Accelero Xtreme GTX 280 mini review and support

[OnBoard]

A few shots and comments on my initial Accelero installation:

Opening up the clamshell, lots of sinks for most cards, pre-applied MX2 which I scrubbed off and applied MX3 on the entire gpu base.

The sinks I mounted were all from the Accelero kit. They stick well (after the eraser and isopropyll alcohol treatment). The new Pro version really suits the GTX275, the sinks all fit like a glove, and the vrm sink was sized perfectly.

I spy with my own eyes a sticker from 3M for spacers! Don't know how many "280" versions were shipped without it.

And the sinks fit so nicely Well done AC on the improvements

I assume the new mount fits over the GPU brace? Would think that was the reason why they changed it. Accelero is not the lightest so it's nice that the brace can be used on cards without backplate.

Thanks for the pictures and quick review

 

[Retro*]

I spy with my own eyes a sticker from 3M for spacers! Don't know how many "280" versions were shipped without it.

And the sinks fit so nicely Well done AC on the improvements

I assume the new mount fits over the GPU brace? Would think that was the reason why they changed it. Accelero is not the lightest so it's nice that the brace can be used on cards without backplate.

Thanks for the pictures and quick review

You have a good eye! The 3M stickers did come with the cooler(s). A funny story there, I was sticking the 3M stickers to those very tiny little spacers while installing it yesterday. There was one that I had to put on a mounting hole in a tight corner. My fingers couldn't hold it straight enough there so I gripped the spacer with a long set of needlenose pliers. The spacer suddenly slipped out of the pliers and launched itself into the zone of things never to be found again, like all the small screws that seem to disappear there.
After a frantic search, I wound up using one from the second Accelero I bought. Figured I would have to make another one somehow to replace it. While typing out the post on the cooler, I spotted the spacer, nicely stuck with it's 3M tape to the top edge of my keyboard

The sinks really do fit well on the 275. I like their design better than Thermalright's, they look similar to the Scythe sinks. And there are a lot of extra sinks of various types provided in the kit for other cards. No longer any need to remove the gpu brace either, the mount goes right over it. AC made some very important changes to this revision, and all were points made here in this thread

 

[Devil May Cry]

Nearly missed your post, wasn't on new posts list when I last logged in, but here goes.

Most likely VRMs. What is your fan speed? On summer I noticed graphics anomalies when playing for a long period, higher fan speed fixed that.

You're card name would help and also room temperature, but higher fan speed with EVGA Precision for example should fix it. The default 40% is too low and it only goes up if core goes up to about 80C.

Hey, it's a GTX 280 with the VRM mod. I run it at 100% doesn't matter, well it takes longer får the weird artifacts to popup. But the thing is, my VRM temps are just fine, especially after the mod. In crysis at barley 90c uselly around 75c. I'm almost guessing its the NIVO sink?

 

[Retro*]

Here are the screenshots of the load temperatures for the GTX275 with the stock heatsink at 100% fan speed. Then the T-Rad2 with: stock 92mm 26cfm TR fans; one 120mm 50cfm Noctua; and one 120mm 88cfm Panaflo. Finally, the AC Accelero Xtreme GTX Pro at 100% fan speed. Each test used OCCT's GPU Test which is based on Furmark, error detection enabled, run for approx. 400sec.
Ambient room temperature was maintained at 20C.
Please excuse my small screenshots, clicking on the yellow resize bar makes them almost readable
*Edit: Photobucket site was down tonite, hopefully will be back up for the screenshots soon.*

Stock Heatsink @100% fan speed:

Gpu temp hit 80C. No errors.

T-Rad2 with the two stock 26cfm 92mm fans @100%:

Gpu temp also hit 80C.(81C. according to OCCT), Pcb temps. a bit higher than stock, note 11 errors!

T-Rad2 with one 50cfm 120mm Noctua fan@100%:

Gpu temp. reduced to 79C. But note the 64 errors!

