front - very nice looking case by the way. In any event, Tempest is roomy enough, so you're right, space is a little limited, and extra portability could come in handy. Soon I'll post pics of my "custom tempest" very small mid-tower. I'm so proud, but I will NEVER try to cut holes in a steel case again - it's absolute hell!! LOL (one more reason for aluminum - kuddos to shaff and lian-li.)
-Rich
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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13. December 2008 @ 19:51 |
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I think the HAF may be a full size full tower job, but cases like the Chieftec Dragon aren't.
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harvrdguy
Senior Member
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13. December 2008 @ 20:41 |
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Hmmmm. Well, that's confusing then - because I was taking the measurements from the YouTube video reviews on the HAF, and on the Tempest. The first part of each review laid out the exact measurements. The Tempest mid-tower was very very close to the HAF on all measurements. Remember those posts on the graphics thread where I said the Tempest is a full tower in mid-tower clothing?
Changing the subject: Edge Detect This will be of interest to anybody planning a new build for serious gaming.
I just went looking for the HAF and Tempest case measurements - couldn't find them but came up with something else regarding video cards. I keep a text file called "New Build" with snipets from these threads and everywhere else regarding components I am thinking about getting. I stumbled across some newegg reviews on the 1 gigabyte 4870.
The reviewer was shocked with the difference between the 1 gig 4870 and the 3870 he had upgraded from (mine now is the even weaker 3850.) At the same resolution he felt he could see farther and with more detail on cod4 online - obviously handy for spotting enemies - that of course, from the graphics thread, is a game I am playing a lot of lately. Then he read on hardforum about edge detect, which added to custom AA 24x turned everything super crisp!
Anyway, what do you, Sam, or estuansis, or anybody else, know about edge detect?
Rich
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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13. December 2008 @ 21:16 |
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Personally I don't use it, as it always seems to come hand in hand with ridiculous levels of AA, and in DX9 at least, it's hard enough to see the difference between 4x and 8x, let alone 8x and 24x. The performance drop is certainly there though. With 24x AA applied, even two HD4870X2s can drop into the low 30s for considerable periods of time when the game is maxed out. Even 4xAA is a struggle (at least for one X2 at 2560) on the multiplayer map Wet Work, due to the Anti-Aliasing effect applied to the rain.
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AfterDawn Addict
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14. December 2008 @ 03:21 |
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I've been experiencing a bunch of computer woes, the last couple of weeks. I finally received the answer today, when it reset and refused to boot because the config was corrupt. Worse yet is no matter what I did, I could not install XP-Pro SP2 on it because I would get all sorts of error messages for drivers it couldn't copy. I had to go back to my original non-SP version and then install SP2 and SP3 for it to install properly. They also corrupted my AVG 8.0 files and I had to download a new one and install it. The next time I'll take a closer look before I click on a link! LOL!! I certainly didn't expect it, and thinking it was an advertising banner, I accidentally clicked on a link from "popunder.ru", something I won't ever do again. It seems AVG found it, it just found it too late!
So far it's running great, as I brought it back up to 3.4GHz, where it was when it died. So far So good!
Russ
GigaByte 990FXA-UD5 - AMD FX-8320 @4.0GHz @1.312v - Corsair H-60 liquid CPU Cooler - 4x4 GB GSkill RipJaws DDR3/1866 Cas8, 8-9-9-24 - Corsair 400-R Case - OCZ FATAL1TY 550 watt Modular PSU - Intel 330 120GB SATA III SSD - WD Black 500GB SATA III - WD black 1 TB Sata III - WD Black 500GB SATA II - 2 Asus DRW-24B1ST DVD-Burner - Sony 420W 5.1 PL-II Suround Sound - GigaByte GTX550/1GB 970 Mhz Video - Asus VE247H 23.6" HDMI 1080p Monitor
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harvrdguy
Senior Member
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14. December 2008 @ 06:18 |
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So the ruskies were trying to sabotage things for ya, huh!
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AfterDawn Addict
1 product review
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14. December 2008 @ 08:38 |
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It will be interesting to see what the new GTX295 brings to competition and the rumor mill has it that ATI is not far behind with a new upgrade as well.
I'm expecting that the GTX295 will essentially be the same as the current GTX2XX cores on a smaller die. What's going to hurt ATI has nothing to do with gaming but rather folding. Thanks to Nvidia's CUDA drivers Nvidia has the edge in folding. When I folded with the HD 3870 I was getting about 2700PPD which was easily beaten by a lowly 8800GS which got about 5000PPD on the same core. The result is that folders are snapping up Nvidia 8800 and 9XXX cards for folding. Donald has something like 6 or 7 alone.
Forgot the link:
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news...coming-soon-ish
" Please Read!!! Post your questions only in This Thread or they will go unanswered:
Help with development of BD RB: Donations at: http://www.jdobbs.com/. This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 14. December 2008 @ 09:16
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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14. December 2008 @ 10:33 |
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Interesting read. I'm not much bothered by the GTX295, as it will be an overpriced SLI card. Before, when SLI cards were better than anything else out there it was perhaps worth paying £400+VAT for them, but not this time, not when the almost identical HD4870X2 can be had for barely any more than £300+VAT. Because of this, the fact that the HD49xx is not going to arrive shortly does not surprise me. It is not going to be a rival for the GTX295, it is going to be a rival to either an upgraded GTX280 (perhaps 285 or 290?) or nothing at all until the GTX300 appears, which I would expect to be the latter half of this year, much like the supposed HD5800 series.
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spamual
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14. December 2008 @ 10:40 |
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I'm sure Itll easily best the x2 and if so it'll be the most powerfull card out. Most x2s are north of £350 so £400 wouldn't be bad. Remember the 4870x2 is better then cf 4870s by about 5-10% so I'm sure this will be better than the gtx260(216) sli and surely it'll beat the gtx280 sli esp If it's got 480 cores (240 each gpu like the gtx280)
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