It's friggin' huge! One of the main reasons I went with this one over the GTX 260 was because the GTX 260 supposedly didn't fit in my case with out some bending or cutting. I didn't want any of that.
Notice how long the card is. It's exactly as long as my ATX mainboard. That's 9.6" or 243.8 mm.
I had to use the Molex-PCIe power addapter because I couldn't find my extra cables for my PSU. I wish Antec would've known how easily I lose stuff and not made their NeoHE 550 PSU a modular unit. I guess I'll be placing an order from Antec soon. I'll definitely be trying to tidy up my cables soon.
My girlfriend actually placed the order for me with her ATM card. In with the order, I was surprised to find her belated Christmas gift to me. It's an awesome game. Thank you Chrissie.
The first 2 things I learned about the HD4870 after installing it were that it's loud, and hot. Without any drivers at an idle desktop, the card was idling at 69C. After drivers and manual fan control, It was idling at 45C with the fan at 40%. I ran Furmark 1.6 with automatic fan speed and within minutes it had hit 90C. I stopped it right there.
I had read many Newegg user reviews on all the available HD4870 cards and most said that anything more than 50% fan speed is loud. I had forgotten that sound sensitivity is subjective. My 7900GS wasn't really quiet by any means, but it wasn't distractingly loud. Actually, behind my 120mm and 2x 92mm fans at 12v, plus the Intel OEM heatsink, it's hard to distinguish. The Radeon 4870 is very noticeable at anything more than 25% fan speed. And my computer is quiet, but not SPCR quiet. To combat the issue of temps vs noise, I'm going to be ordering my Scythe Musashi, and Xigmatek HDT-S1283 + bolt-thru kit. My rig will soon be quieter, and OC'd.
I was planning on getting my Asus Xonar D2 sound card, but the HD4870 really pushed upgrading the heatsinks in my computer to a new level of priority. I'm ordering the stuff today. so I'll have more to update on come beginning of next week.
