[lini]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sonance It also has Active PFC which means that it doesn't waste a lot of power despite its high wattage rating.

Just for the record, that's not true. PFC is just a circuitry to avoid a phase shift between voltage and current, that's all. Nothing to do with efficiency.

Greetings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini

 

[gsferrari]

I also recommended to mikey to NOT go SLi because Iron_dreamer basically blasted me for considering that route. It is pointless, offers little or no performance improvement for a LOT of money and at the end of 3-4 months you have not 1 but 2 outdated graphics cards that nobody wants...because there is something newer, faster and better out there.

SLi is a waste and if you are still "thinking" about it mikey...stop thinking now and get a single 7800GT.

Think long term and think about the cool graphics cards that will come out in the next few years...dont get stuck with something because it is supposedly "awesome" today.

its a trap!

 

[JahJahBinks]

I heard that in some part of Europe you have to pay for reactive power, so PFC makes more sense in those regions. But I am not sure if power companies in US charge for reactive power or not.

 

[Kwisatz]

There's a number of issues with SLI based systems ranging from V-sync problems to the fact that you can't run more than one monitor with SLI enabled. Both of those are absolute deal breakers for me. I run with dual monitors and would find it a major pain to enable and disable SLI all the time. The V-sync issue has been worked on, but last I checked people were still having problems with it. V-sync is a must if you have LCDs as the tearing is extremely evident otherwise. I'll let you take a guess what I use as monitors lol. Add to that the fact that not every game will really benefit from SLI (some actually perform worse), and the extreme price premium an SLI rig commands. Its just pointless for all but the most extreme gamer. And while I'm on the subject of nVidia quirks, their latest drivers have major issues for a lot of people with dual core systems. (Mostly Athlon 64X2 based - I haven't updated drivers in some time because of this.).

As for the actual question about PSUs, personally I use a Seasonic S12-500 which is SLI ready should you really decide to go that route. There's also a 600W version, but quite frankly such power is rarely if ever needed. There's quite a few decent PSU's out there, but if you want one that is decently quiet (marketing BS aside) the choices are fewer. I based my choice on SilentPCReview's which you can find here. Its very quiet, and is capable of running this machine without a hitch (A64X2 4800+, 4G Ram, 3 HDDs, X-Fi, nVidia 7800GTX) so should be capable of your machine as well especially if you don't go the SLI route.

 

[kenchi1983]

Be aware of Antec: http://www.pjrc.com/about/rambling/antec.html

The antec True Power 380 I used for only 1.5 years, eventually gave me cold boot problems.

 

[GoRedwings19]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsferrari I also recommended to mikey to NOT go SLi because Iron_dreamer basically blasted me for considering that route. It is pointless, offers little or no performance improvement for a LOT of money and at the end of 3-4 months you have not 1 but 2 outdated graphics cards that nobody wants...because there is something newer, faster and better out there. SLi is a waste and if you are still "thinking" about it mikey...stop thinking now and get a single 7800GT. Think long term and think about the cool graphics cards that will come out in the next few years...dont get stuck with something because it is supposedly "awesome" today. its a trap!

I have decided to go the single card route. It should be more than enough for me. See ya on the battlefield general!

Well I already ordered the seasonic 600w a while back in preparation and I don't fancy changing it now so I will stick with it and see how it does.

 

[gsferrari]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoRedwings19 I have decided to go the single card route. It should be more than enough for me. See ya on the battlefield general! Well I already ordered the seasonic 600w a while back in preparation and I don't fancy changing it now so I will stick with it and see how it does.

Yay!!

Seasonic makes good stuff...I am very impressed with my power supply (330W in the backup desktop) and it is QUIET!!

The only noise in my rig is from the VGA fan...crazy loud...time to rip it out and dip the VGA card in cooking oil

 

[GoRedwings19]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsferrari Yay!! Seasonic makes good stuff...I am very impressed with my power supply (330W in the backup desktop) and it is QUIET!! The only noise in my rig is from the VGA fan...crazy loud...time to rip it out and dip the VGA card in cooking oil

What happened to the zalman or did that not work out as you hoped?

 

[gsferrari]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoRedwings19 What happened to the zalman or did that not work out as you hoped?

Zalman was for the CPU. I couldnt wait 2 days to have the XP-90 so I bought this one...it worked pretty well and looked cool so I was sad to take it back. The BIGASS heatsink you see in my pics is the XP-90.

What is your complete config? List all parts here...

