So I need to buy a GTX970, I am torn between the EVGA SSC and Strix.
 
EVGA Pros :
- Higher factory OC
- 6+2 phase
- 3 Displayport (I got 2 monitors)
 
Cons :
- 1x8pin, 1x6pin
 
Things I dont really care that much about :
- Dual Bios
- Smaller cooler
 
Asus pros :
- 1x8pin
 
Cons :
- 6+1 phase
 
Things I don't care :
- Wider Cooler
- Metal shroud
 
I have no idea which one has the better performing cooler. If anyone has tried both, I would like to hear about the noise and performance of the cooler from both cards. I have a dead silent computer (loudest part is my 5900rpm hard drive, my fans run as low as 300rpm). However, I have no idea why the video card would need 1x8 and 1x6 pci-e power connectors, in every single reviews I read, none of the cards get over 200W even at full load, so I am confused. Can I run the card with only the 1x8pin for a total of 225W? Anyone tried?

MasterMike
So I need to buy a GTX970, I am torn between the EVGA SSC and Strix.
 
EVGA Pros :
- Higher factory OC
- 6+2 phase
- 3 Displayport (I got 2 monitors)
 
Cons :
- 1x8pin, 1x6pin
 
Things I dont really care that much about :
- Dual Bios
- Smaller cooler
 
Asus pros :
- 1x8pin
 
Cons :
- 6+1 phase
 
Things I don't care :
- Wider Cooler
- Metal shroud
 
I have no idea which one has the better performing cooler. If anyone has tried both, I would like to hear about the noise and performance of the cooler from both cards. I have a dead silent computer (loudest part is my 5900rpm hard drive, my fans run as low as 300rpm). However, I have no idea why the video card would need 1x8 and 1x6 pci-e power connectors, in every single reviews I read, none of the cards get over 200W even at full load, so I am confused. Can I run the card with only the 1x8pin for a total of 225W? Anyone tried?

You need to use both power connections for the card to work properly. I haven't heard the Strix coolers in action, but the ACX 2.0 coolers are bloody quiet. I've always been a fan (ha) of the blower styles, but an ACX cooler running at full speed makes less noise than a blower-style card at max speeds. It also has a much gentler "woooosh" sound instead of a dentist-drill turbine.
 
And, as djmorgan said, you get us, your faithful CS and Technical support people, always there to help 24/7.

MasterMike
Ya I agree about customer service. I like it. However, I had a bad experience with my current EVGA GTX760 with the ACX cooler, it was making a rattling noise so I replaced it.
 Is this a problem on the 900 series?
Backplate is nice to have too.

I find it hard to answer 'your doubts' and questions, this is a benefit of a forum! read the posts from actual users, do you see complaints about noise, power issues, poor customer support? of course understanding a forum is a place for problems, few say nice things  the bottom line is you must make your own decisions based on your own research.
 
Good luck in your quest
 
David

I've been with EVGA years because of outstanding customer and technical support. ASUS never provided to me (when I used their products) the same equivalent.

ASUS support is a joke.
i bought a maximus VII hero motherboard and when i went to instal the drivers the driver disk that came with it was corrupted,would not work.
contacted asus support and told them the problem and offered to buy a new  disk,they could not sell me one or send me one.
had to download  all the drivers they said.
kind of hard to do when the lan  will not work without the drivers.
had to buy a netgear wifi to download the drivers and still have problems with the board.
newegg would replace it with rma but then no pc for 2 to 3 weeks if i went that route.
this is my last asus product i will ever buy.

I've dealt with alot of card manufacturers (both on the Green and Red team sides).  IMO, as other people have been saying, the ultimate selling point for EVGA is their customer care.  This is especially true if you're a person that prefers to buy reference design boards.  No other manufacturer in existence (not even past ones such as BFG) will give you as little hassle as EVGA does ... nor process your RMA's and support requests in as professional a manner.
 
 
I'd hate to say that being an EVGA customer is like being treated as family, as that's going a bit overboard probably.. I can say though that you're NOT treated without any returned "loyalty" for your business.  Things break, it happens to everyone no matter how-hard-it-sucks ... Yet with EVGA, there's almost no headache beyond the initial pain of experiencing your hardware failing.  You can basically rest assured that you'll be taken care of instead of argued with, and that the problem will actually be solved rather than customer support giving you excuses of why you can't have an RMA rather than taking steps to get you back up and running.
 
*Once you've had a few cards fail on you, and you've dealt with EVGA, you start to feel that it's not that big a deal because you start to trust them.
 
 

MasterMikeHowever, I have no idea why the video card would need 1x8 and 1x6 pci-e power connectors, in every single reviews I read, none of the cards get over 200W even at full load, so I am confused. Can I run the card with only the 1x8pin for a total of 225W? Anyone tried?

 
I've unintentionally done this and not pushed in a power connector all the way on prior boards.  The result is that the machine won't post, and you'll receive a prompt on the screen during system startup telling you to connect the PCI-E power cables before letting you proceed.
 
Regardless the actual needed power.  More headroom never hurts anything, especially if the card can draw less from your PCI-E slot and if you're running multiple cards in SLI.  (less chance of melting that EATX connector)  Though the extra headroom is probably intended for overclocking realistically.
 
