Be Excellent To Each Other

Yes.

Two sound cards don't produce samples in tandem for better quality sound though, do they?

SLI does render alternate frames for massive performance boosts though.

As I mentioned before it's actually very rare now for a game not to work in SLI.

And then of course there's the future, where DX12 will natively support multiple GPUs at a API level.

I'm getting four, then.

Four is really the minimum number of sounds card you need for modern PC gaming; really demanding stuff like Duke Nukem 3D won't even run unless you've got at least eight installed.

Well as JC has already noted, Crossfire is by far the weaker of the two implementations, so on an AMD card (ATI don't exist anymore!) you'll be stuck with Crossfire and AMD's shonky driviers and even shonkier Crossfire. (Also note that AMD's drivers suffer badly in DX11 when paired with a weaker CPU, so an AMD card that on paper should better an Nvidia card, actually delivers less performance in reality - loads of stuff about this at Eurogamer.)

Another thing to remember is that you're limited by the VRAM on a single card, so if you Crossfire two 1GB cards you still only have 1GB of VRAM as far as games are concerned.

So in my case for example, yes I could have tried SLI-ing another 670 with my existing 670, and that may well have given me enough grunt to run GTA5 at 2560x1440, but it would have done nothing to help with the fact that my chosen settings needed 2.5GB of VRAM and the 670s are 2GB cards, and as far as GTA5 (or any other game) would be concerned - 2GB of VRAM is still what I'd have, it doesn't pool it between the two cards.

Finally, it's important to note that you can get an awful lot of GPU grunt for a reasonable amount of money. The GTX960 for example will basically top out any game you chuck at it at 1080p/60FPS, and it costs £150 - and being as it's a new card it has the latest cool-running architecture, modest power requirements, low noise, up-to-date driver support etc. (I continue to be very impressed with the 960 in Mrs Hearthly's PC.)

Dropping down to a £100 card you can still get some excellent performance, which isn't going to be a whole lot more than you'd have to drop on a second card to try Crossfiring with whatever you have now. (Unless it's a real cheap thing in which case Crossfiring it probably won't help much.)

I'm not saying it's a total non-starter and yes it may be a decent budget option to eke some extra life out of an elderly single-card PC in certain circumstances, but personally speaking I think it makes more sense to move onto a new single GPU solution.

SLI and Crossfire, ironically, are only worth it on high end cards. Few reasons really but AMD and Nvidia deliberately derp their low rent cards now. For example they only come with a max of 2gb VRAM. The last cheap way on Nvidia to get flagship performance was the GTX 460, where two would beat a GTX 480 for half the price and came with 2/3rd the amount of VRAM.

Then of course there's the dreaded scenario of no profiles or game support. In which case you have to fall back on one card and if that card is low rent you'll be reducing settings to 'not even as good as a console' levels.

I learned that the hard way when I had two Radeon 5770s. It really was nothing but pain.

So yeah, multi GPU set ups are only for complete overkill from my experience.

I'm playing the waiting game now. I want two of these new gen cards but I'm being tight fisted and won't bother until I can get a pair for around £600. One isn't worth it because what I have is faster and I'm not paying release tax again.

BAD NEWS - My £120 keyboard has two dead LEDs already. The LED under the 'K' key has gone and a couple of nights ago the LED under the 'G10' key went as well.

viewtopic.php?p=848043#p848043



A quick Google for 'K95 dead LEDs' is rather illuminating. Or rather, not illuminating, LOL. (I'm here all week.)

Basically there's a design flaw in the K95s and other mechanical keyboards by Corsair of that era whereby the LEDs aren't shielded against ESD (electro static discharge) properly and they almost inevitably start to fail after a few months of ownership. Once the first couple go, you can generally rely on one or two going every few weeks after that.

Not acceptable on a £120 keyboard.

That said, part of me was just like, 'Who cares, it's just a fucking keyboard and it's not like I really need the backlighting, it's just pretty', but then again I was like ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY POUNDS FOR A FUCKING KEYBOARD IT'D BETTER LAST MORE THAN FIVE MONTHS BEFORE DEVELOPING FAULTS.

