Questions about the 8800 gt

My last computer died because somehow, my 6200 got too hot and burned the motherboard. So I heard that the 8800 gt runs kind of hot and I don't want the same thing to happen again. So will I need an aftermarket cooler for an 8800 gt?

The 8800 gt is a pci-e 2.0 card, will it work on my gigabyte 945GCM-S2C? I know most pci-e 2.0 cards work with older pci-e slots, but a few won't. Just making sure it'll fit.

Also, should I wait until 7/10 when the 4870 comes out to buy the 8800 gt? My friend says the prices of all the older cards should drop and maybe I should consider getting a 4850 then.

Finally, I'm going to be playing WoW, Guild Wars, Age of Mythology and Age of Empires 3 on max settings.

Ok I run 2 8800gt in sli.

If you do not bump the fan up past 29% it will run hot. 70c+ but I have never run into a heat issue with fans at 60%+. over 70% they get loud. This is with stock coolers. The ONLY reason I can think of to get an after market cooler for a 8800gt is because it should be quiter. I suggest a dual orb.

If the slot is a pci-e 16 it will fit and should work just fine. If it is a standard pci-e it will not.

1 8800gt will run gw at max settings no problems. As for the other games, LOL, never played them.

The recommended power supply for that card is 550watts.fyi.

Don't bother getting an aftermarket cooler unless it comes pre installed on the card. It would be better to just spend the money otherwise spent on an aftermarket cooler for getting a 8800 gts 512mb. It has a good, two slot cooler.

1. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot
2. 1 x PCI Express x1 slot
3. 2 x PCI slots

That mobo's fine. Only 2 RAM slots though :/

The 8800GTS cooler isn't spectacular either, and the performance gain isn't really worth the extra $60 (Cheapest 8800GT vs 8800GTS on Newegg, Inc Open Box'd).

Before you change coolers take off the original cooler and replace the thermal paste. They almost always use too much, and its a shitty brand.

FYI I doubt the 6200 burned the board, sounds like an electrical failure.

The evga specs page says minimum 400 and 450 for SLI mode. Should a Corsair 520 HX work fine?

Yes, the Corsair 520 HX should be more than sufficient so long as you're running a single card and you don't have like some insane number of hard drives or similar.

Ok, thanks for the replies everyone.