Reference Cards or Custom ones?

[Levent]

hi ,i am thinking to get my build ready for next few years and i have few upgrade thoughts: i might get 2x7970 reference card and a custom water cooling stuff (which i must have maximum of 750 euro expense) or get 2x7970 Sapphire Vapor 3GB and a 256 Gig SSD. As you can see never done custom water cooling or tested one so i am curious about it after seeing awesome ones in youtube
Main uses: little 3ds max,sketchup,unity, and a lot of games

Motherboard will be also replaced with an Sabertooth Z77 this weekend (Z77-DS3H Worst mobo ever)
CPU: 3570k(OCed to 4Ghz) with CM Hyper Evo 212 (runs quiet and cool for me)
Rams:Corsair Vengeance LP 16 gig(which was an overkill for me)
PSU:Corsair AX850(was also a overkill but...)
Case:Thermaltake Element T (i dont care bout visual look of my case)

 

[Master&Puppet]

I'm not sure what you don't like about the DS3H? The z77 chipset has basically everything most people need and for you're overclock having a locked vcore won't be an issue. Getting the sabertooth is the other end of the scale - buying a lot of stuff you will probably never use.

Anyway, if you don't care for looks then I wouldn't bother spending the money on WC the cards. They run very cool on a third party air cooler - no need for water unless you like the look. I'd also suggest that you only need one 7970 unless you are gaming on three monitors.

 

[tinytomlogan]

Get a ref card. You dont need a custom PCB. The ref PCB is more than capable of 1300MHz if the actually core you get on the card can do it (silicone lottery)

Plus if you want to watercool ref PCB is deffo the way forward

 

[Timeless]

I bought a reference 7970 because I'm going to hang it in my loop, no need to pay extra for a custom cooler I thought.
Installed it and first thing I hear while running Heaven is coil whine.
RMAd the card and got a new one, same problem (even worse).
RMA again and changed it for an ASUS DCII.
The reference design seems to have lots of problems with coil whine so if you really want to WC it/them I'd go custom PCB/cooler because they use better parts.

And like M&P said if you're not doing it for looks or have too much money don't do it cause you're not going to get much more performance out of Ivy and 1 or 2 7970s compared to the amount you have to spend.

edit: but like TTL said the biggest drawback when you go custom (besides price) is you need to get one that can be watercooled, only a few custom waterblocks available.

 

[Levent]

I'm not sure what you don't like about the DS3H? The z77 chipset has basically everything most people need and for you're overclock having a locked vcore won't be an issue. Getting the sabertooth is the other end of the scale - buying a lot of stuff you will probably never use.

Anyway, if you don't care for looks then I wouldn't bother spending the money on WC the cards. They run very cool on a third party air cooler - no need for water unless you like the look. I'd also suggest that you only need one 7970 unless you are gaming on three monitors.

in D3SH you cant change your Vcore also my motherboard is an production failure it restarts itself after 3 seconds(which is going to be refunded i believe) same on sleep/hibernate and i will need my pc running well quite a while i can say (3 Years to be exact)

Get a ref card. You dont need a custom PCB. The ref PCB is more than capable of 1300MHz if the actually core you get on the card can do it (silicone lottery)

Plus if you want to watercool ref PCB is deffo the way forward

i know about the silicone lottery which i surprisingly got lucky with my cheap Msi 7850 1gb version(it is stable at 1150Mhz in 62-63 degrees )i am thinking about cutting my case's top side to fit 3x140mm rad and another 3x140mm one at the area were is my hdd's and dvdrom is located or i just go hardcore get 3(Reference cards cheaper :notworthy: ) 3x140mm and make a rad sandwich place it where is the hdd and dvdrom(after cutting to fit it also got an unique idea about hdd placing)
edit:my motherboard is going to be refunded (confirmed by my distributor)

 

[Levent]

I bought a reference 7970 because I'm going to hang it in my loop, no need to pay extra for a custom cooler I thought.
Installed it and first thing I hear while running Heaven is coil whine.
RMAd the card and got a new one, same problem (even worse).
RMA again and changed it for an ASUS DCII.
The reference design seems to have lots of problems with coil whine so if you really want to WC it/them I'd go custom PCB/cooler because they use better parts.

And like M&P said if you're not doing it for looks or have too much money don't do it cause you're not going to get much more performance out of Ivy and 1 or 2 7970s compared to the amount you have to spend.

edit: but like TTL said the biggest drawback when you go custom (besides price) is you need to get one that can be watercooled, only a few custom waterblocks available.

woah i didnt knew they were coil whine issue on gfx cards but its ok for me i believe fans will suppress them :doublekiss:

 

[Master&Puppet]

in D3SH you cant change your Vcore also my motherboard is an production failure it restarts itself after 3 seconds(which is going to be refunded i believe) same on sleep/hibernate and i will need my pc running well quite a while i can say (3 Years to be exact)

edit:my motherboard is going to be refunded (confirmed by my distributor)

Ah, I thought you meant the whole series of boards was an issue. It's good that you got the refund The vcore control is nice to have.

I can also confirm the coil whine on these cards. I have two reference 7950s (both watercooled) and I actually toned down my overclocks because the whine became the loudest thing on my rig.

 

[Levent]

I can also confirm the coil whine on these cards. I have two reference 7950s (both watercooled) and I actually toned down my overclocks because the whine became the loudest thing on my rig.

i just checked how loud was it on youtube on my surround system maxed the sound didn't annoyed me but even so i can get used to it(had an old tv in my room for 4 years which made extremely annoying viiii at louder volume)
PS: DS3H also have coil whine and that makes way more than this card()

 

[Timeless]

It's annoying as hell lol especially if you're watercooling and have a near silent pc.
If some old piece of junk makes some weird noises ok but if I'm spending thousands on a big rig it's completely unacceptable to me.

And if your fans are louder as the coil whine I had you really need to change those fans haha.