That 20 percent to me, seems exaggerated. you brought up a good point about how its mostly for sli. however even both cards are running at 8x, there is no performance loss.
both cards at 16x is the same at 2 cards at 8x. anyone who says pci 3.0 is the latest and greatest is a liar imo. the potential for this technology is not existent, and it wont be for a loooooooong time.
Quick update, with my new graphics card, sorry for the blurr, I only realised that once I had uploaded it =/.
I am planning on doing a series of mods for my case to enhance a few things. I will be attempting to perform these mods with a budget of $0, however I have a feeling there will be a few costs such as materials for some proper fan filters. When I get started with these I might start a new thread where I can make a log of my progress.
Ladies and gentlemen the trick to any photo is going to be stability. Find a chair, tripod, stack of books, desk or anything that you can rest the camera or most likely your phone on, angle the device to fill the frame and then hold still and pull your head away, take a breath and then exhale pause then snap the button. Do this several times and view the results on your computer screen so you can pick the best examples. Remember the lighting as well it's the next critical element to understand and control. Good luck and shoot with a steady hand for all of us to enjoy !
Ha ha, I thought it was an alright shot when I took it, I just couldn't be bothered taking more because I'm lazy :P. What more is there to see of it though? It aint a hell of a lot to look at up close, just a pcb covered in heat syncs, I just figured I would try show it in comparison to my old 210 by doing a shot the same style as my previous one.
About the mods, I'm not doing a massive case restyle, just several little things. As for the cost, its all going to be done hopefully with things I can salvage from various places. The $0 budget is more of a...like a figure of speech for spending as little as I can, I am going to have to spend money on a few things. Here is a list of some of the things I am thinking of:
-Window side panel
-Couple of 5.25 to 3.5 bay converters, hopefully with a fan mount for cooling
-A few new holes for improved cable management
-"Proper" fan filers for all the intakes
-Motherboard back lighting (glow around the motherboard caused by LEDs mounted in the backplate)
-Led lighting for the I/O shield like on the NZXT Switch 810
So its not full on mods, just small enhancements here and there. The LED circuits, which I may do 1 or 2 more of will be wired to plug into the power supplies molex, and will have a on/off switch or dimmer on the back of the case...hopefully.
I started on the 5.25" bay adapters yesterday, but it will be a long process. I am making macrocarpa (wood) blocks from some left overs after we made our kitchen bench, which will screw into either side of the bay, and have a groove in them for the hard drive tray to slide into. Getting the basic shape is easy enough with a bench saw, but the long part will be making it look like it belongs in the case. It will be a long process of priming, sanding and painting until it has a nice smooth, matte black finish. I considered other materials, but plastics would be very tricky to work with neatly, and metals would be too costly to obtain in the right forms.
And with all the classes I still take crappy shots, what gives? The good news is digital allows for us to be much more selective and discard the worst or unusable pictures. The breathing trick I still use as I love low light shots but rarely can I hold the camera still enough, but prop up against something and watch the breathing and just like a long distance gun shot the added stability is key. With all this having been said I still will pore over a fuzzy picture of a computer over no picture at all..........I'm I sick?
@ Tomha- that sounds fun, just remember to get the led strips that are waterproof, i know it sounds stupid to get waterproof stuf in a pc that cosists out of electronics, but I had in my old chasiss two blu 30cm led strips that i bought for next to nothing, and placed them one bottom one top, the leds were "open" and when ever the top part of the led would touch metal wile on,it makes the yelowsparks and even shortsurcated my one strip. So i wouldnt recomend placeing those under you motherboard. Luckely I wasnt the onlyone with this problem,and after some people complaned they made new strips,that the topled stuf are covered with like a silicone type thing so now it can touch any metalpart wile on and nothing will happen. Not shore if you knew this, but just for safety try spending a litle more on the so called waterproof lights,just so they are covered and cant harm any hardware. As for the rest, you get several 5.25 drivebay products that have intake fans on them and can hold your hardrives too. I had 3 in my old chassis, and they worked well. Looking forward to see these modifications.
Thanks for the advice. Like I said though I am trying to keep costs minimal (because I dont actually have money to spend :P), my method with the wooden blocks is because I ant afford these drive bays, and enjoy the experience of making them. As for the LED strips, they are also costly, the plan was to drill 4-8 led sized holes around the inner edge of the motherboard tray. There is enough clearance the tip of the LEDs can poke through. Then I will make a custom circuit of LEDs powered of a molex connector. This illustrates my example a bit better:
Aah,kay, I thought you were just going to buy the flat ones,with the sticky back. But it seems your going the "hand made" route here. Goodluck, looking forward to see how it is done. When can we expect to see some of the work?
And what "mods" do you plan to do with 0$? Or are you refering to wire management and adding a leftover cpu cooler? Or are we going to see some bezel cuttings and paint jobs?