Hardware Discussion Thread

ShadowHearth

Skylinehead wrote: »

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.

I did not said its loud, it's good at keeping it cool and silent as church mouse, but it is a very bulky fat design. I don't know about 670 direct cu 2, but on gtx 570 it was a 3 slot bastard. It was in a way of everything and good luck having sli setup with that cooler.

ShadowHearth

P.s i got 500r amd 680 on stock cooler and the most loudest thing inside is corsair CPU cooler.
I honestly can't hear any difference between direct cu 2 amd stock 680. Like I said before stock 680 cooler os very good for a stock cooler. I would not write off it, just because it's stock.

Skylinehead

ShadowHearth wrote: »

I did not said its loud, it's good at keeping it cool and silent as church mouse, but it is a very bulky fat design. I don't know about 670 direct cu 2, but on gtx 570 it was a 3 slot bastard. It was in a way of everything and good luck having sli setup with that cooler.

Well, 3 slots is fat. My 670 is two slots though and there's enough space in the case/motherboard to safely put two in SLI, especially with the side fan blowing straight at the card(s).

ShadowHearth

Well of they changed design on high end cards from 3 slot to 2 slots then it is a better solution. Though then we look at new cooler design which I can't comment on as I had experience only with 3 slot one.

Ryan451

I'm having real trouble making my mind up on a modular power supply, and because it's a vital component I'm looking for a bit of help.

I was looking at this Super Flower on HWVS:

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/600+-+700+Watts/33057/Super-Flower+SF700P14XE+Golden+Green+80plus+gold+Modular.article

Or this Adata on Komplett:

http://www.komplett.ie/komplett/product/power_supplies/80004753/adata_hm_850_850_watt_atx/details.aspx

I really have no idea which one to pick as I haven't the slightest idea about power supplies :S

deconduo

Ryan451 wrote: »

I'm having real trouble making my mind up on a modular power supply, and because it's a vital component I'm looking for a bit of help.

I was looking at this Super Flower on HWVS:

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/600+-+700+Watts/33057/Super-Flower+SF700P14XE+Golden+Green+80plus+gold+Modular.article

Or this Adata on Komplett:

http://www.komplett.ie/komplett/product/power_supplies/80004753/adata_hm_850_850_watt_atx/details.aspx

I really have no idea which one to pick as I haven't the slightest idea about power supplies :S

While the SuperFlower is better, its a lot more expensive so I'd go with the AData. Its still a good PSU and is decent value for money at that price.

smileyj1987

deconduo wrote: »

While the SuperFlower is better, its a lot more expensive so I'd go with the AData. Its still a good PSU and is decent value for money at that price.

I would say the super flower myself because it has modular cables and is gold 80 plus gold certified so it will waste less electricity . So in the end the savings will pay for the superflower in the long term .

N64

adata is modular as well, and it looks better in terms of build quality.

deconduo

smileyj1987 wrote: »

I would say the super flower myself because it has modular cables and is gold 80 plus gold certified so it will waste less electricity . So in the end the savings will pay for the superflower in the long term .

The AData is modular as well, and the difference between 80+ Bronze and 80+ Gold isn't much, only 5-7%.

N64 wrote: »

adata is modular as well, and it looks better in terms of build quality.

The SuperFlower Golden Green range has outstanding building quality, don't let the name fool you.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story4&reid=229

smileyj1987

The SuperFlower Golden Green range has outstanding building quality, don't let the name fool you.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story4&reid=229[/QUOTE]

If it got a 9.1 off jonnyguru then its the obvious choice , they are the best at power supply testing and would only ever buy one on their recommendation .
Hence why I have a corsair HX 750 watt in my rig .

Monotype

I don't think there's much doubt that the Superflower is a better PSU, but we're talking about an extra 50% cost here when you include the shipping!

Skylinehead

660ti looks pretty sweet.

http://www.techpowerup.com/169557/GeForce-GTX-660-Ti-Specifications-and-Launch-Date-Released.html

Eboggles

Skylinehead wrote: »

660ti looks pretty sweet.

http://www.techpowerup.com/169557/GeForce-GTX-660-Ti-Specifications-and-Launch-Date-Released.html

One size (chip) fits all :pac:

It's getting ridiculous, but I'm not sure if it's a testament to the potential of the chip or the laziness of Nvidia...

Eboggles

W1zzard gave the CLUB3D 1GB 7850 a 9.5 score along with the "Editor's Choice" over at TPU. He got a 37% OC on the core!

Anyway, it seems that up to 1920x1200 1GB of VRAM is still enough! It's a real bottleneck at my resolution though.

Link

Monotype

Eboggles wrote: »

W1zzard gave the CLUB3D 1GB 7850 a 9.5 score along with the "Editor's Choice" over at TPU. He got a 37% OC on the core!

Anyway, it seems that up to 1920x1200 1GB of VRAM is still enough! It's a real bottleneck at my resolution though.

Link

Finally! A review on the 1GB. The 6950 did pretty well with 1GB. It's gone up a lot in price at HWV, but so have the 2GB.

