St1ckM4n
Posts: 2,887 +628
As some of you may know, I recently purchased a new HD7970 card to replace my GTX295. Herein lies the aftermath of this decision.
I'm having morning tea at work and I receive a package. Excitedly, I open it up expecting something great - tadaaa! My Sapphire HD7970 has arrived!
I am excited for when I can get home and swap it out in my PC.
Once at home, I hurriedly open up the package, revealing the GPU sitting in a bubble-wrap antistatic bag. Clever. I flip it around and I notice a big STOP sticker on it, so I take a closer look.
At this stage I'm having something to eat, so I'm casually reading it, just because there's nothing else to do. I knew I'd need to connect the card to my PSU - nothing new here. I look closer at the specs... 1x4-pin "lolwtf, would that run?".. 2x8-pin???? I finish my food, open up the bag, and lo and behold there are x2 8-pin PSU connectors on the card. What. The. Hell.
This throws me back. I don't think I've seen a GPU in recent days that's reference-spec with x2 8-pins.. only the ARES and the like have had these I thought. I panic slightly as I go to my computer to open it up and take a look at my current connectors. I should be fine, GTX295 was a beast back in the day. Well, I better be fine, because my other PSU connectors are 200km away. I open up my case and I'm immediately let down - 6+8pin. Damn.
Slightly more panicked, I hop on the web to check out why the hell my card has two 8-pins. I look through a few reviews - all of them have 6+8 pin. The manufacturer website pictures show this too. Lol I must have a secret prototype. Defeated and none the wiser, I decide to deal with the PSU pins later.
I proceed to take out the existing card out of my CM Storm Scout case. I really like this case, with the carry handle and all, and the not-so-overly-big size. Mid-towers are neat. I plop the GTX295 on the bed next to the 7970 to 'compare sizes'.
Lolwut. The 7970 is big. Unexpectedly big. I am taken aback at the sheer girth of this thing. Ok I'll stop now. I pause, as I remember that my GTX295 barely fit into my case to begin with. To be honest, I didn't even consider the size - 295 was a behemoth and from review articles I got the thought that current-gen cards are smaller. Plus, 7970 is single-GPU... I check my case, double-check with the old card inserted. Yup, the 7970 is too big. Too big by exactly the red rectangle.
I inspect the card - it's got the plastic shroud on it, angled in a funny way. I guess it looks cool. But what a stupid retarded decision, to make it stick out so much. I look at the back - it's just plastic, all the cables and screws stop at the boundary of the PCB. Haha, it would actually be pretty easy to just use a hacksaw and get rid of this extra bit.
Hacksaw and get rid of..
Hacksaw..
Saw..
Knife..
Knife to get rid of...
I have a serrated kitchen knife. This is the closest thing I have to a saw at this moment. Being the utter genius I am, I decide to give the knife a shot. I put the card on the kitchen bench, line up with the knife and start cutting. Five minutes later, it hits me: I have a $400 brand new component on my kitchen bench, with a kitchen knife in it. I don't even know if the card works at this stage - it could be DOA! The warranty is probably void at this point. Incoming paperweight...?
Whatever. Too late to back out now. I risk it and keep cutting. 20 minutes later, I get tired of this - it's really really hard work. I look around the house and I have no other tools to help me out. Realising I have a small tiny pair of pliers at work, I drive over and pick them up (it's 20 mins return, easy). I come back to the card, looking at it, look at pliers. Back at card. This is a big risk. If I use pliers to try and pry a piece of plastic off, the whole shroud could shatter, leaving one or both fans useless. Whatever man, I'm out of warranty anyway, too late for this. I tentatively grip a piece of plastic at the top that had a decent cut in it. With the smoothest of possible actions, I lever it away from the card.
It's bending. WHAT. The plastic is actually bending. I realise it's one of those plastics, where it's almost as if it hasn't set fully yet. It's bendable and pretty much shears off, instead of snapping into little pieces. This method is so damn easy, that I take five minutes to omnomnom the side of the shroud into a crude line. Whatever, I don't care about sharp edges, this'll do.
I shove the card into my case. Well, by shove, I mean 'place in my case with the utmost care in order to not damage my other expensive components'. Looking at the totally forgotten x2 8-pin connectors, I give up and just connect the existing 6+8pin. After all this effort, you'll boot up, card, or I'll destroy your soul. I make sure everything is plugged in, whack cover door back on, connect the power. It boots.
The rest of the story is nothing special. I installed the drivers, everything went smoothly. The card idles at 31C, which is the coolest component in my case. Under load it's 54C, which is the point at which my GTX295 idled. It's quiet at load - 35% fan speed. An excellent card. But, whats the story with the x2 8-pin connectors?
tl;dr: herpty derpty shmurp, check your card length guys.
