First let me say that I;m new here although I've lurked for a month or two prior to today's post. Like alot of folks I've been attempting to choose a good mid-range VGA card for a least a year and largely based on the bit-tech review of the passively cooled Gigabyte Radeon 4850 I was all set to pull the trigger. I only needed a few more pieces of info to seal the deal with Newegg. My system is mATX DG33TL housed in a lian-li V300; so I needed firm dimensions. This proved harder than I imagined. I made my first inquiry with Gigabyte who gave me metric dimensions of 241X111.15. Cool doing the conversion was simple enough roughly 9.5X4.5 inchs. My finger tightened on the trigger of that "add to cart" rifle. Then I wondered if they took in consideration the added size of the Multi-Core Cooler. I wrote this time to Newegg(don't know why I just didn't re-write Gigaybyte). They responded that he card was 13.13 length, 9.44 wide and 2.31 height (inchs). WTF! That can't be right. Finally-- I can't stand the pressure and loaded the shopping cart page, ready to do the damn thing! Only to discover that GV-R485MC-1GH...has been deactivated A week later they present the GVR-485MC-1GI which is similiar-- but missing a lot of the chokes, mosfets and TV-Out of the 1GH. It's cheaper a least but now the question of what else is different about the card jumps into my caffeinated brain, this along with the original question about the exact dimensions. Can anyone help me? I know I've got to mod the V300 to get the card in lengths of 10 inches are doable, but the absolute height is 5 inches. 1GH seems like it's on the way out. I can live with the features of the newer 1GI though especialy since they added a native HDMI port. But I'm concerned that this card is Gigabytes attempt at recouping on a bad investment. Somebody talk me down!
It looks like the "I" flavour of the card is just another revision, I highly doubt it will be slower or missing any main features. They probably slashed off the TV out in order to save some power/costs/card real estate. The "H" version is very slightly overclocked and the "I" may not be. If you can spare 10 minutes of your life you can get it to the same overclock and save yourself some dosh and not have the added TV out feature which you don't need.
Thanks Matticus! I feel better already. I'd been comparing the two cards so closely that I felt something really nice must have been cut from the 1GI. What's your thought on the height of this card. 4.5 inchs seems about right; but Newegg has a "Limited Non-Refundable 30-day Policy." In other words love it or sell it on Craigslist!
Well another email to Gigabyte and another convoluted answer! However I got them to write more than a sentence (though poorly constructed). They suggest since they don't have my case that I look at other cards. Would any of the bit-tech reviewers please PM me with the height of this card.
So Close! Gigabyte has really been making the effort to answer my question. Again please just send me the height measurement of the card. Here's there response. http://cid-1c43a641111bb1ba.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Gigaybyte%20Gv-R485MC/cimg0832.jpg It looks like 5 inches, although considering the bracket and the slot pins it might be more like 4 3/8. Damn I wish I didn't love this card!
I want to find out to. Yeah I can go up to 5 inches myself. Was that measurement counting the bracket or not? I need.to know from the bottom of the pci connector to the top of the heat sink.
Sorry for the delay in replying (finally getting a chance to play ME). With respect to your question, no the measurement is from the PCB of the mobo to the bottom of the HDD cage (I'm using LL PC-V300). I've been waiting for this card to for so long I almost forgot why I wanted it! I finally gave up on the R485MC and scored the R48OC. Pre-OC @700Mhz and still with 1 GB of Gddr3. Makes my 24" LCD very happy. As for me I can easily say...I know what a Dremel is!
I pulled the trigger! It is about 4.70 - 4.75 inches. It fits fine in my case. I can't play with it yet though cuz my DDR3 Ram I bought was bad. Oh well will have to wait a little longer.
Bummer! Hope you didn't buy the Ram for TigerDirect; the RMA could make you homicidal. On a happy note the Gigabyte Radeon I settled on (R48OC) is working like a champ. The Zalman Cooler isn't as bad as I feared. Although my last radeon, 9800 Pro, worked fine to before the memory crapped out. I swore I would never buy another. Update this thread when you get up and running. I still want to know how it performs, BTW what case are you using?
