(04-14-2009, 03:56 PM)at0m link Wrote: [ -> ][quote author=Caffeine link=topic=2711.msg76771#msg76771 date=1239729045]
[quote author=at0m link=topic=2711.msg76768#msg76768 date=1239726944]
Caff: what beast of a card did they send you, and what brand was it?
Asus GTX280 1 Gig
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Seriously? I could've sworn you said it was BFG or XFX, and thats why they replaced it. How long had you had it before it died? I might try to send mine back to eVGA...
(04-14-2009, 12:30 PM)Blues link Wrote: [ -> ]Ambient was like 70. I personally would just go with the 275, small performance difference for 50$ that could go into a case (the Centurion I suggested is only 50$, so that's the whole price of a case saved). If not, stay with the 280, 295 is just a waste of money, as is most top tier tech.
I can't vouch for any of the Antec cases, I've compared my case at cons to a 300 and 900, along with various thermaltakes and randoms, and I generally have lower temps or about equal temps, except with the 900 that had me beat by a few celcius on the GPU and hard drives. Granted, that's a pretty large price jump for a few celcius.
70°F I assume, since 70°C wouldn't make sense even though your temperature stats were in °C
. You've got a good point re: the 275 vs the 280, especially in light of me purchasing a new case (and likely power supply if its a cheap case). I agree with the 295 being a waste of cash, but that 295 X2 one is truly an impressive waste of cash.
One of the reasons I was looking into water cooling is actually sound - I have the Sonata because I don't like having a whirling box of doom under my desk, and it worked well ramping up the fan speeds when needed and keeping everything relatively cool for the most part. A water cooled case would let me have a couple of 120mm fans running at low speed blowing on the radiator and thats more or less it, which would be nice. At least, thats what the internets tell me, the guy at SilentPCReview did a pretty good job co-designing the
Fusion case I use as my HTPC, and gave solid reviews for the Sonata as well as the
P180/2/3. The main things that keep drawing me to the P18x series are the dual chambers to increase airflow across my HDDs, similar drive cages to my Sonata, and muffled case walls.
I personally swear by Antec. Their cases are mostly cold rolled steel, which makes them super sturdy but also super heavy. The thing that I really like is the little extras that they take care of, like making sure there are no pointy bits on the inside of the case, having everything mount on rails, and in the Sonata, having vibration-dampening grommets all over the place. The _really_ nice thing though was the sideways drive cage, which made installing drives and routing cables really easy. The 300 and 900 both have too much mesh on them for my taste, since I guess I'm the only gamer who doesn't really want a _glowing_ whirling box of doom. I will check out the Centurion though, I wish I had a Fry's near me where I could go check it out in person instead of just reading specs and crap on NewEgg.
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The 534 has the side facing hdd tray, which I refuse to NOT have in a case anymore after using. CoolerMaster prides themselves on the same type of quality as Antec for the most part. I am currently using 3x 120mm Slayers and 1x 80mm front and the case is pretty damned quiet. I refuse to give water cooling and validity unless you're running a monster SLI/Tri/quad SLI system overclocked all to hell, and they're generally sub-par at cooling unless you spend a lot more than it would cost to get some good, quiet fans.