Hardware Discussion Thread

N64

Hi guys, I was talking to my friend today who said that if you have, say for example a 850 power supply and the computer only needs a 550w psu to run, could it cause anything bad to happen like degraded performance or reliability issues? (for arguments sake, lets say that it is the exact same type of PSU,but the only differences between the two are the rated voltages )

Eboggles

N64 wrote: »

Hi guys, I was talking to my friend today who said that if you have, say for example a 850 power supply and the computer only needs a 550w psu to run, could it cause anything bad to happen like degraded performance or reliability issues? (for arguments sake, lets say that it is the exact same type of PSU,but the only differences between the two are the rated voltages )

You'd be losing money as it wouldn't be as efficient. Other than that though you'd be fine.

Procrastastudy

Don't PSUs just draw as much power as they need... if not I need to think about getting rid of this small 1000W transformer station.

deconduo

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

Don't PSUs just draw as much power as they need... if not I need to think about getting rid of this small 1000W transformer station.

Yes, but a PSU doesn't have the same efficiency at all times. They generally hit their peak efficiency between 50-75% load, in a curve that looks like this:



So if you have a 1000W PSU that's running at 100W idle, 250W load you are wasting electricity. Probably not a whole lot, but it adds up over the year.

challengemaster

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

Don't PSUs just draw as much power as they need... if not I need to think about getting rid of this small 1000W transformer station.

Yeah, they only draw as much as they need but it comes down to efficiency while doing so. As most PSUs work with in the 80%-90% range of efficiency, obviously a 1000W PSU supplying 200W and a 400W PSU supplying the same will have different draw from the mains due to efficiency loss

Procrastastudy

I bet it bloody does when I have the GPU running at 100% most of the time given the silly bitcoin mining I do!

Grrrr. another thing on the up(down!)grade list

Thanks lads!

Eboggles

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

I bet it bloody does when I have the GPU running at 100% most of the time given the silly bitcoin mining I do!

Grrrr. another thing on the up(down!)grade list

Thanks lads!

Is Bitcoin mining worth it nowadays?

Procrastastudy

Well wife pays the electricity bill but I dont think so has taken me a week to earn 1 bitcoin! (€6.50ish)

Eboggles

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

Well wife pays the electricity bill but I dont think so has taken me a week to earn 1 bitcoin! (€6.50ish)

Do you leave your rig on all the time?

I was actually thinking about doing it, whenever I get my new card. For that reason I was thinking of a 7950/7970 because they're supposed to be great in that area. But then again I won't be upgrading until Christmas and there might be new things out by then. Oh well, I'm sure the 8000 series will be good :rolleyes:.

Ryan451

How about This?

Seems to be good value and the extra headroom may leave me the option of SLI down the road.

N64

Yeah, that power supply is excellent. One of the best on the market according the the review of the 650w version

http://www.kitguru.net/components/power-supplies/zardon/adata-hm-series-650w-power-supply-review/6/

ShadowHearth

challengemaster wrote: »

Nope, I meant in the region of 5.4 if you've got a good chip and are able to keep temps under control with really good water cooling, in terms of pushing it for benchmarking (if you're that way inclined). I wouldn't run it daily at that though. You should certainly hit 4.8-5.0 no problems for daily use. People are easily getting 4.8+ on air.

I'm well aware the voltage scaling isn't linear so you've to pump a lot more in to get gains once you start hitting 4.9+, which means a lot more heat. With very good water cooling you could manage though

Unless I was under some rock, I camt remember ivy going pass 4.5ghz with no heat problems even on water. Ivy has huge heat problems, due to design. Unless they got some updated chips now, that I did not heard off.
Putting ivy at 4.8-5.0 ( if possible ) will need a very expensive water cooling loop. Not something that would be cost efficient swapimg from 2500k

challengemaster

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Unless I was under some rock, I camt remember ivy going pass 4.5ghz with no heat problems even on water. Ivy has huge heat problems, due to design. Unless they got some updated chips now, that I did not heard off.
Putting ivy at 4.8-5.0 ( if possible ) will need a very expensive water cooling loop. Not something that would be cost efficient swapimg from 2500k

Do some searching, there's quite a lot of people running 4.8 no issues, and plenty running 5.0 on air. I'm fairly sure I spotted something about a 5.2 on air during the week too. Obviously it all depends on the chips, and considering how many of them are out there, compared to how many you hear about being good oc'ers....

Procrastastudy

Be aware that some of these 3570Ks have had the heat spreader removed and the blood crap thats under there replaced.

I'm a cynic and think (with no proof) that the 3570K was such a good design they had to hobble it to stop it blowing everything else out of the water.

Procrastastudy

Eboggles wrote: »

Do you leave your rig on all the time?

I was actually thinking about doing it, whenever I get my new card. For that reason I was thinking of a 7950/7970 because they're supposed to be great in that area. But then again I won't be upgrading until Christmas and there might be new things out by then. Oh well, I'm sure the 8000 series will be good :rolleyes:.

I do but I've only been doing it for a week - have to run the fans at 50% to keep my reference 6870 under 70C though. Not sure its good for the card if I'm 100% honest. But it if breaks I get to buy a new one so

Eboggles

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

I do but I've only been doing it for a week - have to run the fans at 50% to keep my reference 6870 under 70C though. Not sure its good for the card if I'm 100% honest. But it if breaks I get to buy a new one so

Do many places even accept Bitcoin? It kinda seems silly to make all that Bitcoin through mining and then only be able to spend it on Alpaca socks ...