Pegasus, you bought an aftermarket GFX cooler? Is that what you mean by the Zalman cooler? If so, can you link me? Just so I can see it Good to hear it fits in the case
Still waiting on my RAM. NewEgg just got the RMA. Well hopefully soon I'll RAM that works. \ I got an nMEDIAPC case to game and run media center. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811204032 Overall I like it. I'll know better when I get my RAM so I can test temps, etc. Heres the pics so far of my i7 build http://www.flickr.com/photos/flagrant99/sets/72157614365393486/
Wow. That case is tight! It looks strictly mATX--yet can accept ATX mobos. Newegg customer service has impressed me over the years so I'm sure you'll be running with the bulls in no time! Considering your components though aren't you concerned that your building a toaster-- looks awfully hard to cool. This is my only concern with i7--not enough air-cooling solutions that don't require a large case.
Yeah it is going to be challenging to keep cool. Especially since I want it to be quiet. I'm hoping lots of low rpm fans will do the job. My ram is out for delivery today, so I'll be playing this weekend.
Timing is everything. I just finished my second pass at Mass Effect and now i'm into Crysis. Man... I'm gaming like a starving dog. The R485OC rocks so hard. I have to remind myself that I still have a family to support and a job to go to. With my headphones on I don't even hear the fans in my system. It does get warm though but not as bad as i thought it would be just a tad over 65 C on full load--and this temp was taken after a 2 hours of Crysis at 1280X1024. Have fun this weekend you earned it--just don't fry your rig in the process!
Well my RAM is all good now and passes memtest and prime95 passes @ stock. My cpu cores never went over 63 celsius @stock. I got something like 12750 with 3dmark06. I think my gpu temps at idle showed something like 37 celsius. I was going to have fun and start Overclocking the CPU, I want 3.2 GHZ, but my hard drive started clicking and fails the seatools tests. Gotta RMA the HD back to newegg. Guess I'll have to wait some more.
Bummer! What make drive were you using? Good looking benchies though; I should see what my rig could do. OC'ing your i7 should be easy, if what others have been reporting is true. I'm a little frustrated with my Intel mobo, but I don't want to jump on Nehalem just yet. There are two mATX X58 mobo in the pipe so far I want to see how they are recieved first. I've been feeling a little guilty lately. I justify my computer use for business as well as gaming so when I spend hugh sums of cash on anything that doesn't have some tangible ROI (return on investment) I feel like an egotistical pervert. On the other hand having a decent multi purpose rig is usually all I strive for. Damn this recession is forcing reality down my throat!
I was using Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB . I ened up sending it back and got a Western Digital Caviar Green WD15EADS 1.5TB. This time I tested the crap out of my drive before installing the OS. The WD seems solid so far! I added pics of my case as well. http://www.flickr.com/photos/flagrant99/sets/72157614365393486/detail/ I got to 3.2 GHz easily. I found that setting CPU Ratio Setting 20 and bumping my BCLK Frequency to 160 gave me 3.2 GHz on my CPU with NO required increase in voltage or temps. This is a clear no brainer. The speed of the RAM is a different story, I have DDR-3 1866MHz RAM. So with a BCLK Frequency of 160 I have two decent choices for RAM speed that fall below this 1866MHz. DDDR3-1282MHz or DDDR3-1600MHz. When I bump it up to DDDR3-1600MHz my temps do rise 3 celsius. I guess it's because the Memory controller is in the CPU now. I'll probably end up sticking with the lower ram speed cuz I want to lower my fan speeds next. I don't want it to sound like a jet engine. As far as a mATX X58 mobo this one looks pretty good. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136066
I've heard a lot of comments on Seagate drive firmware issues; I recently got a 500Gb one to pair with a WD of the same capacity. So far so good, although I haven't setup the raid just yet. As for those mATX boards-- Asus just dropped the Rampage GENE ll on us and it's looking very sweet. I'm happy to hear too that OC'ing i7's is so rewarding. Still I'm having trouble justifying the move to Nehalem at this time. My E8500 is really better than I first thought. After 83 hours of Crysis do you think it's conditioned enough to starting OC trials? Oh and last but not least the Gigabyte Radeon is impressive performance wise. I still want to hear about your experiences in gaming with you model.
