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[Computer Build Thread] - Bitcoiners can't keep us down! 1440p or bust!

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    AiouaAioua Ora Occidens Ora OptimaRegistered User regular
    @emp123 That's with the asus strix 970, yah?

    life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
    fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
    that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
    bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
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    ThirithThirith Registered User regular
    Quick question for you experts: I've heard that there are websites that help you put together a system according to your wishes, suggesting different components. Do you know any good ones to add to the useful links in the original post? Since I'm hoping to either buy or build a new gaming PC come January, and I'm trying to make up my mind whether to buy the components and put them together myself or buy a pre-made PC, I'm basically eager to get all the help I can find.

    webp-net-resizeimage.jpg
    "Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
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    BouwsTBouwsT Wanna come to a super soft birthday party? Registered User regular
    Thirith wrote: »
    Quick question for you experts: I've heard that there are websites that help you put together a system according to your wishes, suggesting different components. Do you know any good ones to add to the useful links in the original post? Since I'm hoping to either buy or build a new gaming PC come January, and I'm trying to make up my mind whether to buy the components and put them together myself or buy a pre-made PC, I'm basically eager to get all the help I can find.

    PCpartpicker is great for checking compatibility, but if you're looking for a springboard with little prior knowledge, @cardboard delusions‌ recommended http://choosemypc.net/ .

    It seemed to have some solid recommendations, but I'd say don't take it as biblical. Let it generate a rig for you, then maybe let the forum help you fine tune it.

    Building your own PC is highly satisfying and I would recommend it to anyone with a shred of patience and a phillips screw driver.

    Between you and me, Peggy, I smoked this Juul and it did UNTHINKABLE things to my mind and body...
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    ThirithThirith Registered User regular
    Yeah, I've come near enough to building a new rig myself to think I can definitely do it; however, I'm fairly clumsy, have sausage fingers and a tendency to drop screws in the tight spaces of my PC, and that's before I even get into the part where I start sweating like a pig... :-) I'll check out those two sites and will get back to the forum, unless I decide to chicken out and buy pre-made. In any case, thanks a lot for the tips!

    webp-net-resizeimage.jpg
    "Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
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    BouwsTBouwsT Wanna come to a super soft birthday party? Registered User regular
    Thirith wrote: »
    Yeah, I've come near enough to building a new rig myself to think I can definitely do it; however, I'm fairly clumsy, have sausage fingers and a tendency to drop screws in the tight spaces of my PC, and that's before I even get into the part where I start sweating like a pig... :-) I'll check out those two sites and will get back to the forum, unless I decide to chicken out and buy pre-made. In any case, thanks a lot for the tips!

    Then I would suggest a magnetic phillips screwdriver for you. :wink:

    Or anyone for that matter.

    Between you and me, Peggy, I smoked this Juul and it did UNTHINKABLE things to my mind and body...
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    XeddicusXeddicus Registered User regular
    Another site to check out when building a PC is logicalincrements.com/.

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    davidsdurionsdavidsdurions Your Trusty Meatshield Panhandle NebraskaRegistered User regular
    Re: dropped screws

    Your welcome.

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    Zen VulgarityZen Vulgarity What a lovely day for tea Secret British ThreadRegistered User regular
    500x1000px-LL-97cea115_20140524_162423.jpeg

    Cannot wait to do this

    NZXT_Kraken_G10_02.jpg


    Then this

    Ima get it

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    AiouaAioua Ora Occidens Ora OptimaRegistered User regular
    Oh hey, my 970 shipped.
    Whee.

    life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
    fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
    that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
    bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
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    useruser Registered User regular
    user wrote: »
    user wrote: »
    So this year I've been wanting to upgrade my PC, and really what I mean is that I wanted to build a new system altogether.

    I am on an x58 i7 930 from 2010. And it seemed like Haswell-E would be a good replacement, so I waited for it to release. I was really eager to pull the trigger when it hit back in September, the CPU certainly impressed me, but I had reservations as NVMe isn't yet widely implemented, so booting from an ultra speedy PCIe SSD isn't in the cards yet, and the new DDR4 is too expensive and not yet mature enough, seriously, my 4 year old DDR3 memory is faster than the $800 enthusiast DDR kits at the moment.

    Instead I am going to sink a little dough in bringing my x58 up to speed, I never really had an issue running new games at a decent clip but the new CIV Beyond Earth and the recommended specs on the newer console ports like Shadow of Mordor are asking for a lot of GHz and memory.