So then, I've been going through Corsair's RMA process and have said to them that:

1) I don't want it to be replaced with another K95, the design is inherently faulty.
2) I'm very disappointed as I've bought all sorts of Corsair products over the years and wasn't expecting this sort of experience on a £120 keyboard.
3) I'd like them to replace it with a keyboard that has a newer design on the LEDs which aren't prone to failure.

GOOD NEWS:

They've agreed to collect the K95 at their expense, (normally you have to pay for the return to them and they pay for the return to you), and send me one of these

The K95 RGB which has the new LED mounting design on it, and is also a £150 (!) keyboard.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprod ... =KB-043-CS



It's basically the same keyboard but the RGB model (16.7 million colours per key), with the updated LED design so they don't tend to start failing after six months or less....

Sexy. (2m40s for the real prettiness.)

TBH I've owned a good chunk of Corsair products and every single one of them,barring their ram, has left me underwhelmed. I bought two of their Raptor mice for £18 each. Mine broke after three weeks (scroll wheel packed up) and Mrs JC's failed at the plug end with two wires working their way loose and snapping.

I bought a 250D ITX case only to find it was all very thin steel and plastic, with a 1mm alu slither on the front. When empty the entire thing flexes it's so thin.

Then for my big rig I originally bought all Corsair AF led fans only to find them starting to make fart noises six months in.

I'm not sold at all tbh. I think people over rate their products just because they look nice.

I had a bit of a result on my keyboard. Black widow ultimate BF4 edition, french layout, £32. All blues. I switched the Q key and a couple of others but I touch type any way so the french writing doesn't put me off.

Well Corsair were originally just RAM I think? I've had loads of their RAM over the years which has never let me down, but also power supplies which have been excellent too.

I guess they've let things slip a bit with their move into peripherals, and I was absolutely insistent that I didn't want another K95 as the LEDs on it WILL start to fail prematurely by all accounts.

Mind you, as a physical keyboard this K95 is absolutely gorgeous, the nicest keyboard I've ever used or owned (and the software is fine too), they just fucked up on the LEDs.

Can't really argue with them replacing it with a K95 RGB, with both collection and delivery at their expense.

I'm sorry... for a second there, I thought you said that you paid £120 for a keyboard.

I'm very much of the opinion that it makes sense to spend a decent wedge of cash on:

Keyboard
Mouse
Monitor
Speakers

Good peripherals will last for years, (well, apart from this fucking keyboard), and by definition you use them all the time. You're ALWAYS looking at your monitor when you're using your PC, you're ALWAYS listening to your speakers when they're making a noise, and you're ALWAYS using your K+M when interfacing with your PC - so why not spend a bit of cash on decent ones instead of cheap shit?

My current set of speakers weren't cheap (£130 IIRC), but they're about eight years old now and still going strong, and they sound fantastic.

My monitors last me for years, as do my keyboards and mice. (My last keyboard and mouse gave me six or seven years of service IIRC.)

I realise not everyone will see there being any sense in spending that much money on what they may perceive to be almost 'consumables', but for me having nice peripherals for my PC is a must.

I'm not exactly one to talk about spending money. You've seen the Wongawatch thread, right?

I've just watched a video for 4 minutes on that keyboard that has colour lights. Now I desperately want one.

Damn you PC spods.

The @ key is in the wrong place.

I paid £90 for a Unicomp keyboard. Which is basically an IBM Model M but in a black case and with a USB connector.

It will still be going strong in 5,000 years time when the Sun explodes.

It's an American one innit, the @ key is in the correct place on my UK K95 as it will be on my UK K95 RGB.

Pretties!

Check out the forum here - http://forum.corsair.com/v3/forumdisplay.php?f=248

There's one in there for GTAV that starts flashing 'cop style' lights when you get a wanted rating.

This is a lovely rainbow one.

Been working really hard on the Alienware over the past few days. A couple of months back Mrs JC decided she was going to get back into Stronghold Kingdoms and so she bought a HP beats laptop from Ebay for £250 brand new. AMD APU, pretty slow but does her Stronghold OK.

