Win an ATI 4870 X2 video card !

THRASHER2

Great Contest

DeadPooL_X_

I am really getting tired of my computer laughing at me in its hideous, insipid visuals, I want to punch it in the throat, please DH help a mofo out.

gamerguy127

I have never been able to play any games on full or half full even, because of my intel integrated graphics card and my last system was a time computer that had a 1.8GHZ processor, 512MB RAM, 20GB hard drive, an integrated graphics card and only a cd player that computer struggled to play project IGI (look it up if you've never heard of it ang youll see what i mean) on anything less than medium. I was only just able to afford this dell a year ago and then it only had an intel pentium dual core 1.8GHZ, FSB 2200MHZ and 1 gig of ram so i had to change those and the power supply from 300w to 650w, so currently my gaming expirience has been limited to my ps2 psp, so as you can see i really need this graphics card as i cannot even think about playing any of the games my mates have online or off and i wont be able to for many years to come untill i get a job so please dh i really need this card or my life will just be plain boring

MaXXimus

Well my story starts when my mom gave me money from when my father passed away and I wanted to buy a new computer. I always wanted an Alienware so I bought their top of line model at the time (about 6 - 7 months ago) and it cost me between $6000 - $7000. The day it arrived I patiently took everything out of their boxes and put it all together. When I turned it on I was amazed, but with a few minutes I started hearing this crackling noise now and then (almost like when plastic is expanding) so at first I assumed it was because of its outter plastic housing and the internal heat buildup... but the noise persisted after about a half hour so I opened up the side of it to be sure nothing might have come loose on the water cooling for the CPU. Well, I was pretty shocked when I bumped up against one of the water cooling hoses and damn near got a blister from how hot it was. I quickly shut down the system and called tech support, only to be disappointed by the news that my In House warrenty doesnt cover the water cooling system and it had to be sent back for repairs... so there I was within 30 minutes of almost $7000 (or so) investment, boxing it all back up and then having to wait the entire weekend to ship it out.

About 3 weeks later I received it back and again (along with a free Killer K1 network card for the trouble) took my time unboxing it and hooking it all up. Pressed the power button and wadda know? Snap Crackle Pop... it was doing the same darned thing that it was doing before I sent it out. So again I check the hose and it was hot as could be. I called Tech Support flipping out asking them how on earth could a system pass so-called testing before its released to the customer and be overheating? And then send it in for repairs and receive it back again with overheating problems? Shouldnt this have been caught on either occasion while Techs were doing testing on it?

Anyway I flat out snap and tell them I want my money back and they asked if I would mind talking to one of the higher up Techs so I agree. Within a few minutes of describing my problem, this Tech tells me to remove this chrome piece that is attached to the rear of the case and once I do so.... the temps drop to normal... one silly stinken piece of plastic on the back had a grill overtop of the where the air for the water cooling system comes out and was actually restricting the airflow. All this aggravation over something so simple... something that they had 2 chances to find... I mean seriously, if they are suppose to do burn tests and other things then why did it leave twice without being found? Anyway... system was back to normal temps and I went about installing my game Call of Duty 4.

After an hour of playing COD 4... BOOM... system reboots, I was like WTH? So again I play and after a few minutes... BOOM... reboots again. I was like "you got to be kidding me" I started looking around for cameras because I thought I might be on Funniest Home videos or something. My system continued to reboot no matter what I did. I kinda narrowed it down to what seemed like a memort leak but Alienware Techs didnt want to hear it... they wanted me to send it in again, told them they must be kidding... especially after the last dealings with them. I told them I would try and figure it out on my own before even thinking about boxing it back up. I tested and tested for months to no avail... sometimes it would be fine for a few hours and sometimes it would reboot within minutes, completly random. Finally I called up and just requested my money back and they had me jumping through hoops... finally I wrote a nice email to the CEO of Alienware describing how I got the money through my father passing and all the bs I had put up with since literally day one of owning the system... within 2 days I was called by some woman manager and told me I would receive every penny back without any of their tyical restocking fees.

