Both of my machines have Ultra X4 1200 PSUs (80Plus) for at least 5 years with no problems. I also got them from TigerDirect, too bad I didn't catch the price gaff.

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I don't buy computers, I build them!!

Both of my machines have Ultra X4 1200 PSUs (80Plus) for at least 5 years with no problems. I also got them from TigerDirect, too bad I didn't catch the price gaff.

it was a fluke at our local tiger direct i grabbed that psu thinking it was a hundred and something bucks or so and it rang up at 19.99 loli think it was supposed to be 199.99

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I came down with a bad case of i don't give a crap

That is a major concern of mine as it is hard to find a board within my price range that has true multiple 16x slots. It was one of the features that led me to the DX58SO board. Unfortunately, the board that I was/am interested in drops the 2nd x16 slot to x8 when multiple GPUs are installed.

For just crunching here there is no difference in times between using 16x,8x or 4x slots that I've ever seen on my rigs (I've also been told by those who use 1x to 16x adapters that there also isn't any difference though I've yet to verify that for myself).

Cheers.

hmm

effectively halfing the bandwidth to the card does not slow it down ??
i dunno if that is correct

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSSHuMHbCWo

the cards will slow down but as mentioned in teh video there is different generations of those gpus

you can take a gen 1 card and run it in a 8 or 4x slot and have no ill effects but a gen 3 card will prolly only do a quarter of what it can do

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I came down with a bad case of i don't give a crap

Even when I had my GTX660's in my Q6600 rig (16x/4x) running 3 tasks each there was absolutely no difference in times.

Gaming would be different as you are moving large amounts of data over the bus, but when crunching you are not.

Cheers.

you can take a gen 1 card and run it in a 8 or 4x slot and have no ill effects but a gen 3 card will prolly only do a quarter of what it can do

For video games, yes.
For crunching, no.
The bandwidth on the card can limit performance, but for crunching the bandwidth between the card & the CPU isn't an issue.

Below is the bandwidth for a single PCIe link-
PCIe 1.0 250MB/s. (2004, a decade ago)
PCIe 3.0 984.6MB/s (2011)

Since a MB Work Unit is only 370k in size, and a result file around 35k, the difference in time taken to transfer then over a PCIe 1 x1 (250MB/s) link or a PCIe 3 x16 (15.75GB/s) link would be bugger all. (Same for the larger AP WUs).

As has been shown by those have run multiple video cards using extenders to make use of PCIe x1 slots- no difference in the number of WU/s processed per hour compared to those on the x16 slot.

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Grant
Darwin NT

i will pop a 780 into a 1x slot and see how it does

but the explanations above do make sense

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I came down with a bad case of i don't give a crap

yes it is a budget brand and will never be as good as the main product

Asrock is no longer the budget brand of Asustek. Asrock is owned by Pegatron, which may have been set up by Asustek, but has become an independent company in 2010. Since that time Asrock and Asus are two separate brands, both with their own motherboard ranges. Parent company of Asrock is Pegatron, parent company of Asus is Asustek.

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That is a major concern of mine as it is hard to find a board within my price range that has true multiple 16x slots. It was one of the features that led me to the DX58SO board. Unfortunately, the board that I was/am interested in drops the 2nd x16 slot to x8 when multiple GPUs are installed.

For just crunching here there is no difference in times between using 16x,8x or 4x slots that I've ever seen on my rigs (I've also been told by those who use 1x to 16x adapters that there also isn't any difference though I've yet to verify that for myself).

Cheers.

I now have a GT620 in a 16x slot and a GT620 dangling by a 1x to 16x cable right next to it. As soon as they get some APs, I'll be able to tell if there's a difference. But since they are pretty slow cards, I'm pretty sure I won't be able to tell the difference. Maybe I'll try it with some higher end cards in the near future.

This Host has an 8800 GT OC in the 16x slot and the GTS 250 in a 1x slot, http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/show_host_detail.php?hostid=6979629.
After removing the end plate from the 1x slot a 16x card will fit. On that board there is only 1 usable 1x slot as the others have board components in the way of a 16x card. For MB tasks there isn't any noticeable difference. On AstroPulse tasks the difference is around 15800 in a 16x slot and 16200 in a 1x slot. The current MB shorties are running around 970 on the 1x slot and 1020 on the 16x slot. The GTS 250 is normally about that much faster than the EVGA 8800 GT OC card, http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/results.php?hostid=6979629&offset=100&show_names=0&state=0&appid=

yes it is a budget brand and will never be as good as the main product

Asrock is no longer the budget brand of Asustek. Asrock is owned by Pegatron, which may have been set up by Asustek, but has become an independent company in 2010. Since that time Asrock and Asus are two separate brands, both with their own motherboard ranges. Parent company of Asrock is Pegatron, parent company of Asus is Asustek.

ASUStek is still the major shareholder of the company even though they do no longer have a ruling role in the company.

While ASUSTeK is its largest shareholder, the former parent does not have a presence on Pegatron's board of directors. The company did that in order to avoid a conflict of interest concerning customers' new product designs and technologies and ensure that ASUSTek has no knowledge of what its competitors are up to.

Cheers.

Pegatron was incorporated on June 27, 2007 as a subsidiary of its then parent company, Asustek (or more commonly known as its brand name "Asus").[8] Asustek wanted to increase its competitiveness by dividing its business into specialized work forces and establishing separate companies for each business unit. Pegatron was formed as a design and manufacturing service provider of computer-related products that had previously been operated by Asustek.

In January 2010, Pegatron's then parent company Asustek announced a plan to spin off and to transfer its long term equity investment in Pegatron to its wholly owned subsidiary, Pegatron International Investment Co., Ltd. On June 10, 2010, Pegatron merged with Pegatron International, and Pegatron has since been the surviving spin off independent company.

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