9800SE -> Pro softmod - good idea?

[uberlad]

I think his point is that if I buy it from a shop and then it doesn't work I could take it back for a refund. Of course, most online retailers would charge me restocking .

Unfortunately the checking of prices indicates that buying it from a shop would only be good for the thrill of making the hardware sit up and beg - there's only £10 difference between a shop bought 9800SE and an internet bought 9800Pro.

Another quick question to keep the discussion going - if I'm going to overclock can anyone recommend after market cooling? Ideally single-slot-using cooling as I'm thinking about a SFF in the nearish future...

I don't ask much

Uberlad

[Paddy]

SLIGHT OT:

I havn't OC'd mine at all (other than the soft mod).

I need to cool the CPU and 9800 without creating too much noise. Iwas going to resort to water, but I have been saying that for the best part of 5years

What's your cooler of choice and why?

[Maggi]

Originally posted by J1NG
Uh? Maggi, you need the card to test with the softmod drivers to see if it'll run softmodded. How do try a card without shelling out money???

J1NG

ooops ... I was under the impression, Uberlad already had a 9800SE in his hands ...

[uberlad]

Nope - was floating the idea for feedback.

I have just found a 9800Pro for £133 delivered so I'm throwing caution to the winds and getting that instead of spening £110 on the SE.

Microdirect is selling it this cheap for those of you in the uk who want to know. Good feedback from users on the site about th card - would seem to be 256bit which is the most important thing.

Uberlad

[Paddy]

The AIW Hercules version is a pretty safe bet

[J1NG]

Mine's a AIW Hercules...

Softmodable, with artifacts...

Hope you have better luck than me if you do go this route.

J1NG

[Paddy]

Sorry to hear that J1NG.
The only AIW i've had that didn't softmod went bad after a few months. Hope that doesn't happen to you.

[J1NG]

If it does, it'll just be another excuse to grab the latest card. This time, a Firegl, or QuadroFX...

J1NG

[Paddy]

Well I'm sure that there will be a lot of people jumpig over to nVidia after the Doom3 Benchies.

[J1NG]

Doom 3 means nothing to me. I can't play the majority of 3D shooters. Doom (alphanumeric whatever), I simply can't play.

I'd go for Matrox if they had anything like the cards listed.

J1NG

[Paddy]

Sorry man, perhaps i should have inserted a after my previous post.

[Evildead666]

I bought a 9800SE and tried to soft-mod it. one of the pipes was defective, and gave me spots on some textures and rendering.
The9800pro was only a little more expensive, so i went and bought that finally. At least you are sure of having all 8 pipes working.

On top of that, i can only recommend the VGA silencer from Arctic-Cooling. It eats up a PCi slot, but you get what you need. The heatsink is huge, and the heat is vented directly out of the case. Its quiet.
And i got my Sapphire 9800pro from 380/325 core/mem to 425/390. Not at all bad. The memory is not cooled by heatsinks, but has a 80mm fan blowing on the card (from side panel).

I would leave out the 9800SE and get a 9800pro with a VGA Silencer. Unless you can wait for a next-gen mainstream card.

[uberlad]

I was looking at the arctic silencer. Although I was also looking at a SFF with the AGP slot in the wrong place for using it. I think I'll have to see how far the cashola stretches, and the overhead on the card.

Apart from the better design for airflow does the Arctic perform significantyly better than an all-copper single slot cooler? Does ahyone have any comparisons done on a 9800Pro or similar class?

Uberlad

[Evildead666]

Oh, forgot to mention, i also had a 9500pro (128bit mem) using another of these coolers, and believe it or not, the card hits 400MHz core stable. Thats from a 275MHz standard clock.

My thoughts? These heatsinks are overkill for the heat output generated by these cards. You would have to overvolt and such to actually get bad performance from an arctic colling HSF. And even then, who knows.
Its also available here in France for less than 20euros, thats under 15quid for some very quiet peace of mind.
Also, remember the heat is going OUT of the case. A single slot cooler would inherently recycle some of the expelled hot air, and so be less efficient. and heat up the rest of the system. The VGA Silencer, has nothing but the cool air from the front fan (if u have one).

Just to recap:
I have a 9500pro and 9800pro, all using VGA Silencers, and they are stable, very overclocked, and quiet. The coolers are cheap too.

Or wait, and get a mainstream next gen card. They seem to be all starting with 8 pipes...