Which of these 8800GT should I choose?

[Peezee]

So, as the topic states, there are lots of 8800GT cards, and I've rounded up a few that are cheap, yet good picks. I just need to know which one would be the best. I know these sites are on Danish, but the VGA specs should be very readable still.

BFG 8800GT OC (512mb, PCI-E 2.0)
http://www.prcdata.dk/produkt/...e-8800-gt-oc/75700090/

Gainward 8800GT Golden Sample (512mb, PCI-E 2.0)
http://www.prcdata.dk/produkt/...olden-sample/78105878/

Both are OC versions, yet the Gainward one seems to have a higher core clock, and a better cooler (it has heatpipes and it's dual-slot, but the air is NOT pushed out of the case)
I really need some temperature and overclock information between (any) 8800GT with reference cooler, and also some information about the Gainward 8800GT GS. I have read two reviews or so, but none actually stated how much cooler and quieter the dual-slot cooler was over the reference, and if it's not alot, I think I'd prefer a long and sleek card over a long and fat (that would specially help if I was to SLI at a later point)

Which one should I pick? Thanks a lot for taking your time to read this

Regards,
Peezee.

 

[Peezee]

As I have to make my decision early tomorrow, I really need some help guys. So, bump... I guess.
Even if you just have some opinions about the brands or something, anything might help me out...

 

[DarkRogue]

If you're not going to put on an aftermarket cooler (like the Arctic Cooling Accelero S1/S2) then you may want to take into account the effectiveness of each one's stock cooler to make sure it fits your standards for cooling and quietness. Otherwise, they're all basically the same and you can just pick based on the company's reputation/support/warranty/etc.

I was personally deciding between XFX and eVGA and I picked eVGA because step-up appealed more to me than double lifetime warranty since I tend to keep my hardware until it's utterly useless, and they both allow overclocking and modding without losing warranty.

 

[Peezee]

Does BFG allow overclocking without losing warranty?

• Would I lose the warranty with the BFG 8800GT OC if I overclocked it?

• Would I lose the warranty with the BFG 8800GT OC if I flashed the BIOS to an OC2?

• Considering the latter statement to be correct, would it be possible to flash the BIOS back to the OC BIOS if something happened, ie. it died (for RMA purposes)?

 

[ther00kie16]

You can flash and reflash your bios to whatever you want as many times as you want. However, flashing the bios to OC2 doesn't change anything except for the speeds. Though I'd say that any 8800gt is capable of the specs of the OC2 model, I wouldn't bet on the reference cooler running cool at the OC2 speeds. Best to just use software overclocking as it's safer and allows you to find the actual maximums. Also, the Gainward looks like a Zalman cooler so it should run cooler, which is what Fudzilla says too. Also, the Gainward shown at Fudzilla has even higher speeds (700 core/ 2050 mem) so you are pretty much guaranteed better than OC2 speeds if you decide to overclock the Gainward card. With that said, some reviews say the gainward model doesn't overclock beyond the 700/2050 mark at all whereas a good 8800gt should get to 750+.
Fudzilla
So if you have to choose, I'd say Gainward because of the better cooler. However, neither card will likely get beyond 700mhz. If you were able to wait, prices are dropping and there are better 8800gt's out there and 8800gts prices are dropping to near that of 8800gt's.

 

[Sylvanas]

Either will be fine, get whatever is cheaper- you can always OC standard models above and beyond their factory OC'd friends.

 

[s44]

BFG if you're planning on replacing it with the next high-end when it appears...

 

[Hauk]

Dude I wish Gainward was still available in the US! A much needed cooler improvement over the inadequate, noisy, crappy, single slot reference cooler. Reference cooler vents into the case too so it doesn't score in that department either. A lot of GT owners out there so you'll not hear many dog the card, but the reference cooler sucks donkey balls.

Regarding single slot for SLI later, good luck on that one.

Get the Gainward..