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A very tough decision

Diddums

Diddums

Diddums

Caporegime
Joined
24 Oct 2012
Posts
26,632
Location
Yer nan's knickers
Hello!

I'm facing a bit of a predicament here, and hoping someone can add some thoughts to help me make up my mind.

I'm looking for an R9 290. Here are my options:

MSI Gaming Edition: £379.99 - Overdue, expected early next week.

Simple straight up. Pay and wait.

Powercolor PCS+: £379.99 - Expected 31/01/2014

Again, simply pay and wait. Three weeks is a long time though, and there's no guarantee it'll actually arrive on time.

Powercolor Reference board + Kraken G10 + H80: £388

This is the option that's throwing me the most. I can have a reference board delivered to me by Tuesday, and try it out before going down the aftermarket cooling route. Although the odds are very small, there is a possibility I could make do with the reference cooler, saving some cash in the process.

Of course this won't have the same quality components as the PCS+.

I could always add a Corsair H80 and a Kraken G10 to tame the card, but again, the components aren't as good as the ones on the PCS+. The G10, although on pre-order, also doesn't have an ETA yet so it could be a month. This option won't void the warranty, something I'm not keen on losing.




What would you guys do?

Having no experience with MSI, how would their components compare to the Powercolor PCS+? If they're just as good, I might just bite the bullet and order it, and spend the rest of my life playing the "what if" game.
 
I got an reference ASUS 290 yesterday, it's been mining for 18 Hrs out of the last 24 and I've set the FAN speed to 65% and it's reporting 77.0C and 825Kh/s average just now. Haven't overclocked it an anyway a bit noisy while mining but fine when playing far cry 3. I'd mentioned mining as you linked it from the other thread

For me I'd rather put the extra towards getting a second.
 
My system lives in my living room, so noise is a big issue. My wife would slaughter me if I spent all that cash on something which makes a racket.
 
As Archangel pointed out the Kraken is also not in stock and has no due date. If you are set on an R9 290 then you have no option but to wait. If you need a quiet and cool GPU now, then look no further than GTX780.
 
Probably more :D

I'm not worried about that though. I would've spent this on a new card for gaming at some point anyway and mining has sort of overtaken that as a hobby.

If it makes a penny or two then great, if not, it's still fun.


How are these Twin Frozr coolers? Last time I heard one I think it was a 5870 or something and it was loud.

Are the newer ones any better?
 
Thanks for the feedback guys, much appreciated. Looking forward to receiving it now.

Of course this adds a GTX 770 to my pile of unused parts, looks like I might have to pop my case modding cherry :D
 
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