Building a gaming PC

[eskiMoe]

Regarding the VRAM stuff, this was posted @ overclockers a few days ago:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=27136018&postcount=16

Press announcement!

I spoke to NVIDIA yesterday, they are saying there will be no 8GB cards and that GDDR5 is in shortage and that they can't handle 4GB 980 and 970 demand, so no 8GB's.

But that was yesterday, so I will ask again tomorrow.

But my pricing is my own promotions and it is just Inno3D, other cards will be the same, plus if NVIDIA do this the price will be very high for the priviledge and Etailors will mark up massively as 8GB cards will be even more short than 4GB versions were.

You have to remember for every one 8GB 980, NVIDIA can sell two 4GB 980's and they focus on GPU sales, not memory sales, this is why 6GB 780 was never available so well.
If it comes and I hope it does they will be very expensive!

I'm personally going to use my GTX 970 SLI setup until the 16nm Nvida GPUs arrive (hopefully in 2016) so I hope 4GB is enough until then.

 

[Kinley]

There are supposedly 8GB versions of the 970 and 980 landing this month, so if you think that extra VRAM will benefit you you might want to wait. Scratch that, apparently not. Thanks @eskimoe.

As for the Asus 970 Strix, I've been running it for a couple of weeks now. Can't complain really, solid performance and the card barely consumes any power (fans don't even spin when in idle or during light gaming) really happy with my purchase so far.

 

[volsung]

Well thank for stopping by @Kinley. I think Gigabyte, Asus and MSI are mostly comparable this generation, with EVGA surprisingly falling behind.

Amazon says it will restock the Strix in two days so I'll think about it. I would still prefer the MSI just because, but the Asus sure looks nice with that metal shroud and backplate.

My current card uses two 6-pin PCI-e connectors, while the new MSI uses one 6-pin and one 8-pin. Not looking forward to figuring out my cable situation and moving things around, ugh.

 

[Kinley]

My current card uses two 6-pin PCI-e connectors, while the new MSI uses one 6-pin and one 8-pin. Not looking forward to figuring out my cable situation and moving things around, ugh.

Well if it's of any help, the Asus variant uses one 8 pin connector.

 

[GuyNwah]

Most modern power supplies have at least one "6+2" connector that will do for 8-pin. I don't really like them, because the additional 2 pins are fed off 2 of the 6. But the 9xx's on modern motherboards are not going to overload even a single 6-pin auxiliary connector, so the pin arrangement doesn't matter that much.

jonnyGURU's explanation of why it doesn't actually matter (other than a card that requires an 8-pin must be fed with an 8-pin or 6+2-pin or it won't POST): http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=26958096&postcount=6

 

[volsung]

I'm pretty sure my PSU has a 6+2. Worst case scenario I have to dig through the box and replace some cables. But the MSI comes with a 6 to 8 adapter, so if I understand correctly I doesn't matter if I use this adapter?

Now if only Amazon would ship my card... sometime...

 

[GuyNwah]

I'm pretty sure my PSU has a 6+2. Worst case scenario I have to dig through the box and replace some cables. But the MSI comes with a 6 to 8 adapter, so if I understand correctly I doesn't matter if I use this adapter?

Now if only Amazon would ship my card... sometime...

You should be fine. nVidia cards check for all pins wired, not whether they can sink 8+ amps through the connector.

(The old ATI X1950 actually checked whether the two auxiliaries were connected to the same rail. That card was a great performer but a brutal PITA.)

 

[volsung]

Good news, well for me. The MSI GTX 970 4G became available on newegg earlier this evening and I was able to grab one

So if you also want one do it soon!

 

[yayodeanno]

http://www.computerbase.de/2014-10/nvidia-geforce-gtx-970-test-roundup-vergleich/4/
A GTX 970 shootout in German, there are two videos on the page where you can hear noise on idle and under load on various cards. And of course coil whine . So far my Gigabyte has been whine free, but it's noisy alright.

Btw, I haven't the slightest idea why I 'm showing as "username *something *", yayodeanno here.

 

[Luxorek]

Btw, I haven't the slightest idea why I 'm showing as "username *something *", yayodeanno here.

New forum. Go to 'My Profile', then to 'Edit Profile' where you can change your username only ONCE.

 

[volsung]

http://www.computerbase.de/2014-10/nvidia-geforce-gtx-970-test-roundup-vergleich/4/
A GTX 970 shootout in German, there are two videos on the page where you can hear noise on idle and under load on various cards. And of course coil whine . So far my Gigabyte has been whine free, but it's noisy alright.

