Best Gaming Rig Under $2000?

[Lithotech]

Originally Posted by 3.0charlie

46C idle temp is pretty good actually; as for the temp difference between the 2 GPUs, it has to do with the local air surrounding the second GPU being hotter by a few degrees.

Yep! Easy enough to confirm, just swap the card positions and take some new temps. If they stay the same, it could easily be a sloppy TIM on one of the cards.

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[cwestwell]

Originally Posted by Terrance

Final build list here... Thermalright Ultra-120is wonderful, my CPU is constantly under 25, no matter in game or not, I never saw this kind of temperature before except using watercooling...

Sweet ... did you use single fan or double fans...after I did a fan mod on my 4870X2 I changed the speed from 20 to 35 for my desktop profile and it brought my temp from 85 to 53 which I am very comfortable with. Thank goodness for CCC however I still think they could use a more intelligent fan speed system where you specify the temps you want to maintain and it adjusts the speeds automatically to reach them.

[Terrance]

Originally Posted by cwestwell

Thank goodness for CCC however I still think they could use a more intelligent fan speed system where you specify the temps you want to maintain and it adjusts the speeds automatically to reach them.

That's exactly what I have in mind. But seems like the ATI programmers are not smart enough, not to mention that buggy CCC...

Since you mentioned fan mod, I actually had a question in mind about installing an aftermarket heatsink for my 4850s, I really don't like the temperature shows up on my CCC gets around 80 while playing Crysis, and with the fan tuned at 55%, which is like a small vacuum...

The Arctic Cooling S1 Rev.2 looks really sweet according to this article: Sapphire Radeon HD4850 512MB Graphics Card Review

I'm wondering if it's worth it to spend $60 for 2 of those or it's not that a big deal?

[Lithotech]

The only problem I have with Accellero, is that if you strap a fan to it, it will then take up three slots not just two. The temperature drop is quite amazing on the card I have one on.


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[Terrance]

Yes, that's what I thought, they're way too high for CrossFire... I'm thinking about putting a single 120mm fan perpendicular to the cards, but I have no idea if the fan can be hooked up that way...

[cwestwell]

Please excuse the MSpaint but I am at work and dont have time to install PS....but is this what you were thinking



The airflow is going along the fins of the cooler OK but you wouldn't be cooling the areas around the heat pipes properly only moving hot air towards the back of the case.....what about a PCI slot fan between them....

[Lithotech]

It would help for sure, but obviously not optimal. Certainly better than a fan pointing down on top of the two cards.

You could probably fit a fan on one of them, if you aren't using any of the adjacent slots and there's room. Perhaps a mixture of the two?

It is a problem, isn't it? I've found this damn conundrum pops up with just about every single aftermarket vid cooler on the market these days. They will all take up one slot, then another for a fan. I have not yet found a HS/fan combo that only takes up one slot -- and fits the 8800GT I want to use it on.

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[Terrance]

Originally Posted by cwestwell

The airflow is going along the fins of the cooler OK but you wouldn't be cooling the areas around the heat pipes properly only moving hot air towards the back of the case.....what about a PCI slot fan between them....

Nice figure That's exactly what I'm thinking, but I just realized it can't be done, because that's where the pci-e power cable goes... an alternative way to do this is to install the 120mm fans on the side, which it'll blow the hot air towards the motherboard.

And about a PCI slot fan, I only got one slot in between the two cards, and with the heatsink in there? I don't think that's gonna work...

This is getting frustrating...