T-Rad2 with one 88cfm 120mm Panaflo@100%:

This fan reduced the Gpu temp. to 73C. and all the other reported temps as well. Also note no errors again.

And now, the Accelero with it's triple-92mm fans running @100%:

Best results with the Accelero, Gpu temp. down to 66C. and lowest for the other reported temps. No errors.

So, for my particular setup and conditions, the Accelero wins this contest. I had previously never had any errors running OCCT's gpu test with the stock heatsink. Only when the T-Rad2 was installed were any errors detected, and that's when it had the stock 92mm fans or the 50cfm 120mm Noctua. The errors disappeared again with a 38mmx120mm 86cfm beast attached to it. Of course, the possible fan configurations for the T-Rad2 are seemingly infinite, but you would need some big airflow happening to get down near the Accelero's stock temp. reduction.

Now I have to install Accelero #2 on card #2 and make them play nice in sli again.

 

[OnBoard]

The spacer suddenly slipped out of the pliers and launched itself into the zone of things never to be found again, like all the small screws that seem to disappear there.
After a frantic search, I wound up using one from the second Accelero I bought. While typing out the post on the cooler, I spotted the spacer, nicely stuck with it's 3M tape to the top edge of my keyboard

Hate when that happens Good that you found it, not the easiest think to replace with something.

Thanks for the cooler comparison, quite interesting. Maybe the errors are caused by lack of cooling on the NVIO sink, with T-Rad2? As the fans are sifted way right on it and it came with just a ramsink, if I remember correctly.

 

[OnBoard]

Hey, it's a GTX 280 with the VRM mod. I run it at 100% doesn't matter, well it takes longer får the weird artifacts to popup. But the thing is, my VRM temps are just fine, especially after the mod. In crysis at barley 90c uselly around 75c. I'm almost guessing its the NIVO sink?

Oh, doesn't seem like VRMs then. You might be right on the NVIO sink, is it the stock Accelero one with the thermalpad on top?

Memory you can rule out quite easily by overclocking it and seeing does it make things worse. Though memory artifacts look quite distinctive, when my VRM was overheating I lost picture on whole screen. With memory it's just partial blocks and with core a lockup

 

[Devil May Cry]

Oh, doesn't seem like VRMs then. You might be right on the NVIO sink, is it the stock Accelero one with the thermalpad on top?

Memory you can rule out quite easily by overclocking it and seeing does it make things worse. Though memory artifacts look quite distinctive, when my VRM was overheating I lost picture on whole screen. With memory it's just partial blocks and with core a lockup

Yes it's the AC sink

So weird. Can't be the core just no way the max temp in _furmark_ is 57-60c on 100% fan. I play overclocked all the time, 730/1512/2600. And after a long time playing in Crysis the white popup artifacts accure if I clock down the mem to.

But works awesome the first like 10-20min and also in other games that aren't as demanding as Crysis. Does the shader have a chip? Maybe it's that. All works flawlessly as mentioned if I just open my window (it's really cold in sweden now).

 

[OnBoard]

Yes it's the AC sink

So weird. Can't be the core just no way the max temp in _furmark_ is 57-60c on 100% fan. I play overclocked all the time, 730/1512/2600. And after a long time playing in Crysis the white popup artifacts accure if I clock down the mem to.

But works awesome the first like 10-20min and also in other games that aren't as demanding as Crysis. Does the shader have a chip? Maybe it's that. All works flawlessly as mentioned if I just open my window (it's really cold in sweden now).

That's some mighty clocks you got going there for a GTX 280 :-o Mine didn't like the 1512 shader. Shaders are in the core doing most of heating stuff, but again they act differently being too high. 3DMark Vantage would crash on the boat cloth with 1512 shaders (FurMark was fine).

Do you have canned air? Was thinking when you next get those white things in crysis, try and blow some air on the NVIO sink. That should cool it so much that the artifact go away if it is it (and not cool anything else in the process).

