Fans and old school video cards
In reviewing this forum I noted several comparisons between the basically stock cooling system in the EVGA 680 SC Signature and some of the alternate cooling systems now being offered - I would just like to add that it may be important to consider how the alternate methods disperse the air from the card - the stock method pushes air out the back end and out of the case but many of the dual and triple fan systems just push air out anywhere they can - mainly back into the case - so while they may keep the card a little cooler or appear quieter it is important to consider whether or not you will then need additional case cooling to compensate - also if we are going to talk costs of old school video cards I personally had one of the earliest of the "higher end" dedicated gaming cards, the Diamond MONSTER - 4 or maybe 8 MB of ram, cost about $350 Canadian (about 20+ years ago - so maybe double that in today's dollars) and required a standard graphics card as well to actually interface to even just 1 monitor (another $100 - 150 or so for a decent standard video card) - so by comparison, I say that, while $500 - 600 is not inexpensive, it is still a considerable bargain by comparison to past leading edge consumer products of the same nature - P.S. - a 15 inch Sony Trinitron Tube Monitor was over $600 back then and 32 MB of system Ram was worth almost $600 as well due to a memory shortage - it seems there is always a key plant burning down or being flooded somewhere) - cheers