2 weeks went by and the money was back in my account and I decided to take my chances in building my own system. I ordered up all my parts... QX9650, Maximus Formula Mobo, 4 Gig Dominator PC8500, 2 3870 X2's and so on. A couple days after ordering I was talking to a buddy and he asked me what case I ordered... OH MY GOD!!! I forgot to order a case!!! So doing some research I thought it would be cool to do water cooling, some of the system pics I saw on this one forum were really amazing. So I opted for an awesome case, Lian Li 343B... and just my luck... there wasnt one to found anywhere in the USA and everyone told me it would be almost 2 months before restock. I looked around for other cases but none stacked up to this one. So I waited the almost 2 months and had the system running like a champ and setup on a cardboard box.

Case came in and I was a little nervous about modding it myself because I wanted to mount 2 radiators in the top of the case, so I waited on a buddy a few days and he came over and helped me out some. We didnt accomplish much, so I had to do it on my own over the next week or so... it didnt turn out too bad, I did make a few too many cuts but all in all it was a success. Then I started installing what I could before being able to start the actual water cooling install... everything went rather smoothly. now came time for the water cooling install... man this was not fun. Trying to install the radiators was a major hassle, the tubing was a real pain to get on and the video card water blocks were kinda twisting the boards so I had to loosen them up some but was afraid at that point they might not be making the proper connection they needed for proper cooling. Anway... I kept on and finally got it all setup, pushed all kinds of paper towels inside the case and around any parts I could without any problems. I turned on the power to the pumps and sat there a few seconds while the radiators filled up and WOOSH!!! Leak out of radiator one... hmmmm... so then I hooked up radiator two and wadda ya know.... WOOOSH!!! Another damned leak... now I was ticked. All this time, all this money and all this aggravation and leaking radiators. I thought maybe they were defective but here after some investigation it turns out that a few of the screws I used (they were supplied by the grill company) were slightly longer then they should have been and punctured holes in the radiators.

I called up the Grill company and they tell me its not their problem, that I should have checked the lengths... well if these grills were designed for this specific radiator then why would I need to check anything? It never even crossed my mind to be honest. Called the radiator company and they tell me the typical thing... if it wasnt a defect in the radiator itself then its not their problem and wont be covered under warrenty.

So there I sit with all this water cooling equipment that was now useless unless I wanted to spend another almost $500 for new rads... I said the heck with it and opted to go all air. I dismantle the whole computer so I can remove all the water cooling blocks and then start putting everything back together. I needed some new thermal pads for one the 3870 X2's since some got damaged when taking them apart so I install one of them and put one aside while waiting on the shipment. I install the card and boot up... hmmmm... it gets half way through Windows loading screen and then I receive a black screen saying "No video signal" OH MY GOD!!! You got to be kidding? So I yank it out, take it apart and swap out all the thermal pads to the other one and that oen boots up fine. So I assumed that something went wrong with the card during the water block install and the twisting it was doing to it.

Called up ATI and explain to them but was told that since the housing was removed then my warrenty was no good. So there I was stuck with a busted $500 video card. A couple weeks went by and started hearing this crazy sound from computer... just my luck... the video cards fan was going. I yanked the one out of the busted one and replaced the bad one and been working fine since. But over the past couple months at least once or twice a day my screen goes black and tells me no video signal and I have to reboot to get it back again working.

This entire ordeal since day one has been nothing but a nightmare to say the least, so to be so fortunate as to win a 4870 X2 would put an end to this bad dream and put my system which was dedicated to my father back into 100% tip top shape and would sure be one fitting end to this project.

Robert McClelland

I'm need this because I love ATI so much because I fold at home on ATI team on my PS3. My computer sucks so bad because it's so slow to fold at home at ATI team with my currect ati card I never try because my CPU useage is so bad.

