Comments on: Alienware intros Liquid-Cooled Quad-Card Graphics

By: Crash Burning

Crash Burning — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:22:35 +0000

Water is 3 times more than air cant beat it with a stick. Once you use it you will never go back!
I run sli and for the money = to the performance I got screwed!!
8800 gts worked great by it self a second card was ok with half a gain but not much games even use sli yet. so more than half the time only one card is being used lmao!
But it was fun to build jerk jerk

By: Stephan Sokolow

Stephan Sokolow — Sun, 02 Apr 2006 00:04:53 +0000

I’m happy with a single dual-DVI card which is old enough to not need a fan. Heat sinks are pleasantly quiet.

By: ECA

ECA — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 09:54:10 +0000

OK,
I have to give a small education here.
Electricity and speed are Like WATER.
either get a BIGGER(or add more hoses) hose, or use a SMALL one that can shoot at the moon.
Shooting at the moon can only go so far, before you BLOW the hose apart.
LOOK at the pipelines on these cards…Look at those on the MOBO.
consider making the Video card and Audio card, CONTROL themselves, have there own drivers and can do the audio/video with out the CPU doing anything, then set a timing chip in the middle to link them for videos.. WOW I just described the AMIGA computer and the BeOS hardware setups..
THEn add enough ram that the GPU wont need the SYSTEM ram…
This alone would save about 80% of the processing on the system by the MPU/CPU and you can increase whats going on.With the CPU FREED of 80% of all thats going on, you can ADD 5 times more speed to whats going on..Because it dont need to deal with the audio/video, just THROW the progs at the cards and LET the cards do the work.

This is OLD tech and it works.

By: GregAllen

GregAllen — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 04:30:31 +0000

I still am not used to seeing liquid cooling inside a computer.

By the way, this is still the wierdest comptuer board, in my opinion:
http://www.ixbt.com/multimedia/apen-tube/lamp-in-work.jpg

I never bought one and I don’t know how many AOpen has sold but I’d like one just for the geek-chic factor.

By: Mr. Fusion

Mr. Fusion — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 04:27:33 +0000

This is cutting edge technology. If you want to be the first on your block, you need to pony up the big bucks.

Floyd, I think more and more computers will be using liquid to cool themselves. There is an efficiency saving from the cooler circuits and a reduced noise level. Even now they are not that much more expensive then a good cooler. Another big saving will be space. Better heat dissipation will compact the boards.

By: Floyd

Floyd — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 03:37:54 +0000

At the last COMDEX held in Las Vegas, I remember seeing a modified hi rez graphics card that was liquid cooled. This really isn’t anything new… just a way to get more money from the gamers. Call me back when they replace the chip that requires liquid cooling with a better made chip that’s just as fast but only needs air cooling. ECA has the engineering bottlenecks figured out, I think.

By: ECA

ECA — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 01:00:49 +0000

let me see here…
Iv seen a setup that will use 4 cards, with 256 meg EACH..And cooling your comp will heat your HOME, let alone DRAIN the power from your home.
And what COMPANY, uses ALL that ram in a game…1 GIG of video cards?
RENDEr your WHOLE 3D universe, and still have room. But NO game DOES it.
And WORSE…the bottle neck…is on the MOBO. It cant hadle that MUCh data, as fast as these cards (together) can send it…AS WELL as its SERIAL, so only 1 card can send/recieve data at a time.
Put this on a Parrallel board(If they make one) and the CPU and windows CANT handle it..

So, conclusion…
BUY it and waste your money..

By: Improbus

Improbus — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 00:20:52 +0000

Soon you will be able to use your computer to play games AND heat your home’s water. That would be truely useful.

By: A Person

A Person — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 23:41:28 +0000

“or join the Army and go to Iraq and do the real thing!”

But the respawn time for Reality is insane!

By: Rick Pali

Rick Pali — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 22:39:46 +0000

The way I figure it, if someone wants to spend a small fortune for bragging rights, I’m all for it…because they’re paying the bleeding-edge costs of R&D so we call can get it for 1/10 the cost in no time…

By: Bruce IV

Bruce IV — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 20:12:00 +0000

Yeah – I must ask, why does any consumer need this level of power? Agree with Blank – its just for bragging rights.

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 19:51:20 +0000

and in 6 months to 1 year, DX 10 will be needed and you’ll need four NEW video cards! woohoo!

By: Hey Mac

Hey Mac — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 19:50:30 +0000

Hmmm… supercharged .035 litre, 4 on the floor, overhead (web) cam, rear spoiler (sitting too long)…

By: Awake

Awake — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 19:21:15 +0000

And all this power is for what? Nerds with no real life playing shoot-em-up games! Woohoo!
Guys… try paintball instead… or join the Army and go to Iraq and do the real thing!

By: blank

blank — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 18:36:03 +0000

And this will get you…what? 20 extra FPS on a game?

Come on…this is only for bragging rights. “Hey dude, check this out!”. It’s like when I was growing up and my brother was tricking out his ’69 Nova with dual exhaust and jacked-up in the back and mag wheels etc.

I have a 7800GTX…just one…and it works great in everything I play. I don’t sit there and say “wow, I wish I had just a couple more FPS. Haven’t there been studies that show after a certain amount of FPS, you don’t even notice it anymore? I don’t know the figure, but I’m sure this rig goes way way WAY past it….so it’s sort of wasted isn’t it?