AdamMAXIS

You mean not everyone has one or more wireless routers?

Overclocking your video card for the pit test is sort of like taking steroids for a little league game.

Some great loud cooling

Loose mobo heatsink/shorted mobo?

Brand new mobo?

Loose heatsink? Unstable OC?

3dmark2006 scores: Visiontek HD 3870 Sapphire HD 3870

Can you run Crossfire with two different brands of cards?

I'm getting very nice temperatures with this Visiontek. I had a minimum temperature of 20 C today. With the Sapphire card, my minimum temperature was 38 C. Max temp recorded for the Visiontek while running 3dmark2006 was 69 C (fan on auto) and the Sapphire was 80 C (fan on auto).

Visiontek HD 3870 Sapphire HD 3870 Big beefy Visiontek card cooler: http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware...ekhd3870/2.html Wimpy wimpy Sapphire card cooler: http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/sa...e_hd_3870/4.htm

Just hope you remain with ZERO issues because if an issue arises, don't expect their RMA process to be easy.

No, I don't think I'll ever make the mistake of buying from Sapphire again.

What do you think of this one? http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?sk...d=1203815034383 Good deal? No? I'd like the option of running crossfire possibly, so I need a 3870. This one looks good because it has beefy cooling and I can pick it up in the store which provides the instant gratification I'm looking for. Any reason I shouldn't get this?

The 8800 Ultra wouldn't run it at "acceptable" frame rates on very high. I run my Crysis at 1680x1050 on high and it's barely playable.

You should see the beastly score it gets on 3dmark2001 SE! 21 k!

Here brandon, check this out: http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=6593300

Oh no no, it's not a 8600 GT, I wish! It's a 8500 GT.

I liked my 3870. Hopefully I'll get this RMA'd tomorrow. This is what my card looked like by the way: http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/sa...e_hd_3870/2.htm

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811129041 It is the Antec Mini P180 Black Steel MicroATX Mini Tower

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811129041 This is a link to the case by the way. It is the Antec Mini P180 Black Steel MicroATX Mini Tower

Nope, that's my back up 8500 GT. I removed the 3870 for now since it cannot play games without artifacting.

Well at least one thing went well. My new case and heatsink have really dropped temperatures by a lot. The CPU is now 10-15 C cooler than it was on the crappy Cooler Master heatsink it came with.

I'm surprised at the flimsy nature of this card. Usually ATI offers at least moderately sturdy cards. My old ATI 9800 Pro really took a beating when it came to overclocking and it lasted for many years.

Yes, this is the GPU I folded with. I tried to initiate GPU2 again and it wouldn't start. All games show different degrees of artifacting depending upon how GPU intensive they are.