Triple Monitors Guide

                   My personal setup.

  

Nvidia supports triple monitors with the name "Surround", opposed to AMD's "Eyefinity". I've used both with an AMD 7950 and Nvidia 670 graphics card. Let's start with the obvious differences.

AMD:

Newer AMD cards usually have ports like the image on the bottom.

Of course there are other port setups, but this is the most common with 7950's and some others in the 7000 series. 

Pros:
*You get to use an AMD card, which is usually cheaper than Nvidia for equal or only slightly less quality of comparable cards.
*Variety of ports for flexibility.
*AMD's great video control panel interface

Cons:
*Mixing the displayport with the DVI or HDMI (Which you HAVE to do in a triple setup) you WILL experience screen tearing, its literally impossible to avoid it because the differences in signals.
*Mini-displayport adapters are expensiveeeeeee!
*Eyefinity's warping of Win7

My Opinion:
The newer AMD cards that have Eyefinity are excellent products but I'd recommend you find a model that has only a combination of DVI and HDMI so you avoid screen tearing. Also, using Eyefinity on Windows 7, you're toolbar is stretched across the three screens, which I don't really like, but other people do. Overall, the newer AMD cards are a good buy for triple monitors, and you only 'need' one! Unlike previous generations that required cross-fire, these newer cards can run all 3 monitors on 1 card, like a champ.

Nvidia:

Newer Nvidia cards will usually have ports like this.

Again, there are other port setups, but this is a common setup at the moment.

Pros:
*Displayport isn't necessary, no screen tearing!
*"Surround" is more aesthetically pleasing, in my opinion 

Cons:
*Never liked Nvidia's video control panel
*More expensive cards for a questionable amount of performance improvement against their AMD counterpart.

My Opinion:
Nvidia is the Coca-Cola of the GPU world and AMD is the Shasta. They are excellent cards and Surround works great! Is it THAT much better than an AMD counterpart? In some ways yes and other ways no, but overall their quality is superior, if only slightly. And I just love their "Surround", it makes the windows toolbar stay in only the main screen, making everything look sleeker.

Conclusion:
This review probably seems a bit bias towards Nvidia, but I really have had both cards for extended periods of time and love them both. They can both run triple monitors, full settings on most games, like a beast. It'll really come down to your budget and it's a big decision so don't take it lightly!

Arctic Accelero Hybrid Review

Arctic Accelero Hybrid is a closed loop water cooling solution for most newer GPU cards. First, lets start with the installation.

Installation:
Right when you open the box, you see a shroud with a fan, your pump + tubing, and a bunch of VRAM heatsinks. You have to mount the pump on the shroud and then paste the heatsinks on your GPU. But right when you are about to paste the heatsinks on it's likely you'll notice the included paste won't work... a lot of people who bought this (including myself) have the problem of receiving dried up thermal paste so I suggest buying Thermal TAPE along with buying this product, which is easier to take off when the time comes. Installation time will range from 1-2 hours, it can be a bit of a pain but not that hard and on a lot of cards the shroud won't even fit! But, it's not that necessary to be honest, decent case airflow + VRAM heatsinks are enough.

Performance:
Room temperature was constant in both trials

Stock Arctic Fan FULL RPM
EVGA 670 Ftw 4GB Nvidia GPU (Not overclocked, stock settings)
*Idle: 30C
*Load: 58C
*Max Load 4 hours: 62C

Aerocool Shark Fan FULL RPM
EVGA 670 Ftw 4GB Nvidia GPU (Not overclocked, stock settings)
*Idle: 28C
*Load: 48C
*Max Load 4 hours: 52C

The Accelero Hybrid is obviously very effective at cooling your GPU while doing it quietly as well. These temperatures are just a little higher than an actual custom water loop.

Personal Experiences:
After about 30 days the pump ran dry (shouldn't happen in closed loop systems) and essentially destroyed itself, causing my GPU to go into thermal shutdown. Luckily the 600's series are designed to protect themselves from things like this so no GPU damage occured. But the Accelero Hybrid severely disappointed me, it was 110$ that i basically had to throw into the trash can after only a month. 

Conclusion:
Pros:
*Low temperatures
*Quiet pump

Cons:
*Tacky looking
*Low quality parts
*Dried up thermal paste

How to deep clean a water loop

Just dissembled my water cooling setup to clean it and get ready for my new build coming in. I just want to briefly describe what works when doing deep cleaning of water loop materials. I wish I took pictures but I didn't, so below is a generic before and after. Also, this kind of deep cleaning is recommended AT LEAST once per year.

I was using different methods and liquids for cleaning. You need cotton swabs for the tight corners and cotton balls for fast general cleaning. Here's what I found.

*Alcohol did remove gunk + dye, but very slowly. I had to do hard scrubbing and had to use a tedious amount to get anything done, even with 90% alcohol. The only upside is that it is safe to use with acrylic materials (like some waterblocks and reservoirs).

*Vinegar and salt WORKED GREAT, I barely used any and the dye+gunk just fell off. Be careful because it can damage acrylics....but I still do it anyway just because its sooooo easy :)

*Straight water, this obviously didn't work well at all, you need real cleaning chemicals for these jobs. 

*Aluminum Polish does indeed work well, about on the level of vinegar and salt... but if you leave any residue you are just asking for corrosion. So I would stray away from this, but just know it does work well.

Also, don't forget to rinse everything with distilled water when you are done or else you risk leaving chemicals behind that you don't want in your loop.

A lot of people are probably saying right now "if you just use distilled water and no pre-mixes, you wouldn't have to do this". I don't know about you, but half the fun of PCs are displaying them! I know there are colored tubing but it just isn't the same, and you CAN clean your components to near 100% after they have been dyed or gunked up, it just takes some time. So, why not have some fun?

Current Setup

This is my current build as of today, but it's about to change real soon. I'll be adding in bigger sized tubing, new coolant coloring, and another radiator. Here is my project log I made when I built this custom loop.

Girlfriend wanted to help out.

Like I said, this is about to go bye-bye in approximately a week or two, but for now I'm loving the contrast and style...but I feel I can do better.

First setup

I feel like my first post should be my ex-setup. I have a different case and cooling system but the rest of the parts are still the same. I changed my cooling setup because a certain expensive product failed on me quickly, but I'll talk about that another day. Here are some pictures of my previous setup. Keep in mind this was the first time I ever attempted building a custom PC.

My cable management job was poor, my style was mediocre, but I still liked it for the short time I had it. I change PC styles like people change clothes so I have a ton of content coming. I'll be posting my personal setup, reviews on the numerous PC products I've used, water loop advice, and whatever else I feel like talking about that is PC related.