Any way, we were playing BL2 a couple of months before that and that was the only time she ever used the desktop I gave her. We talked about it and she's ready to get into some 'decent' games. So I've been working really hard on getting this Alienware all back up and running and sorted. I had to cut into the side panel before because I was running 670s in SLI with open air coolers on them and it was a sodding nightmare. I've regretted it ever since but at the time I had no choice. I wasn't going to stop using over £700 worth of GPUs.. I should have just taken the side off and left it there. Any way, found a panel in the USA and my pal Ryan will send it over soon (Gonna hurt, I reckon around £100 min) but it's going to be nice when I'm done.

Any way, I was digging around in the wires and found that one was disconnected. Looked at the tag on it and it said "Bluetooth". I've had this case three years and never realised there was a bluetooth module built into the front. Pretty neat. We have a Beats Pill and the valve amps in the surround system are bluetooth also I know it's only like a £2 thing but I bet at the time of launch it was a pretty hefty add on. Any way, enough of the waffle. Here is where I am up to. All of the cables are now braided and sitting in a big pile ready to be connected up. You'll note I've made a custom intake in the 5.25 bays. Nice MNPCtech grill.. I wouldn't do this but X79 boards get pretty hot so it's nice to have some airflow up top. I've also made a custom floor with a 120mm fan taking air down into the PSU





Ignore the ugly non braided wires. They're for the front panel connector but I can't braid them yet because I don't know which is which. Gonna be a bit of trial and error on those

Edit. Hearthly, if you think a keyboard with that kind of lighting is cool imagine an entire case. The Area 51 has the same colour palette as your keyboard and you can also program it to do certain things at certain times too using the FX software. You can have them strobing or fading from one colour into another too. Pretty cool ! if I ever get it all running again I'll do a couple of vids.

If anyone fancies a K95 on the cheap(ish), they're currently down to just over £90 at Ebuyer.

It will inevitably start to go wrong after a few months, at which point you can RMA it to Corsair and you'll get a K95 RGB as a replacement, as the K95 never got the updated LED mounts and it's out of production now. So Corsair aren't doing me any mega-favours by sending me a K95 RGB, they just don't have any K95s left.

But you can effectively get a £150 keyboard for £90, if you're prepared to wait around six months

I think you meant to type "send it back to the firm you bought it from and if they cause a shit cite SOGA"

Thing is though they might just give you your money back, whereas in reality the plan is to get a K95 RGB on the cheap.

I don't want to get shitty with Ebuyer anyway since they're really good, and it's not their fault Corsair made a duff keyboard. (Well, there's nothing wrong with the keyboard, it's the LEDs they fucked up.)

Yay. So Mrs JC's Borderlands PC is nearly finished. After lots of hard work the inside is done.



The front intake, 'cause X79 is a bit of a hot bugger.



And a few hard drives.



I decided to completely AIO cool the PC. That way you get nothing but the sound of a few 120mm fans. I'm mostly using Noiseblocker Bionics which are 600 RPM (see pic)



And these for the GPU rad and the front intake.



And it's very quiet indeed. GPU temps are 24c idle (which is about the temp today) and 39c after three runs of Firestrike. God bless coolers that were designed for much larger, hotter dies. And it's very quick. Well it would be with a 8 core Ivybridge E5 and a Titan Black. Only other thing I had to do was change the coolers on the ram as they were orange.



Arctic big buggers. Only cost £9.

Well after lots of work Mrs JC's Alienware is finished. I still have to get the side panel over but that's all paid for.

Mrs JC in return has bought me this.





I was going to buy new GPU/S. Possible 980ti SLI or Titan X SLI. Then today I played The Witcher 3 (which has been the only game to suck my GPUs dry) at 1080p and realised that it actually looked pretty good. So for a laugh I dropped my res from 4k to 1440p and I can play it maxed out with MSAA and still hit high 50s.

So I decided against dropping any more money on GPUs for this year and went with a new PC instead. This Cosmos 2 is like a flat in Soho FFS.

Good call, I think, what with Pascal coming out next year. I am beginning to worry about my GTX 970 becoming obsolete faster than I anticipated.

TBH Mink it's taking the fucking piss now. At £1400 I thought my cards would be top dog for at least two years. Not even 11 months later they release a fucking new one that's twice as fast for less than I paid per card on mine. I mean technology is good and all, but not when it punches you in the guts like that. Pascal next year? what happened to two years per tech? honestly it's getting really silly now.

