I got a 9070XT for $600, but then ended up spending a couple hundred extra bucks anyway because the time pressure caused me to accidentally pick the wrong one that was too thick to fit in my case. It spiraled into basically a new SFF build with case, SFX PSU, ditching my 500GB M.2 + 3.5" drive for a 4TB M.2 drive, etc. 🙃
I feel your pain fellow SFF enthusiast. I did my homework this time though, and that’s why I paid a bit above MSRP but it did take a bit of attention and careful planning, including dedication to snatch a fitting model from the claws of the scalpers. All in all I paid roughly 110% MSRP for a nice custom model. Also, the Louqe Raw S1 is just an absolutely amazing sff if you don’t have special requirements for storage space.
The sad thing is, the only card that would have fit my original case (a true two-slot card) was the PowerColor “Reaper,” which was also a $599 card (and which would have actually cost me $599, as I was at Microcenter). I just overlooked it in the damn spec sheet as I was frantically trying to pick a card while standing in line with the employee handing out vouchers bearing down on me.
Don’t get me wrong, the Gigabyte “Gaming OC” I ended up with has a longer warranty and a slightly higher clock speed (and probably a better cooler, since it’s thicker), so it’s certainly not bad. It’s just that those aren’t the specs that really mattered to me in retrospect. I’m still kicking myself about the cascade of upgrades it caused, and also that it’s 2xDP/2xHDMI instead of 3xDP like the “Reaper” card, which means one of my three monitors behaves slightly differently than the other two. It’s an annoying reminder of my mistake.
I got a 9070XT for $600, but then ended up spending a couple hundred extra bucks anyway because the time pressure caused me to accidentally pick the wrong one that was too thick to fit in my case. It spiraled into basically a new SFF build with case, SFX PSU, ditching my 500GB M.2 + 3.5" drive for a 4TB M.2 drive, etc. 🙃
I feel your pain fellow SFF enthusiast. I did my homework this time though, and that’s why I paid a bit above MSRP but it did take a bit of attention and careful planning, including dedication to snatch a fitting model from the claws of the scalpers. All in all I paid roughly 110% MSRP for a nice custom model. Also, the Louqe Raw S1 is just an absolutely amazing sff if you don’t have special requirements for storage space.
The sad thing is, the only card that would have fit my original case (a true two-slot card) was the PowerColor “Reaper,” which was also a $599 card (and which would have actually cost me $599, as I was at Microcenter). I just overlooked it in the damn spec sheet as I was frantically trying to pick a card while standing in line with the employee handing out vouchers bearing down on me.
Don’t get me wrong, the Gigabyte “Gaming OC” I ended up with has a longer warranty and a slightly higher clock speed (and probably a better cooler, since it’s thicker), so it’s certainly not bad. It’s just that those aren’t the specs that really mattered to me in retrospect. I’m still kicking myself about the cascade of upgrades it caused, and also that it’s 2xDP/2xHDMI instead of 3xDP like the “Reaper” card, which means one of my three monitors behaves slightly differently than the other two. It’s an annoying reminder of my mistake.