    So I looked it up, and my old Rampage IIIE can run Westmere E Xeons, and a 6 core 2.96GHzcan be had used for about $125. What's more these older Xeons are overclockable as Intel hadn't developed the idea of segmenting out the enthusiast market back in 2010. A Xeon X5670 is ordered and hopefully well sorted.

    Some questions...

    I'm on a TV so I'm locked into 1080p. Am I right in thinking that a single GTX 970 can get me Ultra settings smoothly, and without being bottlenecked by an x16 PCIe 2.0 slot?

    Unfortunately back when I built my PC I elected for only 6 GB (3x2GB) of RAM. Now games are starting to recommend 8 GB, well... I can't exactly match my current RAM as everything from the Triple Channel era is end of life. Still the sticks I have are speedy! 6 - 8 - 6 - 24, 1600 Mhz, they don't make RAM with those timings anymore, but there are equivalently speedy sticks that compensate with higher clocks. I think I have two options...

    I've seen a listing for a deadstock 3x2 GB kit on eBay, it has identical timings and voltage to my own kit, and is from the same exact manufacturer, as far as I can tell, the only difference is the heat spreader and the model number. Would it be possible to slide them in alongside my current sticks?

    If that doesn't work, can I get by with three identical dual channel kits of more modern DDR3? My worry here is that I am unsure if my motherboard (ASUS Rampage III Extreme) can handle the clock speeds of newer Bridge/Haswell DDR3, so if anyone could point me to a resource about that, I'd be grateful.

    Well my MSI GTX 970 4G Gamer is here, the rest of the parts will be trickling in next week. So far I am resisting temptation to install as things come in, but I am a bit curious about benchmarking my upgrade piece by piece.

    Mismatched RAM is working nicely, XMP wouldn't work but I set all of the timings individually and set a modest baseclock OC to put them all within manufacturer's spec. Xeon is in and modestly OCed to 3.5Ghz. System is stable and it looks like Civ:BE is actually using all six cores.

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    bombardierbombardier Moderator mod
    Hey guys, I'm building a fairly budget HTPC but I have a weird requirement. I need to have video and audio go to 2 different TVs and mirroring the output, so that no matter which TV is on there will be A/V from the HTPC.

    What would be the best solution? Onboard video (only one HDMI port) with an HDMI splitter, or a budget video card with extra outputs? I understand that displayport also outputs audio and can be converted to HDMI, so if I get a card with 1xHDMI and 1xDPort, it might work. I'm not 100% sure that it would since I don't know if the displayport to HDMI adapter would pass through the audio as well.

    Maybe I'm over-complicating things.

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    ArtereisArtereis Registered User regular
    The new Area 51 prices don't seem absolutely horrible. The next time Dell has a no interest for one year deal, I may pull the trigger on one.

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    DrijenDrijen Registered User regular
    Asus 970 finally came in. Actually got here a day early, got notice on the 27th, shipped yesterday, waiting for me after work. Sucks I've had a massive migraine since last night so I'm in no shape to install it and take it for a spin. I'll likely have to fight the urge to swap it in before I get coffee in the morning.

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    AiouaAioua Ora Occidens Ora OptimaRegistered User regular
    bombardier wrote: »
    Hey guys, I'm building a fairly budget HTPC but I have a weird requirement. I need to have video and audio go to 2 different TVs and mirroring the output, so that no matter which TV is on there will be A/V from the HTPC.

    What would be the best solution? Onboard video (only one HDMI port) with an HDMI splitter, or a budget video card with extra outputs? I understand that displayport also outputs audio and can be converted to HDMI, so if I get a card with 1xHDMI and 1xDPort, it might work. I'm not 100% sure that it would since I don't know if the displayport to HDMI adapter would pass through the audio as well.

    Maybe I'm over-complicating things.

    A little powered splitter is going to be cheaper than any graphics card.
    Powered is important thought. I never trust anything passive with HDMI, unless it's like, a mini-to-regular adapter.

    This little guy is $25 and rated pretty well.

    life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
    fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
    that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
    bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
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    DelmainDelmain Registered User regular
    Yeah, absolutely get a powered splitter. You'd have a headache cloning the displays and making sure they don't disconnect when you power on off. Just get a splitter and leave it on all the time and the OS will think the display is always connected and never try turning it off.

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    emp123emp123 Registered User regular
    Aioua wrote: »
    @emp123 That's with the asus strix 970, yah?

    Yeah, its pretty sweet. Everything is running super smoothly, except BF4 which for some reason I'm only seeing 0-3fps in (I think its because of the 570 PhysX card, but was too busy resolving a hard drive issue to actually test that issue).