I do want two 980tis for 4k but I think it's time I took a step back. £1300 a year on a new PC is pretty decent considering I did £3500 last year and have a grand's worth of shit if I'm lucky. Oddly Witcher 3 (the only game I have shite with) looks far better at 1440p maxed out with Hairworks on than it does at the paltry medium I can manage with 4k. I think I will be playing more games @ 1440p.

I've also had endless shit with MSI. I bought their highest end board at the time (Big Bang Xpower II) and about two months back it fucked up and couldn't even hold the CPU at stock. It kept dipping to 1.1ghz. Turns out the VRMs are fried. I contacted Ebuyer who said they couldn't swap it out. Nice, £3500 on a PC and 11 months in they're telling me they can't send me a board. So I contacted MSI, paid £23 to send it to Holland and six weeks later they are telling me that they can't swap it out (so my £23 was totally wasted). I'm still waiting to see what they're going to do.

So, back to Dell for me. Worth every penny for the next business day, full swap out repair service. I had a M11X and they were amazing. Absolutely amazing. I've got a RIVE in place of the MSI BBXPII and it's great but hey, newer CPU etc.

As with everything, chase what you want to achieve, don't chase the competition.

That sounds like loser talk. LooHoooHooHoooser.

Thing is though the console architectures are fixed for a while now, I can't see MS/Sony rushing out a new console any time soon - and it's all cross-platform these days innit.

If you're after maxed out gaming on a single 1080p screen then any competent Intel i5 CPU will do the job, paired with a midrange-ish GPU like a GTX960 or R9280 (costing £150 or less).

Ramping up to 1440p the same CPU will deliver the goods, but you'll want a GTX970/R9290 or better. (Around £250.)

4K is admittedly a different kettle of fish, and whilst the 980Ti has understandably upset early adopters of the Titan-X there's always that risk with going cutting edge. Plus it does mean that 4K gaming is now within the reach of a single GPU, albeit a rather exotically priced one. (Titan-X was so far off the scales I didn't even consider it as being a viable option for 99% of folks.)

Nvidia are churning out these cards because people will buy them, whilst not necessarily asking the question 'Do I need this?' - if you're gaming at the cutting edge (which 4K is) then getting burned by tech refreshes after a short period of time can't come as too much of a surprise.

Personally I'm quite happy to sit a little bit behind the cutting edge and save boatloads of cash, so my last three graphics cards have been GTX480 to GTX670 to GTX970, and consciously or not I always seem to target a resolution a step behind the ZOMG TOP RES. So now I'm on 1440p where the nutters are on 4K, for example. Seem to be getting two years per card as well, which isn't too shabby IMO, and I always manage to punt them on for about £50 which takes a chunk out of the cost of the next one.

CPU wise at least things are mostly static, as the CPUs in the XBone/PS4 are so weak that it looks like any sort of midrange i5 will be good for years to come.

On a final note everything I've read suggests that '4K-maxed out@60FPS' is still a bit of an ask from any system, so you're arguably better settling down for a totally maxed out 1440p@60FPS experience, from a far more modest system. Doubtless things will shift on again in 18 months or so and 4K will be then as 1440P is now - reasonably achievable on a modest budget.

Yeah, definitely need to drop the res. TBH? it's only Witcher 3, but until Fallout 4 comes out I'm kinda stuck with nothing to play. If it were just one 980ti then I would have gone that route, but I would need two to make any difference whatsoever. I know that in benchmarks the 980ti more than doubles what I can score with mine, but I swear Nvidia did that deliberately. In gaming, like actual gaming, I still have the edge.

I built my dream PC last year. For the most part it's been a complete and horrific waste of cash but hey, I have that out of my system now. £1300 for a computer even once a year is definitely more sensible. I won't be swapping the GPUs for at least another year, even if I have to play at 1080p.

Really looking forward to DX12 now.

I don't want to start a bandwagon or anything, but fuck me that case is ugly. What are the dimensions? It looks massive.

H=22xW=9xD=22". However it slopes.. what im running now is 28x27x13.5.

After eight years and pretty much every model ever made I've realised they're not for everyone

OK selling my old machine. Specs.

