Graphics Card Buying Quandary

Okay, I gots me a problem that I need opinions on. Read on then fire away.

I built my own computer and she was sweet. In it was 3870X2 (£280) which was fitted with an EK Acetal waterblock (£80). It was great, performance was excellent and core temperatures on the GPU never exceed 52 degrees C - no matter how long my FarCry session was or how far I pushed the overclocking.

Then it all went wrong. The 3870X2 failed about two weeks ago for some unknown reason and I had to RMA it back to Ebuyer. I have to admit Ebuyer were pretty good. They tried to send me a replacement card but they didn't have any in stock so they gave me £250 store credit to spend. While it wasn't the £280 I originally spent you can now buy a 3870X2 for £210 - so that's what I did. I bought a Gecube 3870X2 OC Edition for £210 and was going to have the £40 balance refunded to my credit card.

So yesterday my brand new 3870X2 arrives. I whip it out of the box and instantly see that it's been fitted with a non-reference cooler (unlike the picture on Ebuyer, which I accept is for illustrative purposes only) Now while the non-reference cooler is pretty sweet, the fitment holes are drilled in different places in the PCB so now my waterblock won't fit it.

So here's the possibilities that I have:

1. Keep the 3870X2 and sell the waterblock. It's been two weeks since I've had a working computer and I'm falling way behind on the Hexus Folding table (SammyD1986). This means that I'll have a working computer in minutes - but it won't be watercooled which is what I wanted.

2. Return the 3870X2 and buy another 3870X2 that appears to have a reference cooler. Frankly, they're all being phased out now and I don't think that any companies are still using a reference design during this end-game. Getting another card without a RC would just be a pain in the backside.

3. Return the 3870X2 and get the £250 refunded. Sell the waterblock someplace and I should have about £290 to spend on an 9800GTX (£230) and a waterblock (£60ish). It'll take a bit more time but should get me the same performance that I had before only without two GPUs to power/cool. However, I have a Asus Maximum Formula MoBo with an X38 chipset. That means no SLI'ing in the future...

4. In 10 days I'm going on holiday to the USA for three weeks. Should I return the 3870X2, sell the waterblock and just suck it up and wait until I get back from holiday and have the prospect of buying either a 4870 or a GT260/280? I'm sure we've all seen the - possibly bogus - website showing a 4870 benchmarking faster than a 9800GX2. That's pretty tempting stuff...

So, thanks for sticking with me through that massively long description of my problem. Let me know what you think. Your opinion counts!

I would get a full refund and save the money for the next gen cards. Its only 10 days to wait and the new cards should be out when u return (ATI/AMD anyway). Once the new cards come out the 3870X2 really wont be worth much so seems more sensible to me to wait.

Return it, sit on the store credit until the new cards are out and buy the best you can then.

Agree with the above. Ebuyer are awesome!

It'll be the non-reference Triplex card you bought by the sounds of it. I Ebuyer let you, I agree with the above, though the release date has been put back to the 23rd now so they can release the HD4850 and HD4870 at the same time (previously the HD4850 was going to be released on the 16th or 17th or something with the HD4870 following "in July").

Unfortunately the HD48x0X2s (believe there are both HD4850X2 and HD4870X2s coming) won't be available until sometime in August or so.

Ahhh, no HD48x0X2s until August? I'm not waiting that long...

I don't suppose anyone has inkling as to how a single 4870 would compare to a 3870X2? If performance was comparable then I'd settle to moving to single GPU set up (and reap the energy and heat efficiency savings).

Even if the 4870 was slightly slower than the 3870X2 I could always buy one in July and another one later and run a two-card Xfire set-up...

Performance should be comparable, yes. Bit slower I guess, but worth it now that multi-card crossfire works quite well so you can do the second card later thing.

Odd ball solution: buy two 4850s.

The new 48xx cards are looking tasty.....may well finally bring a 'worthwhile' upgrade to my trusty GTX !
On topic more, I agree that eBuyer are excellent in their returns - I recently picked up one of the quad-output 3870X2's with the intention of replacing my GTX (I like the AVIVO stuff for HD video work !) but had a change of heart and they readily took the card back (per DSR) and refunded promptly - 1st Class, eBuyer, well done !

Oh, and to OP - return the card and snaffle a 48xx ;)