Choices To many Choices Which Brand ???

[SGTDRE]

My current rig that I am fixing up here and there and optimizing, will be given to my Daughters. That I'm also getting assistance on here.

I am in the process of building a new rig that I put on hold Late last year. Now that I can get back to getting it built, I already Bought.

MoBo: Asus Rampage II Extreme
Case: Black Pearl Water Cooling Edition
HDD: #1 Will Be the New Raptor
HDD: #2 Is a 1Tb Caviar Green Already Have
Graphics: ATI Cross Fire 5870, well that is my thinking that is.
Reason being, to try and Future proof as much as possible, Considering the way things change so fast. From what I have read and understand correctly, it supports DX 9 & 10 but will Be DX 11, that is if I'm not completely confused already.

I will be Water Cooling, well that is what I want to do, the Graphics cards as well, But that also brings up the issue of Warranty. I have already Decided that I will be doing two Independent loops. (1)For the CPU / North Bridge? (2)for Graphics

And from past Research, Vision tech has a Life Time Warranty, but if the stock cooler is removed that is Voided.
And from what I was told at the local Micro Center & only Computer store in my area. And what I have found around the net, XFX also made a good product and as far as water cooling was concerned, it was not a problem removing the the stock cooler. I have sent a e-mail to XFX but have yet to hear from them. I was also told that XFX had a problem and pulled the 58xx line due to issues with the Card's?

Then i see many others Buying Asus, Gigabyte, while other say BFG or Diamond, but Diamond has very poor Tech support as I have heard. And then there is Sapphire Tech, I always bought ATI Cards Right from the ATI store, yeah i may have paid a bit more but at least they always gave pretty good Tech support for the product. But now they no longer sell the newer Cards, so I have to choose between the other manufactures. But with so many I have been having a hard time making up my mind, I was thinking of Going with XFX but with all the info that is out there.

I'm just like the title says going trying to figure out what brand to go with, should just do the eny Minny Moe catch Card by the cord

Any info, Ideas, Tips, Suggestions, would greatly helpful.
Is one better than the other, Does one have better tech support than another. Or Will I just void the Warranty regardless of brand by going water cooling.



Thank you
SGTDRE

[Dyre Straits]

Hope your questions don't get scattered all over the board in various threads. It would be better to keep things nice and neat in one place.

Be that as it may:

In the past, I've been a big fan of the Built By ATI cards. The past three, however, have been partner cards.

I've had 2 made by VisionTek, and my current one is a Diamond Multimedia branded card. I've had very good luck with all three. The first VT card, a HD2600XT, is now owned and operated by my younger son, a 30-something adult. The HD 3870 is in my 2nd rig, and I presently am using the DM card, a HD4770, in my main W7 x64 rig.

I did read a while back that VT is having some problems. I haven't heard any updates on that situation in a few months now. But, everyone is struggling in this present economy anyway. So, yeah, you may just want to do a coin toss and let it fly with that. LOL!

If you're not going to go get this card tomorrow, you may want to wait for a few people here to respond with RMA experiences. I've only had one RMA with a ATI card and that was centuries ago.

One thing, though, that I prefer, is to get my card off the shelf at the local retailer. AND, Micro Center is my place of choice, too.

Cheers!

[bill dennison]

xfx if your going to pull the cooler and go water, they don't void warranty with cooler changes
or wait for powercolor's one with a ek waterblock on it

[Pepsin]

Aren't all cards made by one or a couple of card manufacturers anyway and then HIS, XFX etc. buy the finished cards and package them? I thought only the sticker, bundle and warranty differs between brands?

[bill dennison]

the first ones that come out yes i think so
then the partners will make there own oc'ed and ones with there own coolers elc..

[moshpit]

I'm not fond of the Diamond Radeon 5870's. I'm very fond of the HIS version though.

[SGTDRE]

First I want to thank all that have replied so far.
And no I'm not in a big rush, I will being doing some major Modding to the case to make everything fit nice & neat {As I will be going with (2) 360 Rads} as well as make it look good. My last rig I rushed in to building it. This time I am taking my time doing as much research as I can and going water Cooling is a Big Leap for me, so I want to get it right.

But with all the different branded cards and Not being able to Get the Card Directly from the ATI/AMD Store, as I have check & tried to, well they do have Refurbished, But I'm staying away from that.

And hearing from all as to why you like the Brand that you decided to go with is Very much Helpful as go about this Build.

SGTDRE

Originally Posted by Dyre Straits

Hope your questions don't get scattered all over the board in various threads. It would be better to keep things nice and neat in one place.

Be that as it may:

In the past, I've been a big fan of the Built By ATI cards. The past three, however, have been partner cards.

I've had 2 made by VisionTek, and my current one is a Diamond Multimedia branded card. I've had very good luck with all three. The first VT card, a HD2600XT, is now owned and operated by my younger son, a 30-something adult. The HD 3870 is in my 2nd rig, and I presently am using the DM card, a HD4770, in my main W7 x64 rig.

I did read a while back that VT is having some problems. I haven't heard any updates on that situation in a few months now. But, everyone is struggling in this present economy anyway. So, yeah, you may just want to do a coin toss and let it fly with that. LOL!

If you're not going to go get this card tomorrow, you may want to wait for a few people here to respond with RMA experiences. I've only had one RMA with a ATI card and that was centuries ago.