Intel 3970x 6 core 12 thread. Clocks to 4.7ghz daily
Corsair H110
Asus RIVE
Corsair Dominator 16gb 1866mhz
Cooler Master Cosmos 2
Cougar Vortex fans throughout
MNPCtech grill in front
Aerocool fan controller
Enermax Revolution 1250w PSU
Corsair Nova series SSD, 60gb X4 in RAID 0
Couple of Xigmatek fans.

Do note, the orange panels all come off in about ten seconds.

£700 collected, I paid £2000 for this 11 months ago and it's mostly still within warranty. I'm getting a MSI 970 gaming and a 960 soon so I could work something out with a GPU fitted too.

Any one interested in one of these, brand new never opened?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprod ... =GX-259-MS

£220 delivered with UPS.

Bargain at that price, nice cooler too.

How come you've ended up with a spare one?

Well the motherboard in my £3.5k rig went bang. Oddly it was called a MSI Big Bang... I sent it back, no replacements so they're sending me that instead.

Never again dude. I've now achieved my life's ambition of a literally no limits PC. Now I'm back to Alienware (with my GPUs and SSDs and so on).

Talking of which, a small write up I did

So whilst the buzz of buying that PC last year was good it was something I will never do again as long as I live. The good thing is that when all is said and done I have made the switch to the Alienware for not much money. My wife paid a chunk into it and that is basically my PC present for this year. As her kids are grown up and fiercely independent they're no longer a financial cost. I mean sure, we bung them cash and spoil them but they don't come asking for it any more. Couple that with me who has no kids (my choice, not really my cup of tea) and yeah, we're OK.

But as for stupidly expensive hardware and honking, great ugly cases? it's over for me. Up until I bought that hunk of crap I was happy with my Alienware Area 51, which is reasonably smaller than the Cosmos 2 (I would say about 30%). Before that I had the MATX Aurora and again, I was blissfully happy with that (I had that one for nearly three years with my I7 950 at stock).

Money. It's a funny thing. My philosophy is that I hate it, and if I ever get my hands on it I spend it. That's part of my illness but I rid myself of it because I don't like what it does to me. It just makes my bloody head go mad thinking what I can spend it on. Mania, basically guys, it's ain't much fun.

So overclocking for me, benchmarking for me, dumping continual money into computers for me.. It's over. Had I continued on that path I would have been very ill. Instead I've actually stepped back and taken things into account. Realised that I just want a nice looking rig with a decent warranty and that's good enough for me. That's why I returned to Alienware. My friend, my very close friend for many, many years. I'm gutted that I strayed now, but looking back they had nothing to offer me last year (the new Area 51 wasn't out and they had stopped making the old one months before). So I strayed and I stepped into stupid land and I paid the price (three and a half bags of sand to be precise). So what does the future hold? naff. I'm going to keep this rig now, intact, and game. Game game game. Something I've done more of over the past two days than I had done in months. Months of worrying about my temps, pissing around with benchmarks trying to make sure my stupid rig was still competitive. And then Nvidia "reward" me for spending £1400 on two graphics cards by releasing one for £499 not even a year later that's twice as fast as one of mine. Great. See, another trap I won't fall into again...

So now I'm done waffling let me say a few words about what I got, the new Alienware Area 51. Call this a review if you like, call it me showing off (though that would be silly considering it's actually a downgrade to my older rig) call it what you like (just don't call me baby.... )

The outside. Alienware, even under Dell, have always known how to make a stunning looking case. Like a moth to a flame I fall for every bloody one of them and I believe in them like they want people to. Sometimes at first I have to sort of look around it a bit to get my head around it but yeah, usually I give way to the radical pretty quickly. So this time it was no exception. I soon learned that a fool and his cash are quickly parted, and like sod's bloody law Alienware went and released this thing about two months after I'd just spent enough money to buy two. What a prized pillock... So here is the new Area 51.



This time around though the looks are far, far more meaningful than before. Last time there were motorised vents, motorised front panel and god knows what else and none of it actually did anything. This time around though the thermal performance is absolutely stellar. So let's talk about that a bit first before anything else. It won't take long. This rig is so quiet that even in the weather we have been having I have not heard the fans spin up any more than their idle speed. Not once. The thermal performance is so good and gets the heat out so well that my GPU fans hardly even spin up, even on a pretty aggressive fan profile. That means I have done about 20 hours of gaming since I got this thing and throughout it has made barely a whisper. Compare that to my old rig where I had to run most of the fans on 12v just to keep the cooling in check and yeah, silence is bliss. Here is how it all works.



