Elvis~SPARTA~ Posted September 13, 2014 Share Posted September 13, 2014 My Geforce GTX660 has been giving me problems for quite some time. Overheating to begin with, then recently it would crash at high quality game settings in WOT. I started getting BSODs as well. After doing lots of tests to rule out other BSOD causes, I decided it was time to upgrade the graphics card. I decided on the XFX Radeon R9 280 based on price point and MaximumPC reviews. I was able to pick it up for $250 shipped. I measured my old Antec case before ordering, and I'm glad i did. Not much room to spare. I had to take the protective caps off the jacks to get the thing to fit and do quite a bit of cable maneuvering. It's in and working quite well. Running WOT at maximum settings and enjoying it. It's also much cooler and quieter than the old 660. I'm able to crank the case fans down to a lower setting, and move a spot fan to cool the northbridge on my mobo that's run hot since the day it was born. Since the old 1st generation i7 seems to be working well, I'm thinking that as long as things are carrying on I might upgrade my case sometime in the next few months to make room and continue to keep things cool and quiet. The Corsair box that Panic has looks great. I've seen it at Frys and will look for a sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athlon64~SPARTA~ Posted September 13, 2014 Share Posted September 13, 2014 XfX has allways been one of the best mfgers of vid cards, If you regester it, you get life time warranty on it. They stopped making invidia cards for awile. sense I moved to ASUS cards, not the best warranty, but they work and last good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
custard~SPARTA~ Posted September 13, 2014 Share Posted September 13, 2014 Those R9 cards look really nice and many reviews say how cool they run Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elvis~SPARTA~ Posted September 13, 2014 Author Share Posted September 13, 2014 You're right mate, the lifetime warranty didn't hurt a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PANiC Posted September 14, 2014 Share Posted September 14, 2014 (edited) great time for buying amd with the new card pending, prices falling nicely, cheapest 290X is now £269.99 at OCUK, other retailers price matching. have a feeling I'll be getting a new card very soon. Edited September 14, 2014 by PANiC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elvis~SPARTA~ Posted September 15, 2014 Author Share Posted September 15, 2014 I'm looking at re-mounting everything into that Corsair case of yours, Panic. Plenty of room, lots of air, space for the CPU cooler. If I can get a few more years out of the CPU/mobo by keeping it cool I would be very happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PANiC Posted September 15, 2014 Share Posted September 15, 2014 Never worked in a better case m8. Gets a bit messy in the back but super tidy and spacious where it counts. I replaced the fans for some quieter ones, but tbh its an air cooling performance case, its supposed to be for max airflow. You will appreciate the case when building for sure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elvis~SPARTA~ Posted September 19, 2014 Author Share Posted September 19, 2014 I went ahead and got the case, placing the old mobo/cpu in it. The mobo is old enough that it doesn't have enough 3-pin fan connectors to get all the case fans going, plus my cpu cooler, so I'm waiting on an adapter. The one fan that's working seems very quiet, so we'll see what three of them sounds like. The mobo doesn't have USB 3 yet, so the USB connectors on the front of the case will go unused until I upgrade. The northbridge is running quite warm without a dedicated fan and with only one case fan. Will see what difference two more fans make before adding the spot fan. Yes, there's very little in the way of cabling to be seen on the business side. Will do a photo soon. I'm lacking in LEDs, so the case won't looked tricked out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elvis~SPARTA~ Posted September 22, 2014 Author Share Posted September 22, 2014 (edited) Ok, so the adapter to power up the additional case fans have arrived Northbridge temp with one fan: About 80 C (175 F) With one fan, case open: About 85 C (185 F) (temp went up while wiring fans) With 3 fans: About 74 C (165 F), dropping to 61 (141 F) after 30 minutes. 19 degrees C, or 54 degrees F. Well worth the case upgrade to me. Will be adding the spot fan in a bit to see where that gets me. I'm already so much cooler -- the best temp since the Mobo was new in 2008, including use of the spot fan in the old case. The sound difference is noticeable as the fans in the front are working. Much, much quieter, though, than the 4 fans in the old Antec case. Edited September 23, 2014 by Elvis~SPARTA~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elvis~SPARTA~ Posted September 23, 2014 Author Share Posted September 23, 2014 With the spot fan on full, the northbridge is now at 47C, 116 F. 33 C, 59 F drop. Wow. I may back it down to a slower speed, but I wanted to see what I could get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
custard~SPARTA~ Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 So how does it compare now with the new R9 card and the cooler case with WOT? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elvis~SPARTA~ Posted September 26, 2014 Author Share Posted September 26, 2014 It doesn't crash. It's cooler and quieter. I'm on the highest settings. I'm happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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