They're pretty good considering their price, but I wouldn't try to hit 4Ghz with one.

^^Agreed.

Ok,

Another cooler I like as well is the Corsair Hydro H50 CPU Liquid Cooler. Looks like it got good reviews.

I just bought one. It doesnt cool as well as the V8.

Well, I will look into the V8 cooler Oh, Hali_Newfi. I have a Silencer 610 PSU. Bought all my gear fro Mystery Byte. Whats a good o/c for the 5850?

I have seen several online reviews of the 5850. Most show its capable of a 'max' OC.

What I mean by that is in CCC, Both sliders are maxed out for top gpu and mem clocks.

I meant to get into MB a couple days ago to pick up a 5850 as I asked them to hold one for me, I will get in on Friday at the latest to get it, then i will be able to let ya know for sure

The max varies by manufacturer, I think my Asus goes up to 1200/1400, which your not going to hit on air.

Ya Hali_Newf. Let me know how you make out. And I have the Sapphire 5850. Any good for O/C?

Yeah it OC's really well due to a really efficient cooler, and fan is high cfm.

The Sapphire I'm assuming is a release (stock) design, therefore all of them are the same (Sapphire, Gigabyte etc) with the same components and coolers.

I have a Sapphire 5850, I haven't touched it's clocks yet, due to the fact nothing I've played lagged noticeably enough to warrant an OC. I run my fan at 35 however to ensure it always stays cool. I never break 55 on 35% at stock clocks.

I am told however you can practically turn a 5850 into a 5870 with the proper clocks.

Sapphire has a toxic edition factory oc'ed and it has good aftermarket oc's as well. The others also have re-engineered cards out there but besides power consumption and a factory oc, not really much difference.

Well Friday morning I am going to head to MB and pick up the ATI 5850. Saying goodbye to two 4870's in x-fire. When prices drop on them I am going to grab another and see how that runs. Cool and quiet I am betting.

right on man. I only had for about a week. I love it so far. Love to O/C it a bit to see what she can do. Dumb question. How do you control the fan rpm?

Catalyst control center. Where you actually run the overclock. Should be a check box to tick to give you manual fan control.

see photo.

Kewl, thanks.