Finally got my new setup shipped out

[Sphexi]

Already got some of it, the rest should be here by next week:

Thermaltake Matrix Mid-Tower
Mushkin 550W PSU
ASUS P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe
Intel E6300
OCZ PC2-6400 2x512MB (I'll get another GB later)
Samsung 320GB SATA2
XFX 7950GS Extreme 512MB
Xi-Fi XtremeMusic
LiteOn DL DVD+/-RW 20x8x16 w/Lightscribe
Standard multi-card flash reader 3.5" bay


Should be quite the upgrade from the P4 2.4C 1.5GB X800XT we got now, and my wife will be happy to have her computer back without me always cluttering it up with stuff.

 

[Boyo]

Looks like a nice rig. Enjoy it...

 

[Sphexi]

Originally posted by: Boyo
Looks like a nice rig. Enjoy it...

I hope to, since it'll last me the next few years. Only upgrades will be a second video card, some more harddrives for a RAID 5 setup, a TV tuner card, that's pretty much it. I'll OC the heck out of the 6300, get another gig of memory sometime later this year, otherwise it'll do everything I want it to plus much more.

 

[mcurphy]

Nice rig :thumbsup:

I just bought that vid card a few weeks ago and I love it! Even though it's not the fastest thing available, you can't beat pure silence. Also, it's a 7950GT

Make sure your front case intake fan has a somewhat direct flow of air to the video cards heatsink. Even though it is passively cooled, it still gets very hot without some help from your case's cooling system. I remember reading a few reviews of the card before I bought it and they had tested the card in different environments...it definitely helps to have some airflow over the heatsink. I'll dig up the link and post it for you if I can find it.

 

[Sphexi]

Originally posted by: mcurphy
Nice rig :thumbsup:

I just bought that vid card a few weeks ago and I love it! Even though it's not the fastest thing available, you can't beat pure silence. Also, it's a 7950GT

Make sure your front case intake fan has a somewhat direct flow of air to the video cards heatsink. Even though it is passively cooled, it still gets very hot without some help from your case's cooling system. I remember reading a few reviews of the card before I bought it and they had tested the card in different environments...it definitely helps to have some airflow over the heatsink. I'll dig up the link and post it for you if I can find it.

You are correct, my mistake. I get my parts through NCIX.com, they have a HORRIBLE site, but best prices you can find up here in Canada (usually). They have multiple entries for the same item sometimes, many have no info, and they'll have a different price for each so you have no idea what is what. They have two 7950GT cards listed, one is a XXX (they call it Xtreme though), one is an Extreme...the one I got is cheaper, but has the 1.6ghz memory, rather than the most expensive one with the 1.46ghz . Plus with a mail-in-rebate it dropped it well below $280CDN which is a decent deal.

 

[mcurphy]

Here's the info for the 7950GT I was refering to, copied from TechReport.com

The XFX card's sound level readings come with a great, big caveat, though. Passive solutions like this one depend on air circulating inside of a PC case in order to work effectively. They are not really and truly passive coolers, able to radiate all of the necessary heat into the environment without the aid of a fan. We experienced this reality first-hand when the second of our XFX cards in an SLI setup on our open-air test bench began hitting the 130°C temperature threshold in the Nvidia drivers and slowing itself down. This card was positioned away from the CPU cooler and out of the path of any airflow from a cooling fan on another system component, and that proved to be a problem.

Being the self-sacrificing kind of guy I am, I decided to slap this pair of XFX 7950 GTs into my own PC for some real-world temperature testing while gaming.

.........

Somehow I suffered through an extended session of Quake 4, after which I popped out to the desktop and found GPU temps of 89°C for GPU 1 and 85°C for GPU 2?much better than on the open-air test bench. I also did some additional testing by running a graphics demo in a window on the desktop as I worked one morning. The demo didn't take advantage of SLI, so only one GPU was active, but its temperature climbed slowly to as high as 102°C before reaching an apparent equilibrium and staying within the 100-102°C range. As Paris Hilton would say, that's hot. Whether or not that temperature is cause for concern, well, I'm not sure. Passive solutions tend to run at high temps. XFX does warrant this card for its lifetime, into its second owner, so I suppose they are confident in their product. Personally, I'm going to have to do some more game testing in SLI mode before I know for sure what to think.

Lots more, no doubt. Gotta finish Quake 4.

The moral of the story here is that passive solutions like this one are not inherently silent. They simply transfer the burden of moving air around elsewhere. In the hands of a smart system builder or inside of a good PC enclosure, that can be a very good thing indeed. Large, low-RPM case fans can be very effective while remaining nearly silent. When stuffed inside of your average PC case, though, the passive XFX card won't necessarily lead to a significantly quieter system overall.

Even though the example quoted above was from a pair of cards in SLI, it still shows the drastic difference airflow plays in GPU temps with passive cooling.

 

[Sphexi]

Well the Tt case has a 12cm fan on the back, and I'll have another one in the front, which is positioned in front of the harddrive cage, directly in front of the video card. That'll keep it plenty cool

 

[mcurphy]

Originally posted by: Sphexi
Well the Tt case has a 12cm fan on the back, and I'll have another one in the front, which is positioned in front of the harddrive cage, directly in front of the video card. That'll keep it plenty cool

That's exactly how I have cooling set up in my case and it cools the card very efficiently :thumbsup:

 

[Sphexi]

Originally posted by: mcurphy

Originally posted by: Sphexi
Well the Tt case has a 12cm fan on the back, and I'll have another one in the front, which is positioned in front of the harddrive cage, directly in front of the video card. That'll keep it plenty cool

That's exactly how I have cooling set up in my case and it cools the card very efficiently :thumbsup:

Good to know ....I only plan on the 320GB right now, I have two other SATA drives I may toss in, but nothing else to create a lot of heat right now.

 

[JAG87]

good luck overclocking anything with that motherboard...