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    bombardierbombardier Moderator mod
    Delmain wrote: »
    Yeah, absolutely get a powered splitter. You'd have a headache cloning the displays and making sure they don't disconnect when you power on off. Just get a splitter and leave it on all the time and the OS will think the display is always connected and never try turning it off.

    This seems like the cheapest and most headache free way of doing things. Thanks! @Aioua too! I'm in Canada but amazon.ca has a bunch of powered splitters for the same price.

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    HyperionHyperion Registered User regular
    970 owners, how's the noise level from the fans? Quiet as hell, or about normal? What did you have before?

    XBL: Jhnny Cash PSN: Jhnny_Cash Steam ID: http://steamcommunity.com/id/hypephb 3DS: 0619-4582-9630 Nintendo Network ID: DBrickashaw
    You might know me as D'Brickashaw on Steam.
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    ThirithThirith Registered User regular
    Again, thanks for the people who've answered my posts above. Definitely tending towards building my own rig now. Come 2015, I'll make sure to post the build I think I'll go for to ask for advice.

    webp-net-resizeimage.jpg
    "Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
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    MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    Artereis wrote: »
    The new Area 51 prices don't seem absolutely horrible. The next time Dell has a no interest for one year deal, I may pull the trigger on one.

    I recommend you also check the Lenovo Y series

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    cardboard delusionscardboard delusions USAgent PSN: USAgent31Registered User regular
    Hyperion wrote: »
    970 owners, how's the noise level from the fans? Quiet as hell, or about normal? What did you have before?

    I never had a silent rig so it doesn't bother me, but I could see people not enjoying the fans running. It's going to vary between manufacturers.

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    facetiousfacetious a wit so dry it shits sandRegistered User regular
    Does anyone have any advice for preventing dust etc. from getting into a PC? That's one issue I had with my old one, my room can get pretty dusty. Is it just down to cleaning the room itself more regularly, or is there a good place to set the PC (for example, I used to just have my old one sitting on the floor) to help prevent it, or...? And for that matter, what are good methods of cleaning out a PC when you need to?

    If you can't tell, I'm hoping to treat my new machine as well as possible. :P

    "I am not young enough to know everything." - Oscar Wilde
    Real strong, facetious.

    Steam: Chagrin LoL: Bonhomie
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    tsmvengytsmvengy Registered User regular
    facetious wrote: »
    Does anyone have any advice for preventing dust etc. from getting into a PC? That's one issue I had with my old one, my room can get pretty dusty. Is it just down to cleaning the room itself more regularly, or is there a good place to set the PC (for example, I used to just have my old one sitting on the floor) to help prevent it, or...? And for that matter, what are good methods of cleaning out a PC when you need to?

    If you can't tell, I'm hoping to treat my new machine as well as possible. :P

    1. Clean your room regularly.
    2. Positive case pressure (more fan pressure going in than out) with filters over the intake fans and regular cleaning of said filters.

    Also clean your PC regularly - I usually give it a quick dust once a month.

    steam_sig.png
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    facetiousfacetious a wit so dry it shits sandRegistered User regular
    What kinds of filters?

    "I am not young enough to know everything." - Oscar Wilde
    Real strong, facetious.

    Steam: Chagrin LoL: Bonhomie
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    DritzDritz CanadaRegistered User regular
    bombardier wrote: »
    Delmain wrote: »
    Yeah, absolutely get a powered splitter. You'd have a headache cloning the displays and making sure they don't disconnect when you power on off. Just get a splitter and leave it on all the time and the OS will think the display is always connected and never try turning it off.

    This seems like the cheapest and most headache free way of doing things. Thanks! @Aioua too! I'm in Canada but amazon.ca has a bunch of powered splitters for the same price.

    As a note, monoprice will deliver to Canada. Not sure in this particular case but a lot of the time their cheap prices + shipping beats a lot of Canadian prices. Shipping is slow though.

    Also, you probably have everything mapped out pretty good and running cables won't be a problem. But another solution to get an HTPC to reach two TVs is to use something like the Rasberry Pi or an old laptop and streaming from your HTPC to it. Running cables is definitely simpler especially if you can do it without a mess.

    There I was, 3DS: 2621-2671-9899 (Ekera), Wii U: LostCrescendo
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    djmitchelladjmitchella Registered User regular
    edited October 2014
    Hyperion wrote: »
    970 owners, how's the noise level from the fans? Quiet as hell, or about normal? What did you have before?