 

[GoRedwings19]

silverstone temjin t-06
seasonic 600w psu
2gb corsair value select
amd 4800x2
enermax fan controller
bfg 7800gtx 512mb (if bloody newegg had them in stock)
gigabyte g-cooler pro series (cpu)
akasa 120mm fans x2
2 lg dvd re-writers
asus a8n sli deluxe mb
2 hitachi deskstarthingy 250gb drives
Creative x-fi soundcard

and a detroit redwings decal to smack it on the side panel if zanth got round to it!

 

[Fitz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsferrari The only noise in my rig is from the VGA fan...crazy loud...time to rip it out and dip the VGA card in cooking oil

You should check out the Arctic Cooling NV Silencer. I have one on my 7800GT and I can't hear any noise coming from it. It does take up a bit of space below the card though, so it wont work if you have any other cards 1-2 slots below it.

 

[gsferrari]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoRedwings19 silverstone temjin t-06

Didnt go for the Lian Li cases? They are uber sweet.

Quote:

bfg 7800gtx 512mb (if bloody newegg had them in stock)

The rule of the game is - buy the GT series and unlock the pipes + OC to get it to surpass GTX specs. The GTX is a marketing gimmick imo and I would fall for it if I were you.

The 512MB is nice but remember...these cards become yesterdays news in a few weeks at the current rate of development. No point in throwing away so much money on "old goods" (by the time this stuff ships to you there may already be something new in the market). Now you can say "that will always be the case" - in which case - save money, go with the 7800GT and have cash to spare for the next card in 1 years time...again buy the GT

Quote:

gigabyte g-cooler pro series (cpu)

Anyone have experience with this cooler?

Quote:

detroit redwings decal to smack it on the side panel if zanth got round to it!

Get Falcon Northwest to paint it on

 

[Kwisatz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoRedwings19 silverstone temjin t-06 seasonic 600w psu 2gb corsair value select amd 4800x2 enermax fan controller bfg 7800gtx 512mb (if bloody newegg had them in stock) gigabyte g-cooler pro series (cpu) akasa 120mm fans x2 2 lg dvd re-writers asus a8n sli deluxe mb 2 hitachi deskstarthingy 250gb drives and a detroit redwings decal to smack it on the side panel if zanth got round to it!

Somehow I think the PSU is going to be the quietest thing in that machine hehe...

 

[GoRedwings19]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kwisatz Somehow I think the PSU is going to be the quietest thing in that machine hehe...

Please explain. You mean the gfx card will make the most noise. Probably but the thought of two cards in sli making a huger racket put me off.

Gs>Oh no once this is built i will use it until it dies. I want at least 4 years out of this beetch. I don't upgrade stuff like this.

 

[Kwisatz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsferrari Didnt go for the Lian Li cases? They are uber sweet. The rule of the game is - buy the GT series and unlock the pipes + OC to get it to surpass GTX specs. The GTX is a marketing gimmick imo and I would fall for it if I were you. The 512MB is nice but remember...these cards become yesterdays news in a few weeks at the current rate of development. No point in throwing away so much money on "old goods" (by the time this stuff ships to you there may already be something new in the market). Now you can say "that will always be the case" - in which case - save money, go with the 7800GT and have cash to spare for the next card in 1 years time...again buy the GT Anyone have experience with this cooler? Get Falcon Northwest to paint it on

You can rationalize yourself up and down the product line all day long. Ultimately its a rather personal choice on what card you decide to get based on how much money you have to blow, and how much power you need. Sure you can OC a lower end card to outperform a higher end card, but the headroom is typically higher on the higher end cards for OC, so if you bring OC argument into one card, you have to bring it into the other as well. Once everything is all said and done, you have to simply admit to the fact that no matter what you buy it will be outdone in 6 months time if that. After that its just personal choice... There's no such thing as a good buy in the graphics card market IMO.

As far as the OCing goes though, there's no getting a GT to surpass the 512 GTXs... The clockspeed is way higher on the 512 cores than the 256's. This is not to say you don't pay a handsome sum for that though.

What monitor(s) are you using by the way? Other than the higher clock speeds of the 512 cards, unless you run your games at very high resolutions, 512MB framebuffers are useless these days.

Edit* Yes, the 512MB cards use a larger and thus noiser fan to cool them than the 256MB versions. But its not just the graphics card, but the heatsink/fan for the CPU. While I haven't read any reviews on that particular model, I don't associate Gigabyte with quiet efficient cooling, and going by specs alone (RPMs, CFM, dB measurements (which are always rated lower than what they measure in real life) this one doesn't appear to break that mold.

Edit 2* Quote:

Originally Posted by gsferrari The BIGASS heatsink you see in my pics is the XP-90.

C'mon, the term BIGASS should be reserved for the XP120.

Granted even that is small in comparison to the monster I have on mine. THIS is a heatsink hehe. It's sad to think there are ones even larger - not necessarily more efficient, but larger.