There are two intake fans and one exhaust, which also doubles as the fan for the AIO that cools the 5820k. Again, I have not heard that fan spin up. I have not aggressively overclocked the rig as I don't need to. Stock performance is far better than the 3970x and I don't need to make it rev its guts out in order to cool the CPU properly. This is nice, very nice. So yeah, a rig as bold and as powerful as this running on three very quiet 120mm fans. Compare that in contrast to my old 3970x rig which ran nine fans and you can understand, the ALXman is in heaven right now.

Storage. You get room for two 2.5" drives and three 3.5" drives. What with there being 6tb hard drives now and possibly more this is more than enough room for storage. Gone is my old 4 60gb RAID 0 SSDs and they have been replaced with my Asus RAIDR PCI Express drive that offers the same storage space. I'm currently running two old 500gb laptop drives I use for downloads and stuff, a 600gb Raptor for my music films and games as well as a 2tb drive the system came with.

What Alienware don't tell you when you buy this rig is that the motherboard has a Killer E2205 network card, Intel pro wireless set and Creative Labs Soundblaster Recon. That may not mean much to some, but it's allowed me to basically rid myself of three add in cards I used to use. I like Killer NIC, I really do like the software they provide it's excellent. Here is my storage layout.



More than good enough really. So let's move onto the fun part, the controls. Firstly there are nine lighting zones. Each is shown in the picture. These can be changed between any colour you like really, as well as being made to flash, change and morph.



And then there are the thermal controls. These are to adjust fan speeds on the fly, or, you can leave that down to the computer itself.



And then of course, like most other Alienware computers there are the overclocking options.



Summary.
Well obviously as you guys will know I had a bit of a pig recently. I found out that no matter how much money you throw at a computer there is still a high chance something will go wrong. And when it does you are not covered well enough. £3500 was a lot of money to spend and I will never get anything near that back. I also learned that high end hardware is also incredibly difficult to sell on should you wish to. People are just not in the market for that sort of stuff.
Now with the Alienware you are getting a full, proper warranty. Alienware are not as fickle as other companies and do keep spares for their computers long after the sale date. I paid a total of £1298 for the Alienware, but, managed to claw back £100 from the GTX 960 I did not need. TBH? for £1200 it's a lot of computer. If you went elsewhere for the same spec (will list that at the end) you would not get much change from that including a GTX 970 or something of that ilk. However, where the Alienware shines is through its case and design, as well as the plethora of features it offers in lighting, cooling and overall solid build quality and looks.

This isn't quite the Area 51 we have seen in the past. The build quality is beautiful but it's no match for the quality of build that the last iteration of the Area 51 had. Gone are the motors, gone are the vents, gone are the large lit panels. However, let's not be too harsh here. Just look at it.. Look at it ! it's as stunning as you would expect for an Alienware.
Another nice thing to bear in mind with Alienware computers is their resell value. Right now I could probably go back on Ebay and sell this PC for £50 less than I paid for it. Apple are very similar in that regard so if you are ever thinking of selling your old hardware on you will always get a much higher price for it being an Alienware or an Apple.

Spec. Here is the spec of the system I ordered.
CPU - 5820k factory overclocked to 3.8ghz, bumped to 4ghz by myself
8gb 2333 DDR4 memory
MSI Alienware motherboard, Quad SLI capable, triple SLI capable
850w 80+ silver Delta power supply
GTX 960 2gb (replaced with my Titan Blacks)
Soundblaster Recon 3d (onboard)
Killer E 2205 network card
Intel Proset wireless
2tb Toshiba hard drive

Pic of 970

Beex price on GPU £200 inc.

Made a pretty bold move today. Sold my Titan Blacks and bought a Fury X for £450.

Will be acebest at 4k, and I made a few quid too. Due to get it Friday,will up some pics then

Even one of them is 'about as fast as a 980Ti', how do you expect them to compete with Titan Blacks in SLI?