    The ASUS/MSI ones are silent (completely) when not under load, because they don't spin the fans up at all. Abusing the ASUS one with furmark, I still can't get it to get any hotter than ~70c, at which point the fans have started turning, but are still basically silent. If I play with fan control to force them up to top speed, then sure, you can hear them, but in normal use for gaming, it's never got hot enough for the fans to become audible.

    Compared to the 560ti (or 8800gt's) I had before, where I did play with fan curves to keep things quiet, the 970 is basically silent -- the PSU fan is the loudest thing in my case right now.

    djmitchella on
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    facetiousfacetious a wit so dry it shits sandRegistered User regular
    Oh, actually I have one last(?) question:

    So I have a hard drive that I installed in my old PC right before it broke, and I was wary of using it for the new machine in case it was faulty and would break this one too, but I've been confidently informed it shouldn't be an issue. I guess, first, can someone confirm that? But more specifically, should I install it when I put everything together, or should I wait until I can boot the PC and install my OS and then install the HD later since it'll need to be reformatted?

    "I am not young enough to know everything." - Oscar Wilde
    Real strong, facetious.

    Steam: Chagrin LoL: Bonhomie
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    Ed GrubermanEd Gruberman Registered User regular
    edited October 2014
    facetious wrote: »
    Oh, actually I have one last(?) question:

    So I have a hard drive that I installed in my old PC right before it broke, and I was wary of using it for the new machine in case it was faulty and would break this one too, but I've been confidently informed it shouldn't be an issue. I guess, first, can someone confirm that? But more specifically, should I install it when I put everything together, or should I wait until I can boot the PC and install my OS and then install the HD later since it'll need to be reformatted?

    I used the latter option when I just built my new PC. Get the OS running and things installed on the main HD. Then hookup the second one. Just makes the OS installation nice and easy.

    EDIT: Also, a seconding for Monoprice. I just bought 2 6ft optical cables including shipping to Ottawa for like $8. They took a couple of weeks with their cheapest shipping option but I wasn't really in any hurry and 1 of those cables seems to be $10+ here.

    Ed Gruberman on
    steam_sig.png

    SteamID: edgruberman GOG Galaxy: EdGruberman
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    useruser Registered User regular
    Hyperion wrote: »
    970 owners, how's the noise level from the fans? Quiet as hell, or about normal? What did you have before?

    To reiterate what others have said, that totally depends on each individual affiliate that puts out the 970, as there is no reference design given by NVIDIA for GTX 970.

    I have the MSI Gaming 4G and the fans are always off in CIV:BE, and when they spool up for other games they are quieter than other fans in my case.

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    ThirithThirith Registered User regular
    What are people's thoughts here on getting a Geforce 980 vs. getting a 970 with a prospect to getting a second one for SLI VR come Oculus Rift?

    webp-net-resizeimage.jpg
    "Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
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    GaslightGaslight Registered User regular
    Two 970's will probably run you about $700, or about $70 more than a 980 from one of the better brands, and the 970 pair will probably outperform the 980 by a nice little margin. On the other hand, the single 980 might give you more consistent and reliable performance. Don't know if there are any special wrinkles to SLI with the Rift or not.

    If they come out with a version of the 980 with more than 4GB of VRAM that would change the calculation a little as it would give you more future-proofing for gaming at 4K or on multiple displays. Right now there's not many games that will even use up 4GB at mainstream resolutions, though it will be interesting to see what happens as we break through the barrier of games being designed for Xbox360/PS3 hardware.

    Just got my first 970 myself, plan is to pick up a second one in a couple months.

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    Zen VulgarityZen Vulgarity What a lovely day for tea Secret British ThreadRegistered User regular
    Man I got a 290 for about $200 last year and now I feel like a sucker

    Can't wait to OC the shit out of it though.

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    Ed GrubermanEd Gruberman Registered User regular
    Gaslight wrote: »
    Two 970's will probably run you about $700, or about $70 more than a 980 from one of the better brands, and the 970 pair will probably outperform the 980 by a nice little margin. On the other hand, the single 980 might give you more consistent and reliable performance. Don't know if there are any special wrinkles to SLI with the Rift or not.

    If they come out with a version of the 980 with more than 4GB of VRAM that would change the calculation a little as it would give you more future-proofing for gaming at 4K or on multiple displays. Right now there's not many games that will even use up 4GB at mainstream resolutions, though it will be interesting to see what happens as we break through the barrier of games being designed for Xbox360/PS3 hardware.

    Just got my first 970 myself, plan is to pick up a second one in a couple months.

