Heyas, everyone...
To start off, everyone always asks me about my name... "FloorPizza". Back in the year 2000, I was playing Unreal Tournament with my two young nephews. A guy on the other team hit me with a rocket launcher, spreading my guts all over the floor. "Dewd, u luk like floor pizza" my opponent typed in chat. My nephews fell off their chairs laughing. I have been "FloorPizza" on various places on the 'net, as well as "Uncle FloorPizza" to my nephews ever since.
But FloorPizza wasn't my first name here on the EVGA forums. Somehow when EVGA changed over their forum software, my old username and password got all confuzzled. It's a long story, but I could never get it worked out, so I had to create a new account in 2014. I wasn't really a frequent guy on the forums, as it seemed like I only posted when shopping for a new card, or in the case of a problem with my current card(s).
I have owned EVGA 7800's, 8800's, a GTX 295, and am currently running a 980 I bought through EVGA's step up program, as I wasn't happy with the EVGA 970 I started out with. I've been a very loyal customer of EVGA. I also had a couple before the 7800's that I don't remember. A lot of you guys probably don't remember the huuuuge problems surrounding the NVIDIA 7800 cards, but to say it was a mess is a huge understatement. Yet EVGA went above and beyond the very best customer service during that time. Even though it was an NVIDIA problem, EVGA stood behind their NVIDIA cards 150%. I think I ended up going through six 7800's before I finally got one that worked. EVGA even went to the extraordinary length of sending out a new card before receiving the defective one back, just so you had *something* (even if it didn't work properly) so you could use your computer. Now *that's* great customer service, and they insured a life long customer in the process.
Even though I'm singing the praises of EVGA at the top of my lungs, I must say that I am a bit disappointed... even after being a loyal customer for all these years and buying more graphics cards than an average guy would buy in a lifetime, I still don't qualify as an ELITE member. I just purchased the cpu cooler/GTX 1080 combination offer, and even still I don't qualify. : ( I imagine if there was some way to restore my old forum name, I'd have enough posts, but still... even after buying all those cards through the years, I still don't qualify until I spam the forums with 100 total posts (actually, I'm attempting to make useful posts as much as I can).
Ah well, I really don't mind. EVGA is still top dog in my book.
Thank heavens for their current combination offer, without which I would be unable to build my son's very first gaming rig. I needed to get a cpu cooler for his new build anyway, so buying the cpu cooler/ GTX 1080 combination EVGA currently offers was a no-brainer. I may even end up buying one of their motherboard/GTX 1080 combination offers so he can have 1080 SLI goodness in his new rig! Ah, but then he'll insist on a high dollar 4k monitor. : / He's a good kid, so he'll probably end up getting it, even as I suffer through with my 9 year old i7-920, x58, GTX 980 setup.
I'm hoping my timing on this purchase is good; with any luck the next generation of NVIDIA GPU's will hit the market while I'm still in the Step Up window of my new 1080. Speaking of the Step Up program, as mentioned I used it to go from a 970 to a 980, and the process was slick, easy, fast. There was a shortage of cards back then, as it was still just released and demand