(I appreciate the Fury-X really seems to shine at 4K, but I'm not sure what you're expecting compared to what you're leaving behind.)

One 980ti, believe it or not, is about 10% faster than both of my Titan Blacks put together. No seriously, I shit you not. I knew from synthetic benchmarks that this was the case but thought in games it would fare better. So, yesterday a mate of mine with a 980ti ran some game benchmarks with me and even down clocked his CPU so we were running the same and sure enough, my average in the two Metro games was 10% or worse slower than his.

The Fury X is less than 1% slower than the 980ti at 4k, and given that's the resolution I run it was hard to say no at £450 (cheaper than any 980ti).

The main aim was to go from two rather hot cards down to one with a water cooler on it, that will be my main boost. So yeah, it's not a ton faster but it is faster, cost me nothing (I sold the two Titans for £500, so I've actually got £50 in my pocket) is cooler, quieter and will use at least 200 watts less power at the wall.

I've had AIOs on my GPUs for ages now. I actually bought two adapters and two Corsair H55 coolers for my TBs, but the hoses were not long enough to fit where I needed to fit them (doh). I do have one on Mrs JC's TB and it will not break 47c in Valley after almost two hours. I also had an AIO on my 480 Lightning recently and it too refused to go over 49c. That's incredible.

Then of course there's the option to install a second one at a later date, but I'm trying hard to avoid doing that. The issue I had with SLI (and it was small) is that two games I own don't like it. One (Far Cry 4, which I can live without because it's shite) doesn't bother me but the other is Wolfenstein : The old blood and I loved the first one and really wanted to play it but even at low settings it runs like ass at 4k because it simply refuses to run on more than one GPU.

I've been on SLI for many years now, it's time for a bit of completely pain free gaming for a while.. Give it time dude. I'm almost certain that when AMD get this launch sorted and get out some review samples the tools to overclock them will be forthcoming. Right now reviewers are literally having to send the card on to one another there is so few of them. Thankfully a good mate of mine bought the card, reviewed it and then got bored with it so he's sold it on to me

I fear there may be no helpful answer to this, but here goes:

Given the choice, would you rather work on two smallish monitors or one massive (34 inch) monitor? Probably wanting to have 3-4 applications visible at once? Is there anything frustrating about working on one big screen? Never done it with a biggun before fnar fnar.

What am I doing?

You're in a darkened room. You see a lamp in the corner, emitting a greenish glow.

Writing. Probably with this kind of setup:
- emails open in one application
- reference material/research in a browser
- word doc to write in
- Newsfeed in another window

>Go east

Screen size is the last of your worries. What you want is screen size and resolution. That's basically how you pack in a few apps at once.

I wouldn't bother with multiple monitors myself, I've usually always just used one screen. Remember, the monitor is your gateway to the computer and the thing you interact with more than anything else, so always get the best one you can afford.

Obviously as usual it all depends on your budget..

You've been bummed by a grue.

Oh to add.. What you really want is a 4k monitor. There are a few small caveats, though. 4k requires some serious balls to shift games around. You're looking at a 980ti or Fury X if you game and like to crank the settings. Obviously if you're not gaming that's of no importance.
Things can appear small on a 4k monitor, so 30 inches plus is where you want to be. I have a 28 and some things are a real squint fest. You can adjust Windows to make things look bigger, but that's defeating the purpose of having that sort of resolution in the first place IMO.

Another downside is that most 4k monitors are Displayport only, so you need to make sure your GPU has one.

cheers dude. Was thinking something like this, which seems like the least I can spend for a screen that size.

Chez Bezos

I'd rather have two for that sort of stuff, but then again 34" is pretty gigantic for a monitor.

2560x1080 is fairly limited on the vertical axis (same number of pixels as a 1920x1080).

The first big jump IMO is up to 2560x1440, and those screens are available for a reasonable price.

27 inch is fine for 2560x1440, but as JC says for 4K you want to be looking at 30 inch as a minimum.

For the situation you've described though, you may actually be better off with two 24 inchers (or similar) at 1920x1080, if you've got the desk space for it.

I use two screens at work, but one screen at home. For a 'productivity' style scenario, I prefer multiple screens.