    Looks like they are already getting ready to announce an 8GB 980 but cost is anyone's guess at this point. Probably more than 2 970s, though.

    steam_sig.png

    SteamID: edgruberman GOG Galaxy: EdGruberman
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    BouwsTBouwsT Wanna come to a super soft birthday party? Registered User regular
    Gaslight wrote: »
    Two 970's will probably run you about $700, or about $70 more than a 980 from one of the better brands, and the 970 pair will probably outperform the 980 by a nice little margin. On the other hand, the single 980 might give you more consistent and reliable performance. Don't know if there are any special wrinkles to SLI with the Rift or not.

    If they come out with a version of the 980 with more than 4GB of VRAM that would change the calculation a little as it would give you more future-proofing for gaming at 4K or on multiple displays. Right now there's not many games that will even use up 4GB at mainstream resolutions, though it will be interesting to see what happens as we break through the barrier of games being designed for Xbox360/PS3 hardware.

    Just got my first 970 myself, plan is to pick up a second one in a couple months.

    Looks like they are already getting ready to announce an 8GB 980 but cost is anyone's guess at this point. Probably more than 2 970s, though.

    Where did you hear the rumor? Just curious, haven't really heard much of anything in the way of rumors (though I haven't been paying a lot of attention).

    Between you and me, Peggy, I smoked this Juul and it did UNTHINKABLE things to my mind and body...
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    GaslightGaslight Registered User regular
    Quick Google shows lots of tech rumor mill sites rumbling about 8GB 970's and 980's to launch November or December. All seem to lead back to a Japanese source called Hermitage Akihabara.

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    BouwsTBouwsT Wanna come to a super soft birthday party? Registered User regular
    Gaslight wrote: »
    Quick Google shows lots of tech rumor mill sites rumbling about 8GB 970's and 980's to launch November or December. All seem to lead back to a Japanese source called Hermitage Akihabara.

    Fair enough, should have google-fu'd before posting. Derp.

    Between you and me, Peggy, I smoked this Juul and it did UNTHINKABLE things to my mind and body...
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    GaslightGaslight Registered User regular
    BouwsT wrote: »
    Gaslight wrote: »
    Quick Google shows lots of tech rumor mill sites rumbling about 8GB 970's and 980's to launch November or December. All seem to lead back to a Japanese source called Hermitage Akihabara.

    Fair enough, should have google-fu'd before posting. Derp.

    @BouwsT, wasn't intending to be snippy with the "quick Google" thing, sorry if that's how it came across - just meant that I don't know anything more definite about it than what I found from a brief search so take what followed with a grain of salt.

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    BouwsTBouwsT Wanna come to a super soft birthday party? Registered User regular
    Gaslight wrote: »
    BouwsT wrote: »
    Gaslight wrote: »
    Quick Google shows lots of tech rumor mill sites rumbling about 8GB 970's and 980's to launch November or December. All seem to lead back to a Japanese source called Hermitage Akihabara.

    Fair enough, should have google-fu'd before posting. Derp.

    @BouwsT, wasn't intending to be snippy with the "quick Google" thing, sorry if that's how it came across - just meant that I don't know anything more definite about it than what I found from a brief search so take what followed with a grain of salt.

    Lol, thanks the clarification, it was more of a "self face-palm" than thinking you were being snide but I appreciate it.

    To the matter at hand, I'm looking forward to upgrading my GPU's next year to something with that kind of memory buffer. Just need a display that is worth that rendering power... :so_raven:

    Between you and me, Peggy, I smoked this Juul and it did UNTHINKABLE things to my mind and body...
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    HyperionHyperion Registered User regular
    Hyperion wrote: »
    970 owners, how's the noise level from the fans? Quiet as hell, or about normal? What did you have before?

    The ASUS/MSI ones are silent (completely) when not under load, because they don't spin the fans up at all. Abusing the ASUS one with furmark, I still can't get it to get any hotter than ~70c, at which point the fans have started turning, but are still basically silent. If I play with fan control to force them up to top speed, then sure, you can hear them, but in normal use for gaming, it's never got hot enough for the fans to become audible.

    Compared to the 560ti (or 8800gt's) I had before, where I did play with fan curves to keep things quiet, the 970 is basically silent -- the PSU fan is the loudest thing in my case right now.

    Excellent. Thank you!

    XBL: Jhnny Cash PSN: Jhnny_Cash Steam ID: http://steamcommunity.com/id/hypephb 3DS: 0619-4582-9630 Nintendo Network ID: DBrickashaw
    You might know me as D'Brickashaw on Steam.
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    cardboard delusionscardboard delusions USAgent PSN: USAgent31Registered User regular
    I may do the EVGA step up to 8GB if I can for my GTX 970

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