The card PCB heats up with the long period of playing and that could heat up other components close to unstability. Window open with so cold and freah air would flush the case ambient temperature out and cool the card fixing the problem.

Other thing I was thinking was the backside memory, that could go unstable, but you already lowered clocks. Not much left other than the NVIO sink. I remember when I removed the AC sink the thermal pad was kinda gooey, doubt it is the best in thermal trasfer.

So canned air test and a custom sink there (nvio). With those cloks it's a GTX 285 killer card, worth the extra tinkering. GL

 

[Devil May Cry]

That's some mighty clocks you got going there for a GTX 280 :-o Mine didn't like the 1512 shader. Shaders are in the core doing most of heating stuff, but again they act differently being too high. 3DMark Vantage would crash on the boat cloth with 1512 shaders (FurMark was fine).

Do you have canned air? Was thinking when you next get those white things in crysis, try and blow some air on the NVIO sink. That should cool it so much that the artifact go away if it is it (and not cool anything else in the process).

The card PCB heats up with the long period of playing and that could heat up other components close to unstability. Window open with so cold and freah air would flush the case ambient temperature out and cool the card fixing the problem.

Other thing I was thinking was the backside memory, that could go unstable, but you already lowered clocks. Not much left other than the NVIO sink. I remember when I removed the AC sink the thermal pad was kinda gooey, doubt it is the best in thermal trasfer.

So canned air test and a custom sink there (nvio). With those cloks it's a GTX 285 killer card, worth the extra tinkering. GL

Thx for the information.
The clocks are good, I agree and the card is really fast at that point. You could try MSI afterburn to higher the voltage a bit more that let's you go higher on shader and core.

As for my problem I will try to find some custom nivo sink. Everything else is so darn cool that I just doubt it's any other chip.

 

[Retro*]

Thx for the information.
The clocks are good, I agree and the card is really fast at that point. You could try MSI afterburn to higher the voltage a bit more that let's you go higher on shader and core.

As for my problem I will try to find some custom nivo sink. Everything else is so darn cool that I just doubt it's any other chip.

Just wanted to mention that I had mounted an Enzotech low-profile copper Northbridge sink on the NVIO chip on my 280, when I had a TR HR-03GTX on the card.
Here is a screenshot of it in post #504.
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=1508773&postcount=504
Being solid copper and quite large, the Enzotech sink is quite effective and may solve your problem if it is the NVIO sink causing the issue. The mounting holes have to be drilled out a bit for the 280's hole spacing which is easy enough to do.
You are getting some great clock speeds on that 280, and your Furmark gpu temps are excellent

 

[Retro*]

Hate when that happens Good that you found it, not the easiest think to replace with something.

Thanks for the cooler comparison, quite interesting. Maybe the errors are caused by lack of cooling on the NVIO sink, with T-Rad2? As the fans are sifted way right on it and it came with just a ramsink, if I remember correctly.

That could very well be, the T-Rad2 only uses a small aluminum ramsink for the NVIO chip. I substituted a larger copper Thermaltake ram sink I had, although I could have also used the Enzotech copper sink from my 280. Still got errors, but with enough airflow the errors were gone. It does show how there is a lot lacking in the T-Rad2's design and included sinks.

 

[Devil May Cry]

Just wanted to mention that I had mounted an Enzotech low-profile copper Northbridge sink on the NVIO chip on my 280, when I had a TR HR-03GTX on the card.
Here is a screenshot of it in post #504.
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=1508773&postcount=504
Being solid copper and quite large, the Enzotech sink is quite effective and may solve your problem if it is the NVIO sink causing the issue. The mounting holes have to be drilled out a bit for the 280's hole spacing which is easy enough to do.
You are getting some great clock speeds on that 280, and your Furmark gpu temps are excellent

Those Enzotech sinks look really good on the card, problem is there are no company selling them in Sweden. If they exist in any UK store that ships to Sweden I would definitely buy them. Anyone here from UK?