I'm having morning tea at work and I receive a package. Excitedly, I open it up expecting something great - tadaaa! My Sapphire HD7970 has arrived!
I am excited for when I can get home and swap it out in my PC.Once at home, I hurriedly open up the package, revealing the GPU sitting in a bubble-wrap antistatic bag. Clever. I flip it around and I notice a big STOP sticker on it, so I take a closer look.
At this stage I'm having something to eat, so I'm casually reading it, just because there's nothing else to do. I knew I'd need to connect the card to my PSU - nothing new here. I look closer at the specs... 1x4-pin "lolwtf, would that run?".. 2x8-pin???? I finish my food, open up the bag, and lo and behold there are x2 8-pin PSU connectors on the card. What. The. Hell.
This throws me back. I don't think I've seen a GPU in recent days that's reference-spec with x2 8-pins.. only the ARES and the like have had these I thought. I panic slightly as I go to my computer to open it up and take a look at my current connectors. I should be fine, GTX295 was a beast back in the day. Well, I better be fine, because my other PSU connectors are 200km away. I open up my case and I'm immediately let down - 6+8pin. Damn.
Slightly more panicked, I hop on the web to check out why the hell my card has two 8-pins. I look through a few reviews - all of them have 6+8 pin. The manufacturer website pictures show this too. Lol I must have a secret prototype. Defeated and none the wiser, I decide to deal with the PSU pins later.
I proceed to take out the existing card out of my CM Storm Scout case. I really like this case, with the carry handle and all, and the not-so-overly-big size. Mid-towers are neat. I plop the GTX295 on the bed next to the 7970 to 'compare sizes'.
Lolwut. The 7970 is big. Unexpectedly big. I am taken aback at the sheer girth of this thing. Ok I'll stop now. I pause, as I remember that my GTX295 barely fit into my case to begin with. To be honest, I didn't even consider the size - 295 was a behemoth and from review articles I got the thought that current-gen cards are smaller. Plus, 7970 is single-GPU... I check my case, double-check with the old card inserted. Yup, the 7970 is too big. Too big by exactly the red rectangle.
I inspect the card - it's got the plastic shroud on it, angled in a funny way. I guess it looks cool. But what a stupid retarded decision, to make it stick out so much. I look at the back - it's just plastic, all the cables and screws stop at the boundary of the PCB. Haha, it would actually be pretty easy to just use a hacksaw and get rid of this extra bit.
Hacksaw and get rid of..
Hacksaw..
Saw..
Knife..
Knife to get rid of...
I have a serrated kitchen knife. This is the closest thing I have to a saw at this moment. Being the utter genius I am, I decide to give the knife a shot. I put the card on the kitchen bench, line up with the knife and start cutting. Five minutes later, it hits me: I have a $400 brand new component on my kitchen bench, with a kitchen knife in it. I don't even know if the card works at this stage - it could be DOA! The warranty is probably void at this point. Incoming paperweight...?
Whatever. Too late to back out now. I risk it and keep cutting. 20 minutes later, I get tired of this - it's really really hard work. I look around the house and I have no other tools to help me out. Realising I have a small tiny pair of pliers at work, I drive over and pick them up (it's 20 mins return, easy). I come back to the card, looking at it, look at pliers. Back at card. This is a big risk. If I use pliers to try and pry a piece of plastic off, the whole shroud could shatter, leaving one or both fans useless. Whatever man, I'm out of warranty anyway, too late for this. I tentatively grip a piece of plastic at the top that had a decent cut in it. With the smoothest of possible actions, I lever it away from the card.
It's bending. WHAT. The plastic is actually bending. I realise it's one of those plastics, where it's almost as if it hasn't set fully yet. It's bendable and pretty much shears off, instead of snapping into little pieces. This method is so damn easy, that I take five minutes to omnomnom the side of the shroud into a crude line. Whatever, I don't care about sharp edges, this'll do.
I shove the card into my case. Well, by shove, I mean 'place in my case with the utmost care in order to not damage my other expensive components'. Looking at the totally forgotten x2 8-pin connectors, I give up and just connect the existing 6+8pin. After all this effort, you'll boot up, card, or I'll destroy your soul. I make sure everything is plugged in, whack cover door back on, connect the power. It boots.
The rest of the story is nothing special. I installed the drivers, everything went smoothly. The card idles at 31C, which is the coolest component in my case. Under load it's 54C, which is the point at which my GTX295 idled. It's quiet at load - 35% fan speed. An excellent card. But, whats the story with the x2 8-pin connectors?
tl;dr: herpty derpty shmurp, check your card length guys.
![hellokitty[hk]](/community/data/avatars/m/169/169488.jpg?1355088591){kind=avatar}