TCkiller

I have and awsome pc but is stills missing something the graphics card I belive that with 4870x2 I could make him a lot better.... I don't have fake stories to tell but I will tell something I don't have cash... but will not cry like the others in this forum... If I win I win if I lose I lose =D I wope that I will win I would be have for your reply =D "DH"

supdog

My wife said i would start getting took care of again if i updated my crappy 9200 so she can play the sims 2 at maxed settings and i have a new gigabyte board that is need of an upgrade.

kazuwelle

The plain truth of the matter is I have a family. If I buy this, I die (She showed my the knife...one I bought 3 months ago). I really can't afford this, but will risk almost certain death buying it (funny I didn't get in trouble for buying the knife....hmm). If I don't win, please send a cleric to my home for I will definitely need a rez.

Knight_Breed

Aspiring through a semiconductor gate,
Speed enhanced sevenfold,
Paired with Crossfire for it's mate,
Dust Nvidia see's when all is told.

Armoured

Hi
I need this graphics card for make a realistic rendering of my kite! 0_0

billionairebum

Hey guys its really great that your running such a cool competition. I had a really great rig, e6400 @ 3.2, 8800gt ect... it took me two years to come up with the cash, for real, saving and working holidays. Our family came under some heavy financial difficulty and i started working three jobs and studying. We had to move out our house and i sold most of my valuables to support my family( Mom, lil bro The day came that i sold my rig and it broke me in two. Two years later and although going through some rough times, we are doing a lot better. Some of my old clan buddies raised some money for me to rejoin them and we are only short a cpu and a graphics card. If you think i deserve the card then i thank you with tears in my eyes.
Regards.

markvm1

first let me say hello to all,and to answer the question why? would i like to have the
4870x2 card and the reply would be should i tell the truth or give some wacky sob story.
well i dont lie and my answer is simple i like ati better then nvidia and i would like to own
the fastest ati card out thier.

Allubz

Hiya guys,

After having moved thrice the last year, including from the Netherlands to Germany, I hadn't had a single cent to spend on a new rig as a poor philosophy student.
Today the day has come (I'm not joking here, it's 100% serious) that my 4-year old rig has finally died.
The two 6600GTs probably still work, the CPU is a joke anyway (a 3200+ Venice core clocked on 2.5GHz) and 2x 512MB ValueRAM isn't exactly what a hardcore gamer is looking for to begin with.
The problem is that the Zalman passive cooler I had on the northbridge slowly began to fall off the A8N-SLI SE NForce 4 chipset... I pulled out a Coolermaster heatsink with 50mm fan from an old computer and taped (really o.O) it to some free spots in my case
Today the northbridge gave up on me though, no booting, nothing.

It's dead

Conclusion: I need to buy a new rig else I can't play Warhammer Online which I just bought on Ebay for a mere 15.50 euros
- New mobo = 130.-
- New RAM = 60.-
- New CPU = 135.-
- New Graphix = 200 (HD4870 ftw !!)

That adds up to: 525.-

So I called my accountant and he told me there's a mere 100.- left to live on for the whole month, and then it's over x.x

If ANYONE feels for a student which rig actually today burned out and got lucky as hell to see the Driverheaven.net advertisement, please do share your feelings and help this chap out!

Thanks for reading,

- Al


--If my English is poor feel free to slap me, zeh germans have taken all my skills o.o

EDIT: Update: I managed to get myself a Maximus Formula Special Edition for a mere 135.- incl. shipping I had to lend the money from my girl friend whether you believe it or not.. xD

EDIT2: Right now I'm bankrupt. No money left, even managed it into the negatives just to get a rig again. I'd be most grateful for any donation and a HD4870x2 would seriously blow my heart out!

retrogamer1990

omura89@

Well i have an AMD 5400x2 + BE o/c'ed to 3.4ghz and my intel/nvidia whore buddy, got pissed when my 4850 owned his gtx 260 in a crysis benchmark. (22 fps to 20) (all on high maxed out 24 msaa) and now i am using a pci 5500 that i found in a pc that was tossed to the curb (yes if there is a pc on the curb i will take it)(also i would like to rub it in his face)(then own him in crysis)
though i wouldent be able to use a 4870x2 to its fullest potential so you might as well through in a spider setup with a phenom 9950 be and a water cooling setup a new case (antec 1200) oh possibly a new psu?

