Warning - naked computer pictures below! Okay, I couldn't resist a cheap pair of RAM sticks the other day and finally got a chance to bung them in. The geek in me wouldn't forgive me if I didn't take some pictures of the current state of the computer Yes, I know, it looks a mess, but it's actually deliberate to keep the airflow in the key areas perfect -- OLD IMAGE REMOVED (imageshack) -- -- OLD IMAGE REMOVED (imageshack) --
Simple: AA+HDR At the time no other cards were capable of doing that (geforce 8800 hadn't been announced yet), also the 1950xt was great performance for the money (especially in Oblivion), and I can also use it for modelling simulations (like folding) - something you still can't do on other cards.
LOL not really - it's quite small for a dual slot GPU. Have you seen modern ones?! Yup - artic cooler 64 pro.
Lol! Compared to mine, that thing is huge! What GPU do you have? I've heard the 3870 takes up two slots cause it's huuuuuuuuuuuge!
Does no-one read posts earlier in the thread or even check out people's 'gaming rig' in the profile?? It's an ATI x1950xt. Taking up two slots isn't really a sign of being huge - it's more a thermal characteristic in that two-slot coolers work a lot better at extracting heat from the case. So hot cards (mine falls under this category) tend to have two-slot coolers. You can't really see it, but directly in line with the air intake on the x1950xt there is a fan on my case pulling air in at the front - so air comes in the front, directly through the GPU, and out the back of the case. This keeps the temperatures of the GPU down, and just as importantly, doesn't heat up the rest of the system.
What case have you got? and i think it will be cooler inside my comps case because it will have a 5inch fan on the front, an exhaust on the GPU, medium sized fan on the side, a large one on the back and a PCI thing that pulls cold air into the case next to the GPU.
Coolermaster Centurion 5 You have to be careful with side mounted fans as they can hinder the airflow rather than help it. But it also depends on your CPU cooler - mine is the type that goes inline with the flow from front to back (the whole front of my case is mesh). Side fans are helpful for retail coolers that just suck air down ontop of the CPU.