Procrastastudy

I haven't really looked as I'm only really doing it for the craic. There are a few exchanges - none operate in Ireland without fees though. Some people are just holding on to - literally - millions of dollars of the stuff. Having said that there's plenty of cranks in the world.

There's also
https://localbitcoins.com/

I use GUIminer and Slush's pool btw.

ED E

You're wasting money on your ESB bills, but hey, fun thing to try and get a high mining rate.

RUCKING FETARD

Eboggles wrote: »

Is Bitcoin mining worth it nowadays?

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

Well wife pays the electricity bill but I dont think so has taken me a week to earn 1 bitcoin! (€6.50ish)

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/07/bitcoin-price-soars-above-9-for-the-first-time-in-almost-a-year/

Disclosure: The author owns some Bitcoins.

I know he says he has some but he must have a heap of them, only time I see them mentioned anywhere is when he's the writer.

Doesn't look it'll ever break away from it's dodgy .onion roots.

M00lers

Has anyone here any experience of the Arctic Cooling Accelero range of GPU coolers?

I'm was eyeing up a GTX 670, either a Gigabyte Windforce 3X or Asus DirectCU or similar but then seeing as one of my goals is silence (or as quiet as possible) I thought that a reference 670 and an Accelero might be the way to go.
Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Moo

EDIT: I'm thinking one of these together with one of these would be a good combo!!

ED E

moolers2000 wrote: »

Has anyone here any experience of the Arctic Cooling Accelero range of GPU coolers?

I'm was eyeing up a GTX 670, either a Gigabyte Windforce 3X or Asus DirectCU or similar but then seeing as one of my goals is silence (or as quiet as possible) I thought that a reference 670 and an Accelero might be the way to go.
Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Moo

Water....

M00lers

ED E wrote: »

Water....

I knew that was coming....not possible in my case and I have no intention of changing it!

Could someone explain to me why WC is quieter than air cooling, with all the fans on the rads and pumps etc. I understand the cooling performance is way better but quieter I can't get my head around. Just asking, I'm not looking for grief!;)

Procrastastudy

Just that the fans can spin slower - or not have them at all

Skylinehead

moolers2000 wrote: »

Has anyone here any experience of the Arctic Cooling Accelero range of GPU coolers?

I'm was eyeing up a GTX 670, either a Gigabyte Windforce 3X or Asus DirectCU or similar but then seeing as one of my goals is silence (or as quiet as possible) I thought that a reference 670 and an Accelero might be the way to go.
Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Moo

EDIT: I'm thinking one of these together with one of these would be a good combo!!

The Asus Direct CU II is ridiculously quiet.

M00lers

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

Just that the fans can spin slower - or not have them at all

Cheers, makes sense. Passive WC is not something I've seen much off, sounds interesting.

Skylinehead wrote: »

The Asus Direct CU II is ridiculously quiet.

Yeah, thats why I was leaning towards a GTX670 with custom cooler but from my brief research it seems that the Acceleros are quieter while offering better cooling performance, which is a very desirable trait.

Cheers lads,
Moo

ZeroThreat

hmmm, I must be less noise sensitive than many on the fourms here, have both a gigabyte windforce 670 & macho hr-02 cooler installed and the pc case seems quiet enough to me...:D

M00lers

ZeroThreat wrote: »

hmmm, I must be less noise sensitive than many on the fourms here, have both a gigabyte windforce 670 & macho hr-02 cooler installed and the pc case seems quiet enough to me...:D

I'm sure it is quiet, I'm just looking at the quietest possible config while gaming in my Gaming/"HTPC" where sufficient cooling is not as easily achieved as a normal gaming rig.

I currently have my 6870 undervolted (stock clocks) and using a custom fan profile so that my GPU fan never goes over 40% while gaming, temps get to approx 80 degrees. A little hotter than most but well within acceptable limits for the card. I can live with the slightly higher temps but noise drives me cracked.

With the GTX 670 throttling @ 70degrees I have less headroom for higher temps so an Accelero GPU cooler should help achieve the results I'm after.

ShadowHearth

Asus direct cu2 is a nice cooler, but I will never buy one anymore.

It's a fat bastard and a pain in a hole. I went from gtx 570 direct cu2, to gtx 680 stock cooler and I could not feel the difference between 2 coolers. There are enough fans on pc already to make it as loud as aeroplane.

670 should have same cooler as 680 I imagine and that cooler is really not bad. I think I would even go stock cooler and not direct cu 2 again if I needed.

M00lers

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Asus direct cu2 is a nice cooler, but I will never buy one anymore.

It's a fat bastard and a pain in a hole. I went from gtx 570 direct cu2, to gtx 680 stock cooler and I could not feel the difference between 2 coolers. There are enough fans on pc already to make it as loud as aeroplane.

670 should have same cooler as 680 I imagine and that cooler is really not bad. I think I would even go stock cooler and not direct cu 2 again if I needed.

I've no first hand experience but everything I've read while researching suggests that any stock reference cooler is louder/hotter than DirectCU/Windforce 3X coolers.

Skylinehead

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Asus direct cu2 is a nice cooler, but I will never buy one anymore.

It's a fat bastard and a pain in a hole. I went from gtx 570 direct cu2, to gtx 680 stock cooler and I could not feel the difference between 2 coolers. There are enough fans on pc already to make it as loud as aeroplane.

670 should have same cooler as 680 I imagine and that cooler is really not bad. I think I would even go stock cooler and not direct cu 2 again if I needed.

Fat? It's dual slot like most GPUs these days, and I can't hear it over the noise of a H100 on low, or even the case fans on my 500R.