Danke schön, sehr interessant.

Not like I got everything but it was informative. Makes me happy I chose the MSI.

One thing I don't fully get is "coil whine". Most fans make some noise, especially when they spin fast. Whine is some high pitched sound coming from the fans, right? How is that even a problem in normal computer cases? And don't we all use either loudspeakers or a headset while playing games, which is when the whine would show up?

My theory is PC gamers are a particularly whiny niche who try too hard to find things they can complain about. Like a noise you can hear if you listen closely with your nose almost touching the fans. That or I've never really had a card with coil whine.

 

[GuyNwah]

Coil whine is microphonics generated by an oscillating coil. The magnetic field generated by the coil under load will cause the coil itself to move. If this motion is not damped at the operating frequency, it becomes acoustic noise. If it's coupled to a soundboard, which can be the GPU or the motherboard itself, it can be quite loud. If it's in the range of frequencies you or your dog or cat can hear, it becomes fantastically annoying.

Motherboards and GPUs are well populated with coils operating at frequencies where they can generate whine. Even a slight loss of attention to detail in design or construction can create a situation where coil whine is likely to develop.

Some GPUs are notorious for coil whine, such as the HD 7970. Sometimes it can be fixed with a well-placed drop of hot glue, if the GPU has open coils.

 

[volsung]

Guess I've never experienced it then. That's good.

 

[eskiMoe]

Makes me happy I chose the MSI.

You might want to take a look at this.

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=183618.0

It seems it's not affecting every card, but it's still unknown if the issue is mechanical or driver/software related.

Suddenly I'm not that happy I chose MSI after all.

Coil whine is microphonics generated by an oscillating coil. The magnetic field generated by the coil under load will cause the coil itself to move. If this motion is not damped at the operating frequency, it becomes acoustic noise. If it's coupled to a soundboard, which can be the GPU or the motherboard itself, it can be quite loud. If it's in the range of frequencies you or your dog or cat can hear, it becomes fantastically annoying.

Motherboards and GPUs are well populated with coils operating at frequencies where they can generate whine. Even a slight loss of attention to detail in design or construction can create a situation where coil whine is likely to develop.

Some GPUs are notorious for coil whine, such as the HD 7970. Sometimes it can be fixed with a well-placed drop of hot glue, if the GPU has open coils.

Apparently many people have fixed the coil whine issues with the GTX 970s by replacing their less than stellar PSUs to better ones.

 

[volsung]

@eskimoe

My card is on its way now so I just hope it'll be one of the good ones.

General question:

I've noticed my GTX 560 Ti has been getting pretty hot. Wasteland 2 is notorious for heating up cards but is it normal for video cards to not cool as well as they age? Probably dust and other crap interfering with airflow. I do clean my case regularly though, with compressed air every couple of months, and the intake fans every month or so.

 

[GuyNwah]

@eskimoe

My card is on its way now so I just hope it'll be one of the good ones.

General question:

I've noticed my GTX 560 Ti has been getting pretty hot. Wasteland 2 is notorious for heating up cards but is it normal for video cards to not cool as well as they age? Probably dust and other crap interfering with airflow. I do clean my case regularly though, with compressed air every couple of months, and the intake fans every month or so.

It's a common problem. If there's any dust in your environment, the vanes of a GPU cooler attract it like a cotton patch attracts boll weevils. Blowing out the GPU cooler itself is helpful, especially with Fermis, which run hot just because.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

@.Volsung.: Using dust filters also can help reducing these issues.

 

[volsung]

Thanks Guy and Gilrond.

I normally blow the dust off the video card to but I should probably take it out and do it properly.

My case does have filters. It's an Antec 902 v3. I like it but next time I think I'd choose something less... open.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

My case does have filters. It's an Antec 902 v3. I like it but next time I think I'd choose something less... open.

My case is quite open and high ventilation by default, but I use magnetic external filters from Demciflex and set a positive pressure inside the case. The dust practically doesn't accumulate at all - I clean a very small amount from inside the case very rarely, but more often clean the filters themselves.

See:

* http://www.demcifilter.com/c46/How-it-Works.aspx
* http://www.demcifilter.com/c48/Performance.aspx

I did replace the stubs for PCI cards which had holes with solid ones to reduce dust penetration.

 

[volsung]

My case comes with washable filters like this one:

I suppose I could somehow attach something like what you linked to the outside? That little box is a hard drive bay that slides into the front of the case.