 

[OnBoard]

This could be one place. They have a "Finnish" store, but not one for you. Anyhow, UK or DE versio should do the trick.
http://www.aquatuning.co.uk/product_info.php/info/p7040_Enzotech-CNB-S1L-Northbridge-K-hler.html

For the clocks, I tested the voltages back when the voltage tuner came out and it was pretty much useless. Going higher only brings more heat, stock is already overkill as max overclock worked on way less. 735/1512/1242MHz is my highest EVGA Precision profile. Though that's old, memory might do better now that I've changed new thermalpads on backside. 99% of the time I game with stock clocks, so don't know. Handles my games with 1680x1050 maxed, if not I'll use GTX 275 profile and GTX 285 profile is there if I need it.

Come to think of it, even my CPU is stock now with a massive cooler on it, am I starting a new trend?

 

[Devil May Cry]

This could be one place. They have a "Finnish" store, but not one for you. Anyhow, UK or DE versio should do the trick.
http://www.aquatuning.co.uk/product_info.php/info/p7040_Enzotech-CNB-S1L-Northbridge-K-hler.html

For the clocks, I tested the voltages back when the voltage tuner came out and it was pretty much useless. Going higher only brings more heat, stock is already overkill as max overclock worked on way less. 735/1512/1242MHz is my highest EVGA Precision profile. Though that's old, memory might do better now that I've changed new thermalpads on backside. 99% of the time I game with stock clocks, so don't know. Handles my games with 1680x1050 maxed, if not I'll use GTX 275 profile and GTX 285 profile is there if I need it.

Come to think of it, even my CPU is stock now with a massive cooler on it, am I starting a new trend?

Maybe i'll just go ahead and buy all the sinks from Enzotech =). Ram, VRM and Nivo sink I mean.

 

[Retro*]

Maybe i'll just go ahead and buy all the sinks from Enzotech =). Ram, VRM and Nivo sink I mean.

Who would be that crazy
If you can get them, why not! I think they are the best sinks available, and we all know copper conducts heat better than aluminum.

 

[Retro*]

Here's the "twins" installed and rockin' and rollin':

The cards fit well with the Acceleros in SLI. Enough clearance between the cards, and the bottom card does clear the power supply by a few mm.

But this is after I upgraded my motherboard to an EVGA P55SLI FTW200 tri-sli capable board. My previous Asus P55 Pro board did not provide enough distance between the cards for sli with the Acceleros mounted. It is a bit of a fluke that I bought the EVGA board, at the time I had not purchased the coolers yet. And I originally purchased an EVGA P55 FTW board, but exchanged it for the tri-sli 200 only because the FTW came with a Foxconn socket, and I wanted a Lotes, which the 200 version did have.

Anyhow, so far so good, no problem with choking off the Accelero fans, lots of airflow. They both run within a few degrees of each other like before except the bottom card is the cooler one now.
But as tjmagneto has shown with his elegant T-Rad2/Scythe fan setup, the T-Rad2's are well suited to normal sli boards.
Anyone wanting to mount two Acceleros in sli has to do some planning first!

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

Hate when that happens Good that you found it, not the easiest think to replace with something.

Thanks for the cooler comparison, quite interesting. Maybe the errors are caused by lack of cooling on the NVIO sink, with T-Rad2? As the fans are sifted way right on it and it came with just a ramsink, if I remember correctly.

When I slapped on that unisink I did a shoddy job applying the TIM on the GPU when I reattached the HR-03 and I was seeing artifacts in GPUTool with my shaders at 1512 which I had never seen before. As soon as I reseated the heatsink all was fine. There was probably just a 4C difference in temps.

I have to admit that those Trad results are pretty disappointing. That Accelero does a nice job though.

