Warren Murphy is my bud. Brilliant analyst of politics and football. He said back in September that the Giants would go o the SuperBowl. That cost me. LOL. EOD is Explosive Ordinance Disposal or some such thing. They were the precursors to SEALS and believe they can out-drink a Fighter guy. Well, now that I am 48 years old, it is possible but being of Irish descent and having lived in the Naval Aviation community for the last 25 years I haven't met a guy that doesn't hit the floor before me Caveat: I am always home nowadays by 7 PM, regardless of circumstances, to play with my son and kiss him goodnight. BUT, when duty calls.... LOL. Never drink against an old school fighter guy, you'll lose.

My Macallan's and Maker's Mark days are behind me too. Every now and then I break out the humidor and repulse my cats with a Hoya de Monterey, though.

I got a little ahead of myself and pre-ordered a 3870 X2 for delivery Tuesday . . . realizing after the fact that finding a wblock for this card might be tricky. It is! (Even tricker, installing an air cooled card in a dual loop system. sigh)

I contacted Eddy at EK Waterblocks in the UK, Swiftech and Danger Den.

EK was the first to respond, indicating he would have a block out shortly. Downside, it takes time for product to reach the US distributor (Petra's Tech).

Danger Den also responded today, stating that they sent a prototype to ATI last week and intended on releasing a retail version mid-February. He also indicated they would be very expensive due to the amount of copper involved.

Swiftech: "Going to be a couple weeks. Or longer."

Its a relatively cheap hobby when you think about it really.. Racing cars, even in low end street classes costs a LOT more than these little computers... Got myself a credit card now so I may be able to afford a few more trinkets with it being 55 days interest free lol.. Not gonna go stupid tho, I'm a bit of a mid-range bencher and I do OK, but it'd still be nice to have some really high end stuff ...

I'm 34 yrs old now and my drinking days are well and truly over because I lived it up in my youth, to excess... I used to be able to drink quite a bit. This country has a huge drinking culture and its not only encouraged but expected that you be able to put the drinks away.

Speaking of which, I'm off to a friends for a couple of quiet beers..Later

I spent some time this afternoon OC'ing the QX9650. I found the Maximum Extreme a little tricky to work with, but not nearly so tricky as the Striker paired with Quads.

I was making scant progress -- stuck at 390 MHz 9x -- until I bumped the vdimm a bit. As noted earlier, this board overvolts the vdimm by .08v. Super Talent cautioned me about running too much voltage through the DDR3 -- that it will drastically shorten it's lifespan. I've heeded that advice as much as possible, but have found that with the RAM I'm using (suggested vdimm 1.9v), setting vdimm between 1.86 and 1.90 in the BIOS seems to be the 'sweet spot' for overclocks between 400MHz FSB and 444MHz FSB (3.60 GHz and 4.00 GHz). So, this puts actual vdimm between 1.94 and 1.98v as providing the most stable overclocks in the range noted above.

I manually set the NB Strap to 400 MHz and found that performed better than the more popular 333 MHz strap. DDR3 was running at 1780MHz @444 FSB (a 34% OC).

NB voltage was set to 1.53v and CPU vCore voltage was @ 1.50 at all overclocks. Temperatures average 39-42C at idle with no overclock and 43-47C idle running at overclocks between 3.60 and 4.00 GHz.

From what I've read on the various forums, these initial overclocks are modest, but a good place to start.

Here's a quick screen capture:

I've never been a heavy drinker, but those bar tabs add up quick. Drinking, when it becomes a 'hobby,' can exceed OC grocking by far.

Of course, fast cars, women and sailboats make this all look like chump change too. Agreed. David and I were reminiscing about our Parisian mistresses just the other day, in fact . . . (all in jest)

Looking extremely good so far Jason, especially for only having the ddr3 and new mobo for just a few days with limited time to work on it.


Awesome!!!

If they are warning you about Vdimm overvoltage and early deat then I'b eb VERY careful. Obviously those chips are at or near their max and are on the hairy edge so watch yourself.

Agree 100%, Merc. And I've proceeded accordingly. It has been a 'white knuckle' affair at times.

Did you try running these DDR3s with 1T?...They should do it OK, even at higher mhz..

Paul, I did initially, but at lower voltages -- wouldn't run at 1T @ 8-8-8-24, 1.9v (true). I can try at 1.86 - 1.88 ME voltages. Am trying to get a stable CPU OC before tightening up RAM.

I'm running on 3 hours sleep today (was up at break of dawn to take Marion to airport), so will not be doing any tinkering tonight.

Some exciting news for early adopters of ATI's 3870 X2: EK Water Blocks debuted a full coverage, X2 block early this morning. They're offered in nickel, acetal and copper flavors: http://tinyurl.com/2uuu4j

I've been corresponding back and forth with Eddy over the weekend and he promised to have one in the mail to me this week. How long it will take the Slovenia based business to get the new product to US resellers in mass, I'm not certain, but will inquire and update here. Petra's tech is the US distributor/reseller for EK.

The following are stock photos. I will post personal photos as soon as I take delivery:

They do beautiful work don't they?

I was going to type something this evening asking if there wsa one available. I'm really thinking about going the 3870 X2 route if I can get a decent price for the GTX.

Thanks for posting the info Jason. I wonder when they'll have stuff in the US. How do I get on your list to get one directly from them?

The 3870X2 appears to just beat the 8800GTX Ultra. Plus it does it at a much reduced cost of under $500. That is really good news for all of us that like the new Intel chipsets but want dual video cards. Given the current state of the Nvidia chipsets I'd guess there may be a bunch of GTXes hitting the used card market.