Like this? (ENGT430 DC SL/DI/1GD3) http://usa.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/NVIDIA_Series/ENGT430_DC_SLDI1GD3/#specifications I don't know what "DirectCU" means. Do they have a fan on the top of the card, but only enclosed by an aluminum case? (The air pipe at the tail end... gotta serve a purpose.)
"Cu" is the chemical symbol for copper. Likely the heat sink has copper in contact with the GPU and that pipe is probably a "heat pipe". Didn't remember the passive 430 being an Asus model... thought it might be Zotac. Passmark of 695 is decent for a cheap, passive card unless it runs really hot. (My NVS 295s are only about 200 Passmark.)
Yes, decent. But a lot of the power for drawing 3D polygons with shading, shadows, translucence is used in drawing 2D candles with a flat red or green color. Okay maybe a white border too. LOL
Like this one? (ZOTAC GeForce GT 430 ZONE Edition Graphics adapter - 1 GB - DDR3 SDRAM ) http://www.google.com/products/cata...=X&ei=U4VFTsr1JcriiALLzLHaAQ&ved=0CBkQ8wIwAA# The passive cooling heatsink is humongous. Double slot-width for the card. (But same as the ASUS ENGT430... )
Bolimomo Just to be clear so there's no confusion, are you using the same box (case) for Box 1 & 2? Aren't you using the Antec P183 case? Do you use the same case fan set-ups? I bought one of these for my daughters and it's been moved dozens of times (dorms, apartment,house) and has held together for many years, it seems like a great case you might want to give one a try on your next i7 build, but as I recall it only comes with 1 small fan.
I am with Scataphagos. I have a few points: - The Intel i7-2600k chip is almost twice faster than this AMD chip. Unless you get a more comparable AMD model (I am not sure if they have it or what model number). I would bank on the Intel chip for my today's buck. In a year it may be different but who knows. - The graphics card is a humongous game card. You would have no need for it (no need to pay the higher price, nor would you need its graphics capability). And you wouldn't want a big, heat-generating + power-absorbing game card to compete with your CPU inside the chassis. Have them provide a low-end graphics card (e.g. NVidia 8600 GS or 9600 GT) http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi - Since you plan to do lots of numerical calculations, I would beef up on the RAM. 16GB or above. But it is predicated on the software whether it is capable of using the added memory. (Some old software won't/can't) - If you are number-crunching, you can definitely take advantage of a SSD. Costs more but worths it. (Instead of the graphics card which is >$100+ a piece on that model.) Or you can beef up on the RAM to do a RAM disk. That would be even faster than SSD. But the storage is temporary.
What are you doing? Stalking me? Do you index and bookmark everything I said??? LOL My 3 boxes are all Antec 300. Keep it simple. I like the simple box. So... Tiki uses P183. I didn't walk down the aisle at Fry's far enough! LOL. No actually Fry's doesn't carry it. They no sell, me no buy. So... Box 1 and 2 are identical in CPU: i7-930. I only use the Intel provided heatsink (the circular one). I was a cheap-bastard a year ago. With Box 3, CPU i7-950... which I regreted buying for not waiting for i7-2600k... I bought a CoolerMaster heatsink on it for 40 extra bucks. When I retire my 2 i7-930 boxes, I will ship them to you so your daughter can use them as toaster ovens! LOL
As I sit here waiting for ibuypower to get my rig fixed (they said there was a problem with BOTH the power supply and the CPU. Argh!) Anyhow, if I had it to do over again, I would have bought three 27" LCD backlight monitors, and mounted them on this for $70 in portrait mode. http://cgi.ebay.com/Triple-LCD-DESK...805?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5196ddb77d Eight 22"s on two Ergotron quad stands is more than I need for home. Yes, go ahead and say I told you so. Three nice 27"s could be purchased for less than a grand with the above stand. The above stand would give me the height I would want as well. Looks like if someone did what our resident bargain shoppers can do, you could have a nice 17-2600k setup with three large screens in portrait mode turn key for less than $2,000. Amazing! Yes, go ahead and kick me now.
Damn Boli , I need all the drawing power I can get my hands on. Did you ever see what one of these frekin JH. method charts look like by end of day ... Crap my cpu had to be overclocked to keep up with the madness... Lol __________________________ I still have not installed the power supply. This had been sidelined and will get back to it soon. If this does not work I wil be looking for advice again . http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=222322