980X help....

[phill8800GT]

I was wondering is there a particular version, revision or place to buy these things from??

I'd like to consider one as long as it overclocked well and I remember seeing the first revisions being somewhat poor when it came to overclocking...

I just wondered if I could have someone's help

I have a bit of a list of hardware I'm trying to track down and was hoping I might be able to have a helping hand and possibly some lovely company supplying it all too me... I dont mind shopping around, but getting it from all one place would be very nice and handy to me

Thanks in advance!

[nibbler]

Could you be more specific? What are you planning to overclock it to? It really doesn't need any overclocking tbh, what are your uses? I certainly haven't heard any issues about poor overclocking.

[phill8800GT]

Well given the already quick performance, I'm looking to make that go a little faster, if not a lot more!

I have two rigs (so I'm hoping for two good ones) and whilst at the moment they have a single 5970 each in them I will be ending up probably putting the two in one system and having new cards for the other (probably a 6970XT or whatever they will call it now) so I'm looking to make the most of it for gaming mostly.

It'll be used for everything in a way. I am trying to get into photgraphy so I can put my Canon 40D to good use and also some video encoding (something I think a 980X will excel in)

As for what screen res I'll be using, it'll be a 30" Dell and then some.... I'm trying not to give too much away as I think some of the guys I'm trying to keep the setup a bit hush hush from come in the forum!!

[c.ruel]

From what I read the 980x was excellent for overclocking ... it was the 970 that had the problems supposedly as it would "only" overclock to 4ghz. As for where to get it from why not get it from scan and get free shipping as well!?

As for a heatsink for overclocking the processor ... maybe a megahalems or one of those dual radiator noctua heatsinks with the two 14cm fans if you want to do air.

As for watercooling kit ... not sure how a h50 would be with a 980x ... my h50 is fine for my phenom but that is 95w tdp the 980x is 130w TDP :S You'll have to wait for someone with a bit more knowledge on the cooling front than me

Also I remember someone on here buying a 980x with a gigabyte board and the bios needed to be flashed to work with the 980x, but in order to do that you needed a 920 or similar!

So whatever motherboard you get make sure it supports the 980x out of the box and doesn't need any flashing.

EDIT: Just out of interest what psu are you going to use to power 2x5970 and a 980x!?

[phill8800GT]

Well if that's the case, then I might just have a look at just buying two and being done with it!! The problem is with the other bits and pieces I'd like to get, they are cheaper elsewhere and whilst I have bought hardware through Scan for many years, I'm trying to get everything I want as cheaply as I can!!

I have two EVGA motherboards I'll be using for each 980X, a 759 and a 762. Both have water blocks fitted to them and will be cooled along side each 5970 I have as well. The 980X will have a separate loop to cool it separately to get the most I can out from it.. It should be very fun

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Why don't you get a Core i7 950?? The Core i7 970 and 980X are very expensive for the performance they offer especially for gaming.

If anything just build one decent rig and put the money for the second rig for a Sandy Bridge or Bulldozer based computer next year.

[phill8800GT]

Reason for it is simple, I want!!

I know that there a new socket out next year but I've had these rigs for nearly 18 months and due to a load of reasons I wont get into now, I havent been able to use either of them once!

So I'm basically looking to make the most of each rig for as long as I can. I dont see myself upgrading for a long time when I do finally get everything setup and built to how I want

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

TBH,you are just wasting your money. AMD Bulldozer and the new Intel CPUs(socket 2011) will most likely destroy or at least match a 980X for a lower price especially for multi-threaded applications.

If you want to "future-proof" your computer doing upgrades frequently is the best way IMHO and usually ends up cheaper.

A 980X is not really going to help you for gaming and by the time it really will start to make a difference there will be much faster CPUs around.

[phill8800GT]

The downside with the newer chipsets is for me, I would have to buy everything again new and to me, the i7 has been around long enough for it to be a decent desktop PC. Anything new has always got a few bugs in it and takes a little while to mature, I'm just trying to stick with something that is proven and decent right now.

Its taken me 18 months to get this far to actually start using them, I dont really want the hassle of waiting even more for just something newer to come out which will mean me selling all my hardware to go 10% faster...

If I dont notice a difference with my 920 in comparison with a 980X I can always just sell them on and get a 930 or whatever, it really wont make any difference to me. Its one of those things you've got to try and see for yourself I guess.

I just long to turn it all on and sit there and play COD 4, Dirt 2 and Serious Sam HD and think, wow, it was all worth the time and effort its taken to get here... I hope when I do manage it, I'll put a few pics up and show peeps and to see what they think of it all too

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The downside with the newer chipsets is for me, I would have to buy everything again new and to me, the i7 has been around long enough for it to be a decent desktop PC. Anything new has always got a few bugs in it and takes a little while to mature, I'm just trying to stick with something that is proven and decent right now.