Molecular

Well I am only getting 30 FPS in Crysis Warhead at Enthusiast settings with my 8800GTX SLI config and it's got me popping Prozacs like they were M&Ms. With this card, I can at least pretend I'm going to get better frame rates. And as a bonus, I will donate each 8800GTX to the charity of DH's choice. =-)

chaotic.robot

I don't really want to win this card. No seriously. It is just too fancy.

hasher

ati 1600 enuff said. serously i magor gamer but i can play half the games now a days with out making game look black and white .(sarcasim) but i would really appreciate it and i would right a big review on the games i play and the diff it made in my machine thats not top of line to campre just how a new card in old system can make .im out work and i got make this system last anouther 2 years . oh did i mention cpu intel 820 .see why i need it .i really want to play warhead in all it glory so plz pick me the truely need one.

Fromashes

I imagine to myself,that by winning this card.I would have prove in the theory of 'chances of life'...which actually is making the chance for the dice to fall to your side.

Like everyone says,I should mention first,that I fully deserve this card,why?
[COLOR="Red"]I'm ''here'' to enjoy life to the max.[/COLOR] And having and [COLOR="DarkOrange"]'ATI Beast'[/COLOR] with you will surely make that come to life,so the conclussion lies on your shoulders.

A little of topic :Now I always wondered why is it that people fight,compete.And as I see it,one is so they could exist and the other reason is so they could WIN!Now fighting just so you could live is not the way I choose.You should fight so you could win,and thus survive in everyway as a stronger entety

I would like to explain to you,what is it to hold a graphics card for me in my hands...what is it to hold any new technology that comes to life.
I never held a just-born child in my hands,but I believe that it is something similar to that.
[COLOR="YellowGreen"]"When you unwrap the box you find there something giving you hope,happiness for the things that didn't happen yet,potential,happiness for it's purity in all,for it's place here"[/COLOR]...that is what holding new technologies is for me.

Main Reason:

It would bring me unfortold happiness to have in my hands the card you so cherishlly give away

and etc(the other not so significant reasons):

Like;

I have a 6600GT atm...Woopy!//sigh.....playing games lower then low :/
Don't have the money to afford a nice PC rig :/ all together,this would really be a start of a chain reaction of upgrading your PC...
I just LOVE eyeCANDY!!!...ATI brings that the BEST
I liked NVIDIA more,but things change and now I see,I want to keep up with time.ATI at long last proved that it will rock you much more.
I'm studing Grapchical Design,so for the future I will need some nice Graphic rendering unit....4870 will bring that up perfectly!
I want to catch up for the love that I didn't give to ATI...Give me a second chance xD(cookey:P)
Also,because I actually took the time to write this,to register.
That life is a b*tch sometimes on you and you have the power to give me a break )
...

grimmjow

Hi everybody,

I will explain to you why i want to win this card, it's very simple:

First i would like to say that i am an ATI fanboy since the begining (i agree ATI was not the best performance cards at the begining but they were cheap and that's good ...), and now ATI release the powerfull card "of the world", that's why i would like to be part of this Frame Rate world domination by ATI, but i can't buy the only thing (this ATI 4870 X2) that can make me an "ATI Frame Rate world domination super soldier terminator like" for life (you know the economy is not very good here in france too ....), so if i win this card, i can realize my dream "blow up all Frame rate in all existing game".

So for the mankind salvation, let me win this card and don't forget “May the Force be with you.”

[hobo]eclipse

ATI! that freakin sweet!

Cow_160483

I need that card to complete my rig, Muhahahahhahahhhaaaaaaa (evil laugh)

arcani

My girlfriend says I am playing to much and I muss specify that I have an old video card . I muss have it so I can give her right and the phrase "girls are allways right" to have a meaning again.
P.S. I love her but I love Crysis high resolution+details too.

Redslash