Typical custom board timelines?

[Kloreep]

Hi folks,

I haven't followed custom board development in the past, but the positive comments about custom boards & coolers from some companies have me interested.

So I was wondering: how long does it tend to take before custom PCBs & coolers start to show up? Based on the last few series from AMD and Nvidia, how long would you expect it to take for the 7900s to get custom cards now that the 7970 has launched? How long from their launch would you expect the lower-tier 7800s to get some non-reference launches?

 

[T_Yamamoto]

atleast a few weeks

 

[Lonyo]

Depends on how AMD decide to release their lineup.

It could be anywhere from at-launch to weeks or months. Probably at the lower end though as you move further down the lineup.

There are already pictures circulating of custom HD7970 PCBs.

 

[3DVagabond]

I've heard rumblings of early Feb. There are already some designs in the wild. Whether or not they have custom PCB's or they are simply custom coolers, I don't know. The XFX DD cards are just custom coolers. There's a Gigabyte that's been pictured as well as a Powercolor. Remember though that just because a card has a custom PCB it doesn't mean it's a better PCB. AMD's reference cards are usually a bit over engineered from the get go.

 

[paul878]

With the Chinese New Year coming, it might be a while before they can get custom board to the market in numbers.