Its taken me 18 months to get this far to actually start using them, I dont really want the hassle of waiting even more for just something newer to come out which will mean me selling all my hardware to go 10% faster...

If I dont notice a difference with my 920 in comparison with a 980X I can always just sell them on and get a 930 or whatever, it really wont make any difference to me. Its one of those things you've got to try and see for yourself I guess.

I just long to turn it all on and sit there and play COD 4, Dirt 2 and Serious Sam HD and think, wow, it was all worth the time and effort its taken to get here... I hope when I do manage it, I'll put a few pics up and show peeps and to see what they think of it all too

You already have a Core i7 920!! Why don't you try getting the most out of that CPU first and stop worrying about potential CPU bottlenecks?

The games you have listed are not going to really get any real world improvements by going to a six core CPU.

If anything perhaps you should sell your HD5970 cards and look what AMD and Nvidia have to offer. The HD6970 looks like it maybe a very fast single CPU card and a pair of these should have less scaling issues than the HD5970. The Crossfire scaling of the AMD HD6850 and HD6870 looks very impressive so hopefully this will be the same for the HD6950 and HD6970.

Edit!!

Remember that the AMD naming scheme has changed so the HD6950 and HD6970 are single CPU cards.

The tessellation performance has been improved with the HD6000 series and AFAIK the HD6900 series will introduce further architectural improvements.

[phill8800GT]

You already have a Core i7 920!! Why don't you try getting the most out of that CPU first and stop worrying about potential CPU bottlenecks?

The games you have listed are not going to really get any real world improvements by going to a six core CPU.

If anything perhaps you should sell your HD5970 cards and look what AMD and Nvidia have to offer. The HD6970 looks like it maybe a very fast single CPU card and a pair of these should have less scaling issues than the HD5970. The Crossfire scaling of the AMD HD6850 and HD6870 looks very impressive so hopefully this will be the same for the HD6950 and HD6970.

Edit!!

Remember that the AMD naming scheme has changed so the HD6950 and HD6970 are single CPU cards.

The tessellation performance has been improved with the HD6000 series and AFAIK the HD6900 series will introduce further architectural improvements.

You wouldnt believe the amount of hardware I have laying about that I can do nothing with, its a nightmare believe me!! Its been like it for 18 months or more, so this is why I am wanting to change my upgrade path so I can get the most out of everything!!

My current 920 D0 will manage 4.6Ghz under water cooling with around 1.4Vcore. Its a stunning overclocker for which I have plans for!!

But I will be trialing the 980X's just because I would like one in each of my rigs because it will last so much longer for me that way. I'll only ever have to upgrade my GPU's (something I wont be worrying about doing anyways!!) and with that in mind, the newer GPU's are something I'm keeping my eyes on (more so the 6970 X2 or whatever it'll be called!!) as I love these GPU's!

With the res of the monitors I'll be using I know the games I have mentioned might not slow the 5970 down much, but I do have further plans to really try to kill them!! Performance wise!!

Add me on MSN if you wish to chat further and I can explain my plans

[nibbler]

Just need to get all that kit folding in my opinion

[phill8800GT]

Turning it all on even at stock speeds would be rather nice if you ask me!!

[nibbler]

The 5970s unfortunately would probably only get about 10kppd together though - rather ineffiecient for a few hundred watts of power. The i7 would do nicely though at that speed, would manage bigadv units

[phill8800GT]

Well I do also have a 8800GT that will be going in each rig as well for Physx so if I recall correctly, the Nvidia cards do a bit better than ATI at folding/crunching?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You wouldnt believe the amount of hardware I have laying about that I can do nothing with, its a nightmare believe me!! Its been like it for 18 months or more, so this is why I am wanting to change my upgrade path so I can get the most out of everything!!

My current 920 D0 will manage 4.6Ghz under water cooling with around 1.4Vcore. Its a stunning overclocker for which I have plans for!!

But I will be trialing the 980X's just because I would like one in each of my rigs because it will last so much longer for me that way. I'll only ever have to upgrade my GPU's (something I wont be worrying about doing anyways!!) and with that in mind, the newer GPU's are something I'm keeping my eyes on (more so the 6970 X2 or whatever it'll be called!!) as I love these GPU's!

With the res of the monitors I'll be using I know the games I have mentioned might not slow the 5970 down much, but I do have further plans to really try to kill them!! Performance wise!!

Add me on MSN if you wish to chat further and I can explain my plans

A 980X costs around £750. This means in 18 months time you probably could get a new CPU,motherboard and RAM which would be faster than your 980X and still have money left over!!

However,I get the slight feeling you have got your heart set on buying a 980X!!