They started releasing different colour anti vibration pads, but they are adamant about the fan/casing colour scheme.
That...doesn't look that bad.
Beige case, Noctua fans, original IBM model M keyboard...(don't stoop to CRT..)
Current verdict (through non-extensive testing) is:
PA-9E: Trips regulator in games no matter what, trips regulator in Heaven 4.0 unless at <85% power limit in MSI Afterburner. GPU stable at 85% power limit.
Voodoo: GPU unstable at 100% power limit, stable at 80% power limit.
XM3C3: GPU unstable at 100% power limit, stable at 85% power limit.
The strong majority of my customers who ask me questions in emails are planning 970 builds. I don't hear back from the majority, but I take no news as good news.
I do have two customers who have been communicating to me on their 970 adventures. One has an 88w CPU, another a 65w.
The 65w CPU owner has no reported problems thus far--I don't know if he is doing benchmarks or just playing battlefield.
The 85w CPU owner has some issues that he believes he has narrowed down to the AC/DC brick:
The strong majority of my customers who ask me questions in emails are planning 970 builds. I don't hear back from the majority, but I take no news as good news.
I do have two customers who have been communicating to me on their 970 adventures. One has an 88w CPU, another a 65w.
The 65w CPU owner has no reported problems thus far--I don't know if he is doing benchmarks or just playing battlefield.
The 85w CPU owner has some issues that he believes he has narrowed down to the AC/DC brick:
Based on everything QinX has found in his thread, and my personal experience, I too think the AC adapters are the weak link. You have tried them all now, like me, so you definitely have experience here.
Speaking of coil whine...
I found that with the Nano coil whine is STRONG both at the HDPLEX and the Nano when NOT at full loads (I.E. game menus or loading screens) but at full loads in benchmarking or gaming they are pretty quiet.
I haven't noticed this with the 285ITX, which is interesting to me. I'm sure it is present, but not ostentatiously so.
Just a bit of random information...
A little addendum
I've run a Reference Palit GTX 970 and a i5-4670 (84W TDP) of a Voodoo 350W and HDPlex. Running Prime95 and Furmark at the same time, while making sure the GPU is not CPU bottlenecked while running Prime95 (3 core Prime and 1 Core for Furmark) I've never seen powerdraw above 310W AC. And that is at the wall. the Voodoo is rated for 350W DC.
A 4790K can take another 20W-30W more then the 4670 while running Prime95. So although I can't vouch I think considering the torture test scenario I've used you should be fine with almost any CPU+GTX 970 combo, excluding any balls to the wall 970s.
Hi QinX, I have actually run MSI Kombustor (Furmark?) on the 970 with no issues whatsoever. It's actually quite bizarre. I'm getting a new motherboard within the next few days, after which I'm going to try "renting" a new 970 from Amazon. I also have a ZT 750W psu arriving from repairs, so will test that out too