Hardware Discussion Thread

N64

http://www.dabs.ie/products/asus-ati-radeon-7850-870mhz-2gb-pci-express-3-0-hdmi-directcu-ii-818Z.html?q=7850&src=16

What do you reckon of this card? I might just be able to push my budget a bit

Procrastastudy

I don't really know enough about the 7850s You want one that's voltage unlocked and preferably getting good reviews ref overclocking. I know that cooler gets some good press but that's about it.

Dcully

Sarz91 wrote: »

I agree completely. The 7950 is currently cheaper and faster than the 660 TI. If Nvidia doesn't drop the price a bit, it's a no-brainer decision to go for the 7950. And then there is still the Radeon 7850 which covers the €200 market without current gen competition. I don't see Nvidia putting AMD in a hard place at all unless some prices are dropped.

The 660 ti is cheaper anywhere ive looked.
It also beats the 7950 on some games and loses to others.
Fcuk all between them overall imo just the 7950 is more expensive from anywhere i saw them.

Procrastastudy

Dcully wrote: »

The 660 ti is cheaper anywhere ive looked.
It also beats the 7950 on some games and loses to others.
Fcuk all between them overall imo just the 7950 is more expensive from anywhere i saw them.

The 7950 is massively underclocked. In higher resolutions the 7950 will outperform a 660ti and there is also speculation that the 660ti will not do aswell in new games because of the bandwidth limitation. That said if you could get an unlocked 660ti for the price its meant to be I'd say go for it but:

Item|Price
MSI N660Ti Power Edition 2GD5/OC, GeForce GTX 660Ti, 2048MB DDR5|€313.95
Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OC 950M, 3GB GDDR5, full retail|€345.00
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€677.94

That pricing just doesn't make sense.

It wouldnt be the worst purchase you could make - but I would wait or get the 7950 in all honesty.

N64

bollox. The asus card I was looking at just literally went up €20 on dabs and thus, is out of my price range :rolleyes:

Edit: Just refreshed the page about ten minutes later and its back down to the original price. I hope to god it stays that way :P

weisses

N64 wrote: »

bollox. The asus card I was looking at just literally went up €20 on dabs and thus, is out of my price range :rolleyes:

Edit: Just refreshed the page about ten minutes later and its back down to the original price. I hope to god it stays that way :P

http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ati__amd/20154414/msi_radeon_r7850_twin_frozr_2gd5_oc_2gb_pci_e/details.aspx

Get this one ...with free shipping

Sorry just saw TEA BAG quoting the same card ...

weisses

Procrastastudy wrote: »

Its very expensive at the moment. I'm really not sure it's great value atm unless you managed to get it sub €300 some where?

I even suspect some kind of price agreement among all the retailers ... they all have the same prices (uk ones)

N64

weisses wrote: »

http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ati__amd/20154414/msi_radeon_r7850_twin_frozr_2gd5_oc_2gb_pci_e/details.aspx

Get this one ...with free shipping

Sorry just saw TEA BAG quoting the same card ...

I had a terrible experience with the cooler on another twin frozr card, so I am a bit reluctant to get another one. The asus one looks solid though

weisses

N64 wrote: »

I had a terrible experience with the cooler on another twin frozr card, so I am a bit reluctant to get another one. The asus one looks solid though

The ASUS is a good card ... Even cheaper on komplett considering the free delivery

What i don't know is what AMD is gonna do with prices now that the gtx660 is on the market

Procrastastudy

Make sure you get one thats voltage unlocked if you plan on OCing it.

Sarz91

Looking to get a fan controller. Only time I'll be using it is when I'm watching movies or something with the girlfriends. I don't want to spend over €30 on this. What started out as an affordable pc has chewed down all the money I have to my name as well as my xbox and tv. Something like this.

Skylinehead

Sarz91 wrote: »

Looking to get a fan controller. Only time I'll be using it is when I'm watching movies or something with the girlfriends. I don't want to spend over €30 on this. What started out as an affordable pc has chewed down all the money I have to my name as well as my xbox and tv. Something like this.

That fan controller fits a 3.5" bay, you'll need a 3.5 -> 5.25 bay adaptar like this to make it fit. Personally I'd prefer to go for a full size 5.25" controller as it looks better, but you're looking at a little over 30 quid for the cheapest good ones.

Sarz91

Skylinehead wrote: »

That fan controller fits a 3.5" bay, you'll need a 3.5 -> 5.25 bay adaptar like this to make it fit. Personally I'd prefer to go for a full size 5.25" controller as it looks better, but you're looking at a little over 30 quid for the cheapest good ones.

How much more?

Skylinehead

Having a quick look on amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Akasa-AK-FC-07BK-Trio-Fan-Controller/dp/B005GNP6W8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1345397860&sr=8-3

Sarz91

Skylinehead wrote: »

Having a quick look on amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Akasa-AK-FC-07BK-Trio-Fan-Controller/dp/B005GNP6W8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1345397860&sr=8-3

Cheers thanks.