Edit: I just scrolled down to see the pics that I wanted to see. Two of those in that 902 looks sexy especially with the black pcb on that board. Thats some good pron.

I would be avoiding those Foxconn sockets too. Those pics are scary.

 

[Retro*]

When I slapped on that unisink I did a shoddy job applying the TIM on the GPU when I reattached the HR-03 and I was seeing artifacts in GPUTool with my shaders at 1512 which I had never seen before. As soon as I reseated the heatsink all was fine. There was probably just a 4C difference in temps.

I have to admit that those Trad results are pretty disappointing. That Accelero does a nice job though.

Edit: I just scrolled down to see the pics that I wanted to see. Two of those in that 902 looks sexy especially with the black pcb on that board. Thats some good pron.

I would be avoiding those Foxconn sockets too. Those pics are scary.

I think a compromise has to be made for fitting custom coolers on an sli setup, some coolers, like the HR-03, are just too thick to work for sli. The room just ain't there. So a slimmer cooler must be used, which usually runs hotter. But it is doable, and I shaved at least 15 degrees off my load temps., so I'm happy.
With some good fans, the T-Rad2's aren't too bad, just don't expect much from the stock fans!

The tim application and mounting is critical. MX3 has been working well for me. But I think with the Accelero, the included patch of MX2 they put on the heatsink base is just fine, and certainly convenient, another neat touch from AC.
I just ran OCCT's Furmark again, this time in sli. No errors, but the temps. were even lower, 55C for the top card and 48C for the bottom card. Wondered what the heck? Then I realized that the gpu load is split in half on each card when running the test in sli

I like the modded HR-03 GTX you made for your 280, with the UniSink. A waterblock may not be much better overall.

Glad you enjoyed the videocard pron Lots of black there now, and the EVGA board comes with some matching black sli cables. So is the external ECP Control Panel, which I may need to use since I lost access to the bottom controls on the board with the sli'ed Acceleros! But I do most of my tinkering in the bios anyhow.
Using the same overclocking settings I used on the Asus board, the EVGA board has already given me another 200MHz, P95 stable when I bumped up the BCLK to 200x20. So it runs stable at 4000MHz, at less voltage than the Asus board needed for it's max. of 3800MHz. I spent months trying to get 4000MHz stable on the Asus, it just would not do it, no matter how much juice I gave it. Now I am using less voltage than I was for 3800MHz to get 4000.

Here's the Accelero SLI OCCT Furmark load shot:

I guess I have to edit my System Specs, again

 

[OnBoard]

The cards fit well with the Acceleros in SLI. Enough clearance between the cards, and the bottom card does clear the power supply by a few mm.

But this is after I upgraded my motherboard to an EVGA P55SLI FTW200 tri-sli capable board. And I originally purchased an EVGA P55 FTW board, but exchanged it for the tri-sli 200 only because the FTW came with a Foxconn socket, and I wanted a Lotes, which the 200 version did have.

Finally got picture of my new stuff inside as I posted this on a case thread. But Your inside lookes so nice I though I'd spam my own thread too Got My Gigabyte P55A because of the LOTES socket too

All pics without flash were too dark, didn't like to play with exposure time this time, so here's flash killed fans. Should make the side windows someday and stick couple red cold cathodes for some hardware peepshow.

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

I think a compromise has to be made for fitting custom coolers on an sli setup, some coolers, like the HR-03, are just too thick to work for sli. The room just ain't there. So a slimmer cooler must be used, which usually runs hotter. But it is doable, and I shaved at least 15 degrees off my load temps., so I'm happy.
With some good fans, the T-Rad2's aren't too bad, just don't expect much from the stock fans!

The tim application and mounting is critical. MX3 has been working well for me. But I think with the Accelero, the included patch of MX2 they put on the heatsink base is just fine, and certainly convenient, another neat touch from AC.
I just ran OCCT's Furmark again, this time in sli. No errors, but the temps. were even lower, 55C for the top card and 48C for the bottom card. Wondered what the heck? Then I realized that the gpu load is split in half on each card when running the test in sli

I like the modded HR-03 GTX you made for your 280, with the UniSink. A waterblock may not be much better overall.

