New Gaming Rig hows everything look?

[mfenn]

Errr This is basic OC, no voltmod (be it bios, pencil or hard), no extra cooling ... anyone NOT doing that is just too lazy to check out their catalyst software.

The 6950 -> 6970 morph is NOT extreme and it's 277W per card.

Also there was a mistake in my numbers, its 550W (not 450W) and thus 850W total PSU and not 750.

Have you ever unlocked a 6950? Flashing the BIOS does not change the PowerTune setting. A 6950 w/ 6970 BIOS is still capped to 200W unless you change it. Even then, CCC will only let you go up to +20% (240W).

And you still haven't posted measurements that refute my (measured) numbers.

 

[leglez]

Picked up the motherboard and CPU today. Microcenter had the i5-2500k marked down to $169.99, and the motherboard was marked down to $199.99. They also had a special where if you bought a 1155 motherboard and processor you get $40 off. So I walked away with my motherboard and processor for just under $350 total. Got everything installed today, using a 9800 card for now until I pick up something nicer. Also using an old corsair TX750 for the PSU for now.

 

[Morg.]

Seriously mfenn, you want to help these people, just take the time to learn the stuff, I'm tired of arguing with you

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159

So it's 252 watts .. ain't gonna change much

 

[mfenn]

Picked up the motherboard and CPU today. Microcenter had the i5-2500k marked down to $169.99, and the motherboard was marked down to $199.99. They also had a special where if you bought a 1155 motherboard and processor you get $40 off. So I walked away with my motherboard and processor for just under $350 total. Got everything installed today, using a 9800 card for now until I pick up something nicer. Also using an old corsair TX750 for the PSU for now.

Not bad :thumbsup:

 

[mfenn]

Seriously mfenn, you want to help these people, just take the time to learn the stuff, I'm tired of arguing with you

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159

So it's 252 watts .. ain't gonna change much

You haven't refuted any point that I've made, in fact you've only reinforced them.

Please read the article that you linked, as well as this one on PowerTune.

Now that we've got that settled, let's break it down:
1. You claim, "The 6950 -> 6970 morph is NOT extreme and it's 277W per card". This is blatantly false based on the table in the article that you linked (which I used as a guide to unlock my 6950 to a 6970 by the way). The table clearly shows that an unlocked 6950 draws 202W.
2. I claim, "Flashing the BIOS does not change the PowerTune setting. A 6950 w/ 6970 BIOS is still capped to 200W unless you change it." Which is true based on the TPU article.
3. I claim, "Even then, CCC will only let you go up to +20% (240W)." Which is true, I can post a CCC screenshot if you really like.
4. You claim, "So it's 252 watts .. ain't gonna change much", which is true under Furmark. From the Anandtech article, "Notably (and unlike NVIDIA) AMD is not using power monitoring hardware here, citing the costs of such chips and the additional design complexities they create. Instead AMD is profiling the performance of their GPUs to determine what the power consumption behavior is for each functional block. This behavior is used to assign a weighted score to each functional block, which in turn is used to establish a rough equation to find the power consumption of the GPU based on each block’s usage." I assumed (bad move on my part) that you understood that the PowerTune cap is not a hard TDP cap, but a targeted average across a normal (i.e. gaming) workload. It does not apply to Furmark, and I don't quote Furmark numbers to people looking to build gaming rigs.

 

[TJones2]

If you can get the ASUS P8Z68-V Pro for the same price as the GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3H which would you choose and why?

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

I ran 6950 crossfire and an overclocked i5 760 on a 650w psu with no issue. With the cards at 900mhz at 1.1v according to my ups the system didn't draw much over 500w. I would have to crank the voltage to unrealistic levels to even approach 600w. That is with linpack and furmark running at the same time and powertune at 20%.

People across the forums love recommending these massive psus for no reason.


One other thing, I wouldn't touch an OCZ drive with a 10 foot pole. I would go with something a little more reliable like an Intel or Samsung drive. I would also consider picking up an FT-02 or RV-02 over the HAF-x.


and maybe a GTX570.

 

[mfenn]

I ran 6950 crossfire and an overclocked i5 760 on a 650w psu with no issue. With the cards at 900mhz at 1.1v according to my ups the system didn't draw much over 500w. I would have to crank the voltage to unrealistic levels to even approach 600w. That is with linpack and furmark running at the same time and powertune at 20%.

People across the forums love recommending these massive psus for no reason.

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[mfenn]

If you can get the ASUS P8Z68-V Pro for the same price as the GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3H which would you choose and why?

The Gigabyte if you need Firewire, otherwise the ASUS. Not that I would recommend either unless you're getting them for a very good price.

 

[TJones2]

I do need firewire. What do you recommend in that price range?

 

[mfenn]

I do need firewire. What do you recommend in that price range?

The Gigabyte is fine in that price range if you need Firewire and display out. If you don't need display output, look at the GA-Z68X-UD3.