 
EDIT: Probably also worth mentioning that if you're not massively overclocking your board, the stock VRM's are just fine / won't give you issues.  This is somewhat tied into your power connector comment, as I get the feeling that you don't plan on pushing the card that hard.  (from the standpoint of a quiet system)

I would stick with EVGA.  There are a ton of Asus customer service horror stories.  You will wait weeks on an RMA just to receive the same part back not fixed but with added scratches.

well Mike, in case you are still in doubt - I can confirm all the good words said above.
I'd go with EVGA if I were you. 

EVGA is also a leading partner of NVIDIA in North America.

Edit: To address your question about the coolers, the ACX coolers are a great design that a very quiet compared to stock options. While they may not be as quiet as a cooler with three fans vs. the two on an ACX (because you can run the fans slower on a tri-fan cooler depending on the size of the heatsink underneath), they do an excellent job at keeping the card well within respectable ranges. Now, when I say respectable, I mean based on my preferences. I prefer to keep a card as cool as possible. With the 900 series, my target temps are anything beneath 75c. I prefer something below around 70c because that tends to be when overclocking begins to be affected by the temperatures, but my reference 980 with the stock cooler can do 1600mhz on the core along with a +500 on the memory (effective 8ghz) after a little bios tweaking. You won't be able to do that on a card with only a single 8pin connector for power. Rather than pull 250w, it can pull 285w as well as avoid the throttling from power target as I increased the power target as well. It runs a bit warmer, and if pushed gets warmer than I'd prefer, but there's only so much the stock cooler can do. Put that AIO on there and I'm sure it'd be nice and chilly!
 
I've been buying nothing but EVGA GPU's since I built my first PC. I was swayed because I was impressed with the positive feedback everyone had about their customer service. I'd owned BFG and MSI cards before (8800GS OC from BFG and a 5600 from MSI), but those were simply thrown in to a boutique pc that I owned at the time. I also used to swear by their motherboards, but I haven't had an EVGA motherboard since my X58 Classified. While it was a beast for sure, it seemed like their motherboards began to have issues after the x58 chipset. It seems they're pretty solid once again, but I've been purchasing Asus motherboards since then. Would I go back to EVGA boards? I sure would! And I may when I do my next build. I'll just have to see how reviews and customer satisfaction are at that time.
 
Sorry for being long-winded, but I'm just throwing out my reasons for owning EVGA over another brand. I'm not a fanboy by any means, but EVGA has always gone well above and beyond to rectify any issue I've ever had. One phone call is all it usually took to resolve any issue I've had (RMA replacements, ordering difficulties, etc.)

As for the video cards, excellent warranties, really awesome coolers (especially their ACX and now AIO for the 980s), dual bios is great for anyone looking to get the most out of their card without fear of bricking it, very lax on the removal of the coolers, excellent RMA service and again, seriously, any time I've called EVGA with an issue, I've been on the phone for less than 10 minutes total for a complete resolution. It's usually far less than that, more like five minutes!
 
This is why I choose EVGA every time, for myself as well as all of my friends and even friends of friends. If I build a PC, you can guarantee there is an EVGA GPU in it at the least.

MasterMike
I have no idea which one has the better performing cooler. If anyone has tried both, I would like to hear about the noise and performance of the cooler from both cards. I have a dead silent computer (loudest part is my 5900rpm hard drive, my fans run as low as 300rpm). However, I have no idea why the video card would need 1x8 and 1x6 pci-e power connectors, in every single reviews I read, none of the cards get over 200W even at full load, so I am confused. Can I run the card with only the 1x8pin for a total of 225W? Anyone tried?

strix runs at lower temperature and more quiet cuz of 2 reasons
1. strix factory oc'ed at lower clock 1114mhz while ssc at 1190mhz.
2. strix uses seperate heatsink for MOSFET (same as kepler) while SSC uses mmcp - memory/MOSFET cooling plate.
 
 

EVGA
Superior customer service.
Has step-up program.
Better tech support.
far better reliability.
(read my quote. hehe)
 
Asus
no step-up program.
known (but can't verify) to have more issues when having mixed parts with other manufacturers.
(Can't verify their tech support)

Ya I know this is the EVGA forums. I also posted on other forums. I know there was a heatsink issue, but it appears to be fixed now. I posted here so I can read what people actually like with EVGA GTX 970.
 
I already ordered the EVGA GTX 970 SSC. Took suggestions from a few forums... It seems like the "newest" cards from evga are better.

Stephenk291
Customer Service is top notch, EVGA is also active on their own forums.. ASUS isn't.
U.S Based company
better/quicker RMA Process
Step-up option
 
I've owned Asus products for years but I've been buying less and less of them due to their awful customer service and archaic warranty process.

When you have amazing customer service, it helps give us owners the sense of "peace of mind". Call it what you want, but you get the idea.

Sajin
Why go with EVGA for GPU's?
 
#1 Customer service.
 
#2 You can change the thermal paste on your GPU & you can use a aftermarket cooler on your GPU without voiding the warranty. Stock cooler must be re-installed when RMA'ing though.
 
#3 EVGA makes the best GPU's. Why settle for less?
 

I will agree with Sajin.  Great customer support is going to win my business every time and so far EVGA has been top notched.  I have never had to use Asus' customer service, but have heard horror stories about them, so no 1st had experience.  However, I have used EVGA's customer service to RMA a card and that went very smoothly; no questions asked, just explained the problem and they sent out a new card.  I can say that I never had a problem with my Asus GTX 560 cards, nor the Asus MB.