N64

Are you in urgent need of getting it? Dealextreme sell a few cheap fan controllers. It will take a bit of time to reach Ireland though (anywhere between 2-4 weeks once its in stock)
http://s.dealextreme.com/search/fan+controller

Sarz91

N64 wrote: »

Are you in urgent need of getting it? Dealextreme sell a few cheap fan controllers. It will take a bit of time to reach Ireland though (anywhere between 2-4 weeks once its in stock)
http://s.dealextreme.com/search/fan+controller

Cheers for that. Not in any rush really. The two Arctic 120mm fans in the front are loud as hell. Then again, they're running full on.

Headshot

See this lads

http://www.ibood.com/ie/en/product_specs/19750/OCZ_Octane_SATA3_25inch_super-fast_SSD_with_256GB/
OCZ Octane SATAIII 2.5inch super-fast SSD with 256GB « Back
Brand: OCZ
Type: Octane
High speed 2.5 inch SATAIII SSD
Capacity: 256GB
Interface Type: Serial ATA-600
Buffer Size: 512 MB
Features: Native Command Queuing (NCQ), shock resistant, RAIDSSD technology, MLC flash (Multi-Level Cell) Background Garbage Collection, TRIM support, Indilinx Ndurance Technology, AES en Automatische Encryptie
Slim 2.5" Design
Transferspeed station: 600 MBps (external)
MTBF: 1.250.000 uur
Read speed: 480 MBps
Write: 310 MBps
Low-Latency Seek Time: 0.06ms Read; 0.09ms Write
4KB random reading: 35000 IOPS
4KB random write: 25000 IOPS
Required Operating Systems: Linux, Apple MacOS X, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows XP 64-bit Edition, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit Edition or Microsoft Windows Vista (32/64 bits)
Dimensions: 7 cm x 10 cm x 9.2 mm
Weight: 83g
Warranty: 3 years
The expected shipping date of this product is 29 August 2012

Now! € 149,95

Not sure is it a good deal or not, thought someone might be interested

Dcully

Procrastastudy wrote: »

I don't know but I;d give it about two weeks personally. I think there's just a bit of a new release furory.

Don't get me wrong that MSI power edition looks like the OC King of the 660ti cards - I think there are going to be some insane OCs out of that card. AMD cards also lack the killer feature of Adaptive vSync which would be a major factor in purchasing I have to admit.

Bottom line - if that MSI card was around €275 I would have thought twice about the 7950 - probably would have bought the 7950 because of the res I run but at 1080p - quite a tough decision if the pricing was right.

I decided to pull the plug,in fairness i really dont need a new card,my hd 6950 is more than capable for todays games @ 1080.
The only game that i cant run on absolute max settings and still manage a consistant 60+ fps is BF3 on ultra settings,im running mostly high with some ultra and manage close to a consistant 60 fps,however BF3 doesnt look an awful lot different going from high to ultra to me.
Maybe if the 660ti or 7950 drop in price ill make a purchase but for now i think ill hold off.
Now i must wait until scan get the goods back before they refund, hopefully there wont be an issue.
Thanks for thoughts and suggestions guys but Shadow made some great points a page or two back and made me question if i really did actually need a new card.

Things could change, im downloading the planetside 2 beta as i type :P

PseudoFamous

Bitfenix Ghost is seriously nice. Makes my aging survivor look almost prehistoric stylewise.

Eboggles

PseudoFamous wrote: »

Bitfenix Ghost is seriously nice. Makes my aging survivor look almost prehistoric stylewise.

Saw that as well today, looks class! Any idea how much it's going to cost?

deconduo

PseudoFamous wrote: »

Bitfenix Ghost is seriously nice. Makes my aging survivor look almost prehistoric stylewise.

Looks like it could be a decent Define R4 competitor.

Ape X

That video reminded me of something I've been meaning to ask - can any of you recommend any good YouTube channels for hardware reveiws, build logs etc?

Thanks in advance!

Procrastastudy

Ape X wrote: »

That video reminded me of something I've been meaning to ask - can any of you recommend any good YouTube channels for hardware reveiws, build logs etc?

Thanks in advance!

Linus 'I'm not gay I have a wife' tech tips and NCIX

Tea_Bag

and Tiny Tom "I don't do short videos" Logan.

Sarz91

Should I sell my gtx 670 and get a 7970 for around the same price? The 670 is reference so I was going to be spending another 50 on a vga cooler. So for what i'm selling it for plus what I'm saving by not buying the vga cooler I could afford an Asus 7970. Should I do it?

Procrastastudy

Unless you have a buyer no - 670 is a great card you've got obbessed with P score! :P

Sarz91

Procrastastudy wrote: »

Unless you have a buyer no - 670 is a great card you've got obbessed with P score! :P

No I just thought that for the same price it would be worth it.

ShadowHearth

Tea_Bag wrote: »

and Tiny Tom "I don't do short videos" Logan.

I love that about him. No half arsed stuff.

Really huge difference when you look at Linus stuff.

Plus TTL stuff is fun to watch.

PseudoFamous

Tea_Bag wrote: »

and Tiny Tom "I don't do short videos" Logan.

and that babe with the sexy accent, don't forget her