Fun while installing XFX 8800 GTS 320 graphics card

Installing a graphic card is really simple if you are careful about it and take proper care about the steps involved. I never thought I'd make a mistake in this department. The series of event that happened are as follows.

I cut two openings at the back of the cabinet for the card ports and fan vent to peep though.

Then i tried to install the card. A problem presented itself . Hmm.. The card is a tad too long to fit properly and all the other things i installed there before the card blocked the path of the card. I removed the hard disk.Still, some more things remain. I removed all the connectors connected there around the card area. (Suddenly it seemed to me that all the cables like that area to pass though. Lotsa cables to remove).Moved the HDD to another place got the SATA cables to another place etc. Finally the card fitsd properly.

I start the system and voila i get display. Now i try various softwares which tell me some gyan about the card and its health. Oh thats strange the card is running at 80C. I dont know what the card is supposed to run at but 80 is too much. especially when the proesser runs at 60 at full load overclocked. I fiddle around various softwares hoping that previous software(rivatuner) was worng but the new software refuses to alleviate my problem.


I look around to see whether the fan on the card is working or not and i dont feel any air flow behind the cabinet under the monitor port. I check again and the problem is there in front of me(back of cabinet) the slot i cut didn't match the air passage of the card and the air passage is covered.

I go through removing the card, cutting the slot , installing the card again and then the temp falls to 60C. Thats better but still on the higher side.

Maybe I have to improve the airflow in the cabinet to lower the temps. Put some more fans , cut holes and drill things etc.

Graphics subsystem of my computer

These are the components used to build the computer. After spending a long time deciding the configuration . I decided on these things. Some things had to be ordered and were not available immediately so some of the things in the pics are actually the stand-by device.

The monitor and graphic card was given as stand by for some days till the distributor brought the ordered thing.

I specifically wanted XFX 8800 GTS 320 MB graphic card.(Since it was the most i could afford). The next higher card was very expensive. The second thing which was not available right there was the monitor. I wanted the ViewSonic VX 1932wm monitor which has got better contrast and faster response times(2000:1 and 2 ms ) than the ViewSonic VG or ViewSonic VA series.

The 8800 GTS 320 is the fourth best available by nvidia and XFX is the only one sold here in bangalore. SO the decision was the XFX 8800GTS 320MB. The next available 640 MB version was 5k more than this. Anyway the more memory is useful only at resolutions greater than 16k by whatever according to your monitors ratio. Since my current monitor only goes up to 1440*900 , 320 is enough for me.

My next upgrade cycle will have the graphics subsystem as a main (and very expensive) addition to wish list.

Come to think of it, i already have upgraded my computer. From the standby system to the actual orders. So i might take easy on the upgrades right now. This machine has burnt a huge hole in my pocket and it will take a long time for the pocket to heal or maybe I'll just another trouser with new pockets.

More about the upgrade wish list later some day.

Getting the configuration right.

When I was deciding upon my computers configuration, i was sure of only one thing. I wanted an AMD processor. All other things had choices but no choices were gonna be made in processor department. (Big AMD fan )

Simple buy the fastest AMD processor available.
So I got an AMD 6000+ dual core processor.

Now one needs a good motherboard to have a stable machine. A motherboard is like a chassis of the vehicle on which everything is attached and which is responsible for proper coordination between components.

For motherboard the requirements were:-
AM2 socket
SLI support at full 16x rate for both PCi express slots.

So from the available chipsets nvidia 590 was chsen by me.
ASUS Crosshair seemed to fit the bill. Great overclocking ability, simple BIOS navigation.
Nice lights (For fun).

So ASUS Crosshair it was.

Since i wanted to overclock my machine and did not want to depend on the stock cooler provided with the processor i got "ThermalRight 120 extreme" CPU cooler along with two Scythe 120 mm S-FLEX fans and MX2 Thermal Paste.
Getting the extreme and fans was a challenging job. As shipping itself was as expensive as the product itself. Searching for an Indian sellers took me some searching effort.
I found out that ABGB in Mumbai sell thermalright products and also ship it to various part of the country(India). Since these guys also had corsair stuff and i always wanted to buy the corsair brand in machine i also ordered some corsair products from them.

Now that i have given away a company name then the next component can be very well guessed. Right, Its the RAM. Important leg in the Tripod of CPU-motherboard-RAM. (One of Tridev if you like Mythology). I got matched set of 1 GB sticked to make 2 GB in total.
"XMS2 800 Mhz. Dual channel memory. SLI certified."

A output of any machine is very much dependent on input provided. And since a computer needs power to run, a good and robust SMPS was a must. The SMPS usually provided with the cabinets as a combo offer are not of very high quality and at best might result in BSOD and hangups or at worst could provide you with fried CPU , motherboard or both.

I actually wanted 520hx to power my rig but unfortunately it was not available so had to get 620Hx . Makes for good future proofing. I could add another Graphics card to the current one and run in SLI mode without having to worry about the power requirements.

Now that we are already on the subject of graphic card lets talk about that.
Having an excellent graphics card is imperative if you want to play any of the latest games with all eye candy turn on and having a playable framerates(Not like a slideshow). I wanted to go in for a 8600 gt at first and then adding another 8600 Gt later on in SLI mode, but my research told me that for same amount of money spent the SLI setup is inferior to a single card. Another benefit is that later on you have an upgrade path open where you can add another card (More money going away).