Glad you enjoyed the videocard pron Lots of black there now, and the EVGA board comes with some matching black sli cables. So is the external ECP Control Panel, which I may need to use since I lost access to the bottom controls on the board with the sli'ed Acceleros! But I do most of my tinkering in the bios anyhow.

The Foxconn socket controversy may not be a problem for most. I certainly had no burning issues with the one on the Asus board. But what about the issue of the cpu not properly contacting the pins on Foxconn socket boards? Just using the same overclocking settings I used on the Asus board, the EVGA board has already given me another 200MHz, P95 stable when I bumped up the BCLK to 200x20. So it runs stable at 4000MHz, at less voltage than the Asus board needed for it's max. of 3800MHz. I spent months trying to get 4000MHz stable on the Asus, it just would not do it, no matter how much juice I gave it. Now I am using less voltage than I was for 3800MHz to get 4000.

Coincidence? I think not

Here's the Accelero SLI OCCT Furmark load shot:



I guess I have to edit my System Specs, again

I noticed with OCCT you need to run fullscreen for proper sli scaling. I did a fullscreen OCCT run yesterday after seeing this thread and it butchered my card. Really that program makes Furmark look like Titan Quest.

I also noticed you using the top and bottom pci-e slots. Is that still 8x/8x due to the nf200?

I haven't gotten around to picking up any MX-3 yet. How is it? I love my MX-2 so much that I'm really afraid to try anything else. The consistency is just perfect and it's so easy to clean up. With a good lapped sink I use very little TIM which is why I can't stand AS-5. I see a substantial gain in temps with that.

I'm also glad to hear that the Evga board is working out for you. It really makes sense since it looks like the burning sockets are caused by uneven pressure and I'm pretty sure that most of the damaged pins are VTT pins. Sounds important to me. 200mhz with lower volts is a pretty massive difference. I would love to play a little Oblivion (heavily modded of course) on that rig. I bet that it will do pretty well.


Onboard I love that P55A UD3. How is she treating you? Thats a really sweet rig. Which case is what?

I'm still sitting here with my P45.

 

[Retro*]

Finally got picture of my new stuff inside as I posted this on a case thread. But Your inside lookes so nice I though I'd spam my own thread too Got My Gigabyte P55A because of the LOTES socket too
All pics without flash were too dark, didn't like to play with exposure time this time, so here's flash killed fans. Should make the side windows someday and stick couple red cold cathodes for some hardware peepshow.

Woot
I had no idea you bought a new P55 upgrade! Congratulations
Your photos look good, much better than mine
Looks like you did some research, and were smart to wait for the newer P55A version. The Gigabyte board looks great, and you have the new Sata and Usb speeds! Nice that Gigabyte went to a Lotes socket with their new board. Honestly, I do think there is something fishy with Foxconn sockets especially now that I have seen some dramatic differences, having had both.

Looking at your System Specs., an i5 750, excellent, nice Geil ram, fast hard drives, new cpu cooler and a snazzy looking power supply. W7 64-bit is great, I wouldn't use any other os now. About that cpu cooler, never seen that one before, Alpenfohn Brocken H.D.T.?! Looks like a good cooler. Keep us posted on your new system. Perhaps we can share some overclocking tips, if you decide to get into that!
I'm impressed, and your 280 looks right at home there

I noticed with OCCT you need to run fullscreen for proper sli scaling. I did a fullscreen OCCT run yesterday after seeing this thread and it butchered my card. Really that program makes Furmark look like Titan Quest.

I also noticed you using the top and bottom pci-e slots. Is that still 8x/8x due to the nf200?

