Virgil's new work mule

[Grauniad]

I feel your cough, Radeon, cough... frustration.  

No, actually, hang in there. By Black Friday all will be well. :)

[knucracker]

I read and posted on this topic:
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/628458/general-discussion/regarding-shield-rebates-included-in-gtx-holiday-bundle/

Hilarious... truly hilarious.  So after seeing you can now get the shield bundle at newegg with any GTX 770 card other than the one I want, I wrote newegg back stating this must be an oversight.  I got a reply saying it should work, but they meant "Get the free games".  I wrote them back yet again saying "no, I mean the $100 shield combo which you have on every GTX 770 card other than this particular one."  I got a reply saying, "yeah I can't change that, the marketing department does that".

Most likely it's a complete oversight that they left out that card.  They have another MSI GTX 770 card that has the bundle, so it isn't a bias against MSI.  They have other cards that are also $329 that have the bundle, so it isn't about the price.  Maybe the support person will send a note to marketing.  Maybe they will catch it on their own.  Maybe they decided to pick on this one card and try to persuade people to spend $10 more on the equivalent evga card (it can't be more than just me in the whole wide world that is obsessed with this, though :) )

[Grauniad]

Yea wow, the differences are subtle, but significant.  :(

I really think the TF-model (without the Shield bundle) is the more desirable choice. Then I guess the choice is whether you'll go for the $400 TF-model with an extra 2GB of GDDR5  memory and a $15 rebate) or wait around in the hope that MSI clears up their price, or ....

[knucracker]

You know what... that 4G model makes a lot of sense.  I've never played it, but I've read people complaining about how skyrim will use over 3G of video memory for textures.  I also have been known to occasionally screw up during development and push a butt load of textures to the GPU by accident.  4G would give a little more room to handle those screw ups before the exceptions start flying :)

[Grauniad]

*faceplant* :)

That will cost you mo' moneh. And you're moving a long way away from the <$2k price target.

[knucracker]

If 60 or 70 bucks will end my combo gpu and shield torture, I'll make the trade:).

[Grauniad]

Update your wish list then. :)

[knucracker]

Updated with the 4G video card and the platinum seasonic PSU.  THere's not way to add the GPU/Shield combo deal to a wish list it seems.

[Grauniad]

Updated with the 4G video card and the platinum seasonic PSU.  THere's not way to add the GPU/Shield combo deal to a wish list it seems.

I guess you do that when you add it to your shopping cart. The Lightning GPU is still in your list as well. :)

Before you pull the trigger, revisit the choice of memory. I see there is some Mushkin that's now cheaper than the G.Skill. Not saying better, since I don't know, just saying "cheaper". But then, I get the sense you're not exactly trying to save every $10 you can, either, anymore. :)

It's, IMHO a risky stage in putting together a build when you relax your price criteria and start adding a few "nice-to-have's", since now the price is creeping up.

Just revisit and reaffirm that this build is still targeted for a 1-year expected usage.

[Grauniad]

I believe Anandtech has a review of that PSU. How convenient.  http://www.anandtech.com/show/5464/seasonic-platinum-series-860w/

They comment on the fact that it's slightly longer than "standard".

Otherwise they seem very complimentary, and claims that it exceeds certification standards for efficiency. In fact, they suggest that the gold series of Seasonic meets the Platinum certification level of efficiency.

I was wondering about crossload and found this article explaining it: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cases/display/psu-methodology2_3.html

I see on Newegg that the PUS has a 7-year warranty. That's very good as well.

Among all the good things, this is what they say about noise:

Only the chirping of the PFC inductor becomes noticeable if you are close enough; in a closed PC case the noise should not be audible. Right up to higher loads the fan is quiet—or even inaudible below 40% load if the semi-passive mode is activated. Up to 93% efficiency can be achieved with this design and even at 10% load efficiency is still very good. At very low load the regulation effort is usually high—measured against the operating current. This causes high power loss during low load.

Anandtech also has a review for the XFX 1000W model. They say it's built by Seasonic, has slightly lower efficiency, but, importantly, has none of the noise of the 860W Seasonic. http://www.anandtech.com/show/5546/xfx-1000w-pro-series-80plus-platinum/

They have nothing good to say about the Kingwin models and are damning with faint praise for Enermax models.

TechPowerup has a nice comparative list of all PSU's they reviewed and they also rate Seasonic very highly. Interestingly enough, some of the models I mentioned above that was less well reviewed on Anandtech still got good ratings at Techpowerup.

[Grauniad]

The latest graphics card you added makes no sense. It's only $40 less than the 4GB model, yet it's a 2GB model. For that you may as well get the 4GB model.

[knucracker]

Are you looking at the right wishlist?
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=31603308

This should be the card I have in there:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127747

Currently I have two power supplies in the list, but that was just to remind me to look at the XFX one.  I don't think I can justify the healthy price increase it demands, though.

--edit--
Updated links.

[Grauniad]

Those links are broken. I'm looking at the wish list in the first post.

[Grauniad]

I see the two power supplies.  The thing is, when you mentioned "coil whine", I started paying more attention to that in reviews. Anand's review mentioned "electrical noise" and they mentioned it more than once. I've learned (painfully) that when Anand does that it may be a bigger deal than they're letting on. They don't usually harp on negative aspects.

They do say it may be quiet at low utilization, and they also say a good case should dampen the sound. And I guess you could take the 15% restocking fee gamble that it's not too bad.

[knucracker]

Yeah... that may be something to not mess with, though.  The agony of returning a PSU...
And noise isn't something I want to mess around with, especially once pointed out.  Reminds me of a friend in college.  He joked that he got even with his roommate one night by waiting until everything had gotten quiet and lights were out.  He waited about 3-4 minutes just as his roommate was falling asleep and then said, "Hey... just listen to that clock tick".