- May 6, 2014
- 2
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- 4,510
Hey guys --
As the title states, I'm looking for a graphics card / waterblock upgrade. I've been out of the upgrade game for a bit so I'm not up to date on what is decent / crap.
A little background:
Recently (within the last week) I decided I wanted a new processor upgrade. I forget which one had but it was a quad core 955 something or other...just old and slow. So I decided to upgrade to an 8 core and settled on the 8350. Unfortunately, my old mobo wasn't compatible with this cpu so I upgraded that as well to the Sabertooth 955FX.
I unhooked all my stuff, broke my blocks down to let them soak in vinegar / distilled water before cleaning and cleaning them with a toothbrush. I installed my blocks back onto my video card and mobo (so I could place my cpu) and everything was going smoothly.
I got everything hooked up and did a 10 hour leak test last night to perfection. No leaks at all. Today after work I get home with the intent of hooking up all my devices and making sure my temps are where I want them to be before closing up the case.
First power on I get a solid red light on the BOOT_DEVICE_LED. Low and behold I forgot to plug one of my case fans into the CPU_FAN slot (duh!) so I hook that up and try it again. I make it past the BOOT_DEVICE_LED but there's no picture...nothing. It takes me about 20 minutes to figure out that my graphics card LED is behind my block so I couldn't see it. It's now a solid red.
I do a bit of googling and try some of the things I was reading (re-slotting, taking out memory, etc.) and still nothing.
Now to the questions!
1. Is there a surefire way to determine if my video card is shot? Granted, there were a few times where I was rough with it where I very well could have broken it. Remember that it's liquid cooled so it has a waterblock on it and I'm not sure I know where the fan / heatsink is.
2. Can you guys recommend a decent video card that won't bottleneck my cpu and a waterblock to go with it that won't break the bank? If at all possible, an acrylic waterblock would be awesome!
Any information you guys could share would be fantastic! Please feel free to ask anything you need that might help this topic.
Thanks guys.
EDIT: Forgot to mention that my current card is a Radeon HD 6950 flashed to 6970 specs.
As the title states, I'm looking for a graphics card / waterblock upgrade. I've been out of the upgrade game for a bit so I'm not up to date on what is decent / crap.
A little background:
Recently (within the last week) I decided I wanted a new processor upgrade. I forget which one had but it was a quad core 955 something or other...just old and slow. So I decided to upgrade to an 8 core and settled on the 8350. Unfortunately, my old mobo wasn't compatible with this cpu so I upgraded that as well to the Sabertooth 955FX.
I unhooked all my stuff, broke my blocks down to let them soak in vinegar / distilled water before cleaning and cleaning them with a toothbrush. I installed my blocks back onto my video card and mobo (so I could place my cpu) and everything was going smoothly.
I got everything hooked up and did a 10 hour leak test last night to perfection. No leaks at all. Today after work I get home with the intent of hooking up all my devices and making sure my temps are where I want them to be before closing up the case.
First power on I get a solid red light on the BOOT_DEVICE_LED. Low and behold I forgot to plug one of my case fans into the CPU_FAN slot (duh!) so I hook that up and try it again. I make it past the BOOT_DEVICE_LED but there's no picture...nothing. It takes me about 20 minutes to figure out that my graphics card LED is behind my block so I couldn't see it. It's now a solid red.
I do a bit of googling and try some of the things I was reading (re-slotting, taking out memory, etc.) and still nothing.
Now to the questions!
1. Is there a surefire way to determine if my video card is shot? Granted, there were a few times where I was rough with it where I very well could have broken it. Remember that it's liquid cooled so it has a waterblock on it and I'm not sure I know where the fan / heatsink is.
2. Can you guys recommend a decent video card that won't bottleneck my cpu and a waterblock to go with it that won't break the bank? If at all possible, an acrylic waterblock would be awesome!
Any information you guys could share would be fantastic! Please feel free to ask anything you need that might help this topic.
Thanks guys.
EDIT: Forgot to mention that my current card is a Radeon HD 6950 flashed to 6970 specs.
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