I haven't gotten around to picking up any MX-3 yet. How is it? I love my MX-2 so much that I'm really afraid to try anything else. The consistency is just perfect and it's so easy to clean up. With a good lapped sink I use very little TIM which is why I can't stand AS-5. I see a substantial gain in temps with that.

I'm also glad to hear that the Evga board is working out for you. It really makes sense since it looks like the burning sockets are caused by uneven pressure and I'm pretty sure that most of the damaged pins are VTT pins. Sounds important to me. 200mhz with lower volts is a pretty massive difference. I would love to play a little Oblivion (heavily modded of course) on that rig. I bet that it will do pretty well.


Onboard I love that P55A UD3. How is she treating you? Thats a really sweet rig. Which case is what?

I'm still sitting here with my P45.

I may do a fullscreen test later but the regular test serves my purpose for comparing the different coolers and fans performance. Wicked test, isn't it?

I was fortunate that I bought a Tri-Sli capable FTW 200 which has the extra PCI-E slot to allow me to fit the 275's in with the Acceleros. With two cards, they both run at 8x, which is the only option with the P55 chipset when running two or three cards, no matter what board you get. If just one card is used, it runs at 16x. The NF200 chip doesn't change that, even on the Classified. It just allows the board to run tri-sli at 8x. Or me to have Acceleros on my cards

I was a devoted MX-2 user for a long time, before that it was AS-5 which I quit using due to it's conductivity and eventual drying out, cure time, etc. MX-2 worked great for me, when I used my last tube up I bought some MX-3 as it was on a promotional sale . It seems to be a bit more liquidy than MX-2, otherwise very similar. I don't see any big temp.drops compared to MX-2 which I still really like.

Yep, we don't need no stinkin' Foxconn sockets The Lotes socket on the EVGA board does look a lot beefier and has bigger contact points than the Foxconn. It's the lack of proper cpu to socket pin contact that bothered me, if an electrical signal has to bridge an unnecessary gap, that can cause problems. And crap on your overclocking results

I remember when you upgraded to your Q9650 quad-core. I was still on an E8600 dual-core. When I did finally upgrade to a quad, the i5-750, I really noticed a performance difference, even with the i5 at 3800MHz and the E8600 at 4400MHz. I don't know how much of a difference it would be over a Q9650 though.
But I am very impressed with this EVGA board, there are a ton of options in the bios that I haven't tried yet. I think OnBoard is going to have a lot of fun with his new Gigabyte board too

 

[OnBoard]

Onboard I love that P55A UD3. How is she treating you? Thats a really sweet rig. Which case is what?

I'm still sitting here with my P45.

Thanks, she's treating me good, I'm even still on W7 drivers, as they have been fine. Have to hit Gigabyte drivers some day and maybe do a bench before. Was an easy choice as the P45 version treated me well. Though this bios seems more mature from start.

Xigmatek Midgard (it's in the system specs ).

Woot
I had no idea you bought a new P55 upgrade! Congratulations
Your photos look good, much better than mine
Looks like you did some research, and were smart to wait for the newer P55A version. The Gigabyte board looks great, and you have the new Sata and Usb speeds! Nice that Gigabyte went to a Lotes socket with their new board. Honestly, I do think there is something fishy with Foxconn sockets especially now that I have seen some dramatic differences, having had both.

Looking at your System Specs., an i5 750, excellent, nice Geil ram, fast hard drives, new cpu cooler and a snazzy looking power supply. W7 64-bit is great, I wouldn't use any other os now. About that cpu cooler, never seen that one before, Alpenfohn Brocken H.D.T.?! Looks like a good cooler. Keep us posted on your new system. Perhaps we can share some overclocking tips, if you decide to get into that!
I'm impressed, and your 280 looks right at home there

But I am very impressed with this EVGA board, there are a ton of options in the bios that I haven't tried yet. I think OnBoard is going to have a lot of fun with his new Gigabyte board too

Yep, I was thinking of getting a Quad for P45, but the prices were just so high. So when I spotted this OEM with the Intel Dirt 2 bundled, had to jump on it. Before that I was looking into i7 as a store here was auctioning of some boards cheap. Didn't want a foxxconn socket as I will be overclocking. Nothing extreme though, but didn't want even a remote chance of a failure.

