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PNY GTX 980 XLR8 PRO GRAPHICS CARD
Our graphics card is a PNY GTX 980 4096MB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 OC graphics card and this card begins to show our directed efforts in that it is very powerful, remains very cool regardless of the activity and it is also very quiet. It is white in color with white LEDs on both cooling fans and the five large copper heat pipes are very evident under the cards shell.
The memory speed is 7200MHz, representing one of the only GTX 980 cards on the market to OC the GDDR modules. This card also has a mini-HDMI, 3 x Display Ports and a DVI port for connection.
The PNY GTX 980 XLR8 Pro is not a typical consumer card so we set it up against Fire Strike Extreme 1.1, one of the most difficult scenarios PCMark 8 could offer. This is how it fared with an overall score of 6470 points:
This software’s ‘Run Details: provide just a bit more detail in chart format to assist the enthusiast:
Amazon shows the price of the PNY XLR8 Pro at just under $500 on Amazon
and holds a very solid customer 5-star rating.
CORSAIR HX1200i POWER SUPPLY
The Corsair HX1200i is an ATX 12v power supply and it is 80 Plus Platinum certified which means that it guarantees 92% energy efficiency in real world conditions.
We are certain that many who purchase this PSU think that it is broken as the fan never seems to run; it is that efficient, The HX1200i contains a 140mm fluid dynamic-bearing fan, has a 7 year warranty, and the fan doesn’t start the 500w point.
This is the power supply’s ZeroRPM mode which provides for fanless operation, greater efficiency and silent operation. In fact, there is a ‘Fan Self test’ switch to verify that it works if needed.
Once again, this particular item was selected for its power, efficiency and quiet operation. Amazon prices the 1200i at just under $300.
Feverish to see the 950 M.2s under sustained IPS.
FYI, Crucial has the 16GBx2 DDR4 UDIMM kit for $290. Easy way to max the RAM at 64GB. I’m looking at the same mobo and SSDs for a high speed VMware virtualization platform.
We have requested this memory for test purposes and I cannot speak highly enough with respect to the motherboard…just finished doing some testing with 3 NVMe M2 SSDs as a matter of fact… 3GB/s read and write. wit 0 footprint…stay tuned for an article.