jomoreb

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Hello there...am about to build a PC for a client and just wanted to get so opinion on which Video card to use. I have read a few reviews but none seem to address my concerns. Okay the 2 cards am considering are these 2:
EVGA 02G-P3-1568-KR GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

MSI N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II 2GD5/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Now I would like to know if anyone feels one is better than the other and why if possible. Also am getting two of them which am going to setup for sli...I read somewhere that the TWIN FROZR II having metal casing is a terrible idea and having two of them in a system is not a good idea..is that true?

The rest of the specs is as follows
Case:
COOLER MASTER COSMOS II RC-1200-KKN1 Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Motherboard:
ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Power Supply
Rosewill HIVE Series HIVE-650 650W Continuous @40°C, 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified, Modular Design, Single +12V Rail, ATX12V v2.31/EPS12V v2.92, SLI Ready, CrossFire Ready, Active-PFC Power Supply

CPU:
Intel Core i7-990X Extreme Edition Gulftown 3.46GHz LGA 1366 130W Six-Core Desktop Processor

SOLID STATE DRIVE:
Mushkin Enhanced Callisto Deluxe MKNSSDCL120GB-DX 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Memory"
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 24GB (6 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory

Hard Drive:
Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

Blu Ray Drive
LG Black 10X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal 12X Internal Blu-ray Drive 3D Playback & M-DISC Support Model UH12LS29 LightScribe Support

OS
Windows 7 Home

any input is highly welcome
 
Solution

Most people don't know or try it, but you can use the first and third physical PCIe 16x slots on the X58...
I would recommend a Radeon 7850 over a GTX 560 TI 2GB. It's a little faster, similar in price, uses less power, has the same amount of memory, and has better multi-GPU scaling, among other less significant differences.

It would also be more future proofed because games are getting more reliant on compute performance as time goes on and although the 560 TI has decent compute performance, the 7850 is far ahead of it in compute performance.

Considering that you have a mere 650w PSU with an X58 system, the reduced power usage could extend the life and stability of your power supply unit as well as be a better graphics card. Also, your links don't work. Delete everything before the http in each link and they should work. That's what I did to them to get them to work.

I'm not sure about a metal case being a problem... I suppose that it would be less forgiving of electrical shock damage, but it would also be more enduring and shouldn't flop around as much as a card with a plastic or other type of casing. Technically, it shouldn't be a problem for electrical damage so long as system is properly grounded.
 

FtsArTek

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Well, I would say the 7850 without a doubt unless you use anything with Cuda, PhysX, or OpenGL (nVidia cards are far better with OpenGL) As for a Twin Frozr II... I can't see why that'd be a problem, I've seen plenty of computers with those in them, and no problems have occured. Two of my HD6950s are metal and they're in CFX.
 

jomoreb

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thanks for the replies...i too would prob go with the Radeon 7850...but my customer wants the GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 2GB...customer is always right... lol....some of the comments I read says the twin frozr is just amazing but I was concerned about the metal thing since am going to have both in there...wouldnt want it over heating.
So you gus think I should be okay with the 2 twin frozr II?
 
Since your client wants an enthusiast build, I'd be inclined to go with a LGA2011/X79 build with an i7 3930k (~$600) and save your client some cash while still providing the 6-core they may be looking for and additional performance in multi-threaded apps. Check out the review vs. the 990X ($1000+):

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i7-3930k-3820-test-benchmark,3090-15.html
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/intel_core_i7-3930k_review/4

Additionally, the 3930k performs a little bit better in gaming situations.

I'm sure your client would appreciate the cost savings or the flexibility to then go for a GTX 580 or GTX 680 and still come in spending less.

It just doesn't make sense right now to build a 1366/X58 build at this time unless you have some left over parts from which to build the system for this person.

Further, if this person is an overclocker, there's a lot more headroom for it with these newer tech processors.
 

jomoreb

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are you saying the 650 psu is a good thing or a bad thing...should I go higher?
 



I'm not saying that it's a good or a bad thing, I'm just saying that you don't want to overload it. It's usually best to keep a PSU between 50% and 80% loaded when it's in use and a 560 TI in an X58 or X79 system could be getting too close to the upper limits. Some PSUs can handle even greater wattage than their maximum rated wattage and for pretty long times, but most can't. In fact, many PSUs can't even reach their maximum rated wattage in real world usage without losing stability.

Also, ubercake is right, if it is a six core Intel platform that is requested, then the X79 would be both a cheaper and higher performance option.

If your client wants a ridiculously powerful Nvidia gaming build, then tell your client that he/she should get a GTX 680 instead of dual 560 TI 2GBs. The 680 will cost about the same, but have significantly higher performance and have so much less power usage that it could almost pay for itself over a few years of heavy usage in the electricity bill.

If CUDA is on the mind, then stick with the Fermi cards.
 
Also, don't get me wrong, me loves me X58/1366. I haven't thrown anything at it that it can't handle and the good old i7 960 doesn't bottleneck anything I do. And further, the 990X is an incredible processor. But how can they charge over $1000 for a 990X and justify it when a 3930K with newer technology and better performance is half the price ? Is the 990X collectors' item or something?

Like I said, you could take the $500 you save on the cost of the processor, get a GTX 680 and a little bit beefier power supply (i.e. Corsair HX 850).
 

bacole08

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Carefull SLIing the MSI Twin Frozr 560ti's since that card is a non-reference based card. Having two of these cards will exhaust the hot air into the case. Just make sure you have adequate top exhaust fan(s).

The EVGA is a reference based card so you should have no problem with heat having two of these next to each other.

I'd double check the power requirements for SLIing these cards with a Rosewill 650W PSU. You might be ok, but it's worth a little bit of extra research.

What does your client wish to accomplish with this PC you're building? That might affect some of our recommendations. Gaming, video editing, etc?
 

jomoreb

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Lol ...Right when I was just about to sign off on the Twin Frozr, here you come with your cautions and warnings...
 

Most people don't know or try it, but you can use the first and third physical PCIe 16x slots on the X58 boards. If you do this, your cards will run PCIe 2 @8x/8x just like 1155 motherboards (without additional PCIe controllers), but will give the cards the separation they need to keep the temperature of each card lower by about 10C each.

Since there's no video card out yet that requires more bandwidth than 8 lanes of PCIe 2.0, it works great.
 
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jomoreb

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Actually that was what I was thinking about doing...and am seeing a good X79 EXTREME7 LGA 2011 mb that can handle that...soo are we all atleast agreeing TWIN FROZR is the way to go?
 

bacole08

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I think you might need to reconsider the PSU: Rosewill HIVE Series HIVE-650 650W only has 2 PCI-E connectors. The 560ti come with molex to PCI-E convertors but then you would need 4 molex connetors to run the second card. I'm assuming you're running air and have several fans for the case to keep both cards and the CPU cool, therefore your power connectors are becoming slim. A single card req. 550W of power. I'm hesitant to say you're be "ok" running two cards under load.
 
That Corsair HX 850 I recommended earlier is a good on as well as a TX, or AX. Depends on the budget.

Also, if you could get your hands on one, you could go with the GTX 680 rather than the two 560s and get better performance. And like I said, if you go with the X79/3930K build, this will be cost effective compared with the X58/990X build.
 

bacole08

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Fans draw a little power (~4W depends on the type), but you also need to factor in the hard drive, CPU, mobo, etc...I think if you want to run an 560ti SLI system then you'd be safe with a good quality 850W PSU.

Corsair, Antec, and Seasonic are the top PSU manufacturers from what I have read. I second ubercake's recomendation for the Corsair HX850.