Sold my DDR2 for more than I paid for these Geils Old PSU was shutting down on couple game menus with too high FPS, some overcurrent protection kicked in. Could be avoided with vsync, but don't use is, so a beefier PSU amps wise was a solution (and this thing should hit close to 90% efficiency, which is also nice). Overkill for one card, but again got it cheaper that Zalman 600W cost/costs Pity the nicer looking side is hidden mounting PSU this way: http://www.cougar-world.com/img/photos/large/6.jpg

For the CPU cooler, should kick some booty on the price/performance of just about everything (about 36€/$52)
http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/...09/test_ekl_alpenfoehn_brocken_cpu-kuehler/6/
http://www.ocaholic.ch/xoops/html/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=286&page=0
This this really is quite massive (barely fits in) and weighs alot. The UV/Blue leds on that transparent black fan looks really nice IRL and with PWM the fan has been quit.

Should be set for overclocking, but wanted to see first what i5 does stock, or "stock", likes to run with 21 multi and almost 2.8GHz, when it should be 2.66GHz, but I'm not complaining As can be seen on the CPU-Z banner link on bottom. Was just thinking yesterday, that I might want as you some tips on overcloking this, hope she is a low voltage good chip.

Been mostly playing Dragon Age: Origins and that seems to like quads, all cores over 50%. Come to think of it, haven't even tried to brake my own 3DMark records. Should be a breeze with 3dMark06 with 2 cores more

Black/orange/red motherboard would fit more nicely to my case, but can't have everything on a budget. At least the memory is spot on with color. But the PSU I did buy half because of the case colors

 

[tjmagneto]

Retro,

I think you really hit the nail on the head about planning. In hindsight if I had planned on buying two video cards I should have got a full tower. Then I'd have enough room to use the third PCI-e slot and keep the AC coolers. Wait a minute, I should have bought a new case and kept the coolers.

 

[Retro*]

Retro,

I think you really hit the nail on the head about planning. In hindsight if I had planned on buying two video cards I should have got a full tower. Then I'd have enough room to use the third PCI-e slot and keep the AC coolers. Wait a minute, I should have bought a new case and kept the coolers.

I think that my system as it is now, kind of "evolved", and it didn't always involve good planning on my part

My case, an Antec 902, is just a mid-tower. The EVGA tri-sli board I upgraded to from my dual-slot sli Asus P55 Pro allowed me to move the bottom card into the next higher slot for enough clearance from the bottom-mounted power supply. The Asus board didn't have the right spacing for that with the Acceleros. And I bought two T-Rads before that and wound up not using them

But I do think you did a fine job putting the slim Scythe 100mm fans on the T-Rads, the cards fit well on your system and have good cooling.

I guess a full-tower case could provide more room between the bottom card and power supply. Still wouldn't have worked for me with the Asus P55 board though, but that may have been ideal for your Asus P6T Deluxe board. I had the pleasure of building a system for a friend with that board and a 920, and two 260's, in a Coolermaster Stacker case. He has since upgraded to three 260's on an EVGA X58 Tri-Sli board in a Coolermaster Cosmos case

 

[Retro*]

The Acceleros are doing their job, purring like kittens.
Time to see if their cooling improvement will allow a better overclock.

GTX275's highest stable overclocks (all testing done @4009MHz, 19x211):

With the stock Nvidia heatsinks: Core:730 Shader:1600 Memory:1275
With the T-Rad2 and a 120mm 86cfm Panaflow: Same@ 730 1600 1275

Now, with the Acceleros: Core:743 Shader:1615 Memory:1282
Not a bad boost, particularly on the core, more than I expected.