Skylinehead wrote: »

660ti looks pretty sweet.

http://www.techpowerup.com/169557/GeForce-GTX-660-Ti-Specifications-and-Launch-Date-Released.html

Sounds good. We need some better competition at the midrange cards. Could do with a few cards unless these are quite cheap.

RUCKING FETARD

A dual-heatsink design offered by Silentmaxx promises to cool CPUs with a power consumption of up to 100 watts - without the need of fans.

Serephucus

Tear the socket from your motherboard, for only €100!

I'll take a H100 thanks.

RUCKING FETARD

:pac:

'Tis a bit hefty.

Gbear

I've a general question - I get the impression that OCZ are poorly thought of on this site? Why so?

Skylinehead

Gbear wrote: »

I've a general question - I get the impression that OCZ are poorly thought of on this site? Why so?

Depends entirely on the product, although they haven't a great reputation. Some of their PSUs and SSDs have been fairly horrible.

Gbear

Skylinehead wrote: »

Depends entirely on the product, although they haven't a great reputation. Some of their PSUs and SSDs have been fairly horrible.

My brother was talking about getting an OCZ SSD and acknowledged that the older ones (Vertex 1 and 2 I think) had high failure rates but he reckons the newer ones are grand.

I just felt like I was missing something because at times it seems like they're discussed in hushed tones of disdain around here.

Serephucus

Actually it was only the first-gen Vertex that had high failure rates. The Vertex 2 is fine. The Vertex 3 had a bunch of problems earlier on, but AFAIK, they're mostly fixed at this point.

Monotype

OCZ in a Summary

RAM
DDR2 - good
DDR3 - bad. Bad enough for them to exit the market

SSDs
Very mixed. But they're quite a big player so they can't be ignored.

• Vertex 2 shows quite a high return rate. They downgraded their 60GB drives to 55GB - maybe the downgrade in size was beyond their control but Corsair rebranded theirs as F55 from F60 while OCZ continued selling theirs as normal.
• Agility/Vertex 3 have had overinflated speeds quoted due to compression technology. So their drives could potentially reach high speeds but as a whole, they're not as good as they appear on paper.
• Agiligy/Vertex 3 had very high failure rates. Corsair had a recall while OCZ where mostly in denial about it.
• Petrol and some of their low lines seem very poor.
• Positive: OCZ played a part in getting SSDs to a lower price range. Even though their budget SSDs weren't great, it put the pressure on others to lower prices also.

PSUs
They've been in the PSU business quite a while now and used to have some good PSUs. Then they had quite a few bad PSUs. Recent ones are pretty good again.


Where do I stand with OCZ now? I'd recommend one of their PSUs from a range that I knew was good. I'd recommend their SSDs if the price was good.
It would be silly to write them off without understanding their products every company has their ups and downs in quality.

All things equal, would I look at what other manufacturers have to offer? Yes. OCZ have had some dirty tricks in the past and I would consider others above them as they haven't done much to inspire much respect from me.

Monotype

Serephucus wrote: »

The Vertex 2 is fine.

You missed the returns rate article posted back there, then?
http://www.behardware.com/articles/862-7/components-returns-rates-6.html

Skylinehead

Vertex 4 is exactly the same as the other Sandforce-based SSDs now (like the Corsair Force series).

Monotype

Skylinehead wrote: »

Vertex 4 is exactly the same as the other Sandforce-based SSDs now (like the Corsair Force series).

That's Vertex 3. Vertex 4 is their own Indilinx drive. Actually looking like a reasonable drive - although a bit expensive. Time will tell about where it stands with reliability.

Skylinehead

Monotype wrote: »

That's Vertex 3. Vertex 4 is their own Indilinx drive. Actually looking like a reasonable drive - although a bit expensive. Time will tell about where it stands with reliability.

Ah yes, I stand corrected

Tea_Bag

just on a personal experience note, I've gone through quite a number of SSDs, and included a few in builds for friends, and the only one to ever fail on me was an OCZ petrol. it was also notably slower than its sata3 rivals. it was similar performance to my old Intel x25m G2 (sata2 second gen) on paper it says it should be far, far better.

also recently I've had to repair a PC, and it turns out that the DDR3 OCZ RAM died, and took out the motherboard in the process. I tested it in my rig, and it killed my RAM slot too

I'll never buy an ocz product again.

Serephucus

Monotype wrote: »

You missed the returns rate article posted back there, then?
http://www.behardware.com/articles/862-7/components-returns-rates-6.html

Apparently, yes!

Tea_Bag wrote: »

also recently I've had to repair a PC, and it turns out that the DDR3 OCZ RAM died, and took out the motherboard in the process. I tested it in my rig, and it killed my RAM slot too

I'll never buy an ocz product again.

A real pity, because their DDR2 stuff was great. I remember when I was running these in my rig. Absolutely bitchin'.

Tea_Bag

yea. it was pretty decent RAM too by the look of it. OCZ platinum^3 1600Mhz Cl7.

I know G.Skill have a life time warranty. do OCZ too? it would be great to get a free replacement.