One thing, though, that I prefer, is to get my card off the shelf at the local retailer. AND, Micro Center is my place of choice, too.

Cheers!

[moshpit]

Since your in the US, zipzoomfly keeps pretty good stock of the HIS cards. Also, Tigerdirect gets alot of the Sapphires in pretty quickly.

[SGTDRE]

Yeah I forgot about ZipzoomFly, I used them when I built my current rig.

But what Brand do you Refer or would consider and why?

Originally Posted by moshpit

Since your in the US, zipzoomfly keeps pretty good stock of the HIS cards. Also, Tigerdirect gets alot of the Sapphires in pretty quickly.

[kn00tcn]

a lot of the (reference) brands arent much different than each other

there may be more risky ones to avoid, like maybe diamond

water blocks exist for 5870?
refurbished 5870s are already readily available?

[SGTDRE]

yeah but just how Reliable are the Refurbished cards, because that just makes me just a bit leary, with all the what if's & if the worst happens then having to deal with such an issue.

Originally Posted by kn00tcn

a lot of the (reference) brands arent much different than each other

there may be more risky ones to avoid, like maybe diamond

water blocks exist for 5870?
refurbished 5870s are already readily available?

[moshpit]

HIS, Sapphire, or XFX are the ones to look for.

[Crisler]

The name brands are great if you want a none standard baord but for reference builds the brand has much less bearing. I am using a Gigbyte 5850 and it is a rock solid card. I have an MSI 4850 that is actually better than most big name brands.

[Skynet]

I have an MSI 5870 and it seems like a very solid card. They claim to use industrial quality chokes and caps, don't know how true that is. I don't know if all the reference cards are using essentially the same components or not.

The cooling solution is GREAT, love it. Best yet for a reference design. In a case with decent airflow, the card is completely inaudible.

[Sasquach]

I have an Asus 5870, only cuz it was the only one available when i went to purchase it.....

[dmanna]

Originally Posted by Sasquach

I have an Asus 5870, only cuz it was the only one available when i went to purchase it.....

Do you not like Asus or somethin? You sound dissapointed? I have had ATI, HIS, Saphire and... I forget what my 9600 pro was lol. But none of them have given me any issues. Atleast none that I know of. The only ones I dont want to buy are Diamond, visiontek, and power color. And there is absolutly no reason why, I just dont want those brands lol.

Whats wrong with MSI? I have had good experiances with both asus and msi atleast with mobo's.

[Sasquach]

Originally Posted by dmanna

Do you not like Asus or somethin? You sound dissapointed? I have had ATI, HIS, Saphire and... I forget what my 9600 pro was lol. But none of them have given me any issues. Atleast none that I know of. The only ones I dont want to buy are Diamond, visiontek, and power color. And there is absolutly no reason why, I just dont want those brands lol.

Whats wrong with MSI? I have had good experiances with both asus and msi atleast with mobo's.

Nothing against asus, my laptop is asus.

Its just that this card is relatively expensive and i wanted a Sapphire one so i could get 2 games which would ease the justification for purchasing it lol.

[SGTDRE]

WoW thank you all for your input on this and it gives something to think about. And If I'm going to go water, I will have to really think of the Warranty issue, and so far XFX is the only one that will not make an issue of it, if the Stock cooler is removed. But I must Give a big Kudos to the Air Cooling HSF I have now on 2900 XT, It really is outstanding for Air Cooling.
I know this a GPU Thread But
But The Cooler Master V10 Blows me away at the way it keps the CPU temps
Down.

So I looks like it is a toss up between. Sapphire, XFX, MSI

"kn00tcn" I forgot to answer this question the last time, So far I found this one 5870 water Block But I'm sure there will be more coming out.

"Sasquach"
How is that Asus Card working fer ya, I was actually thinking of it. at one point, But again I am thinking of the Warranty issue if I go water Cooling.

SGTDRE

[Melchior]

Originally Posted by Sasquach

Nothing against asus, my laptop is asus.

Its just that this card is relatively expensive and i wanted a Sapphire one so i could get 2 games which would ease the justification for purchasing it lol.

I know how that feels, when I was shopping for my 5770 I knew I was going xfx, but I was tempted by some of the other brands since xfx comes with Battleforge, which is probably the least interesting of the current bundled games. Since at launch all the cards are the same except perhaps for the heatsink, there's no reason except warranty to not get the one with the best bundle.

[kn00tcn]

not only 'not interesting', the game is free

[Melchior]

Yeah, just saying, instead of getting a bundled game I might actually enjoy playing(dirt2 or hawx or whatever), I ended up going for the lifetime warranty (xfx) with battleforge... I haven't looked at the included discs or if there's just a voucher or something, if I can I'll be giving my copy away so someone can appreciate it.

[kn00tcn]

i meant battleforge itself is free, not that you got it bundled (you got a free game bundled, as opposed to a $50 game bundled)

unless the disc version has some usable points/ingame currency... (i hear the game is hard if you totally play it free without getting any micropurchases)

[Melchior]

OH! I never bothered to look at the prices, I see it on steam for 19.99, I thought this was some new version (ala dirt 2) or something, Even if it's a 20 dollar game instead of free, it's a lame bundle. If xfx didn't have the best rep for warranty service I'd have grabbed an HIS or something (I got spooked by my powercolor 4850 issues last year) .