One more link on the 970 ---

http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-vows-to-boost-geforce-gtx-970-performance-with-driver-update/

Jafo

reply 44

Quoting starkers,

reply 43

Quoting Jafo,

reply 42

Remember my golden rule....when first you power up close your eyes and put your fingers in your ears.

So what do you use to push the power button with your fingers in your ears? 

I suppose a big toe would suffice.

Unlike you I have more than one finger on each hand....

Oh i have ALL my fingers... AND thumbs.... but I'm thinking if I have a finger of each hand in each ear, then it brings my head ever-so close to that 'potential' explosion if I use a spare finger to press the button.... hence the big toe idea.... provides a bit of distance and could prevent 'potential' concussion.

The better idea is a set of industrial strength ear muffs and a long, long broomstick mounted on a mechanical device that allows you to press the button from the next room.... and if at first you don't hear a big bang [because of the ear muffs], you sniff to smell smoke..  If all's clear you go back into the room and start loading the OS, etc.

However, I don't know that ID will need to take such precautions.  He built his last rig and it lasted 7 years... so he must be doing something right.

Nah, the only person who puts his fingers in his ears is a novice or first time builder... or somebody who isn't entirely confident in his PC building ability.

That's interesting regarding the GTX970.  When I begin to build my next machine I'll have to keep this in mind, given I had considered a 970 as a graphics solution.

I haven't heard of anyone having actual issues because of it (self included), just in synthetic vram benchmarks. Still, nVidia should not be advertising it as a 4GB card when the upper 512MB runs barely faster than system memory. They should have advertised it appropriately (3.5GB with 512MB of supercache!) or just disabled it entirely.

Annoyingly, they are only offering refunds (and a promise of drivers that handle the design better), which puts folks without a video card for whatever time and means buying a more expensive model (or AMD) to get what is actually advertised. They should be comping folks with a retroactive discount for this fiasco.

Kinda glad I went for the 980 ...

 Another update ;

http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/anton-shilov/nvidia-we-will-not-boost-geforce-gtx-970-performance-with-drivers/

 I don't think anyone knows how they are going to correct this fiasco.

The 970 is still a fantastic card for the price and should hold up for a a few years at the least.  Most people wouldn't have even realized or noticed the memory issue.  Not saying what they did is right, but it's a non-issue for me.

Otherwise, some other notes on my build:

I was going to get at least a 2TB hard drive, but Best Buy had a faster 1TB on sale for $39, and that was too good to pass up.  I'd rather have a faster drive than settle for a slower one with a bit more capacity.

I also found a 256GB SSD on sale for about $90 which was also a great price, and makes my above point even more.

Switched from a small water cooler to a fan cooler. Not overclocking and don't intend to.  Could have gotten away with stock cooler, but a $30 investment is a good fan cooler is a smart move I think.

Some of these changes allowed me to save a nice bit of money without giving up any performance.

Updated with build pics.

Island Dog

reply 53

Updated with build pics.

Yeah, very nice... very nice indeed.  I have to say, that is a very nice looking case, too... compact yet roomy through a great design.

So with that case and those components you should have a great PC experience for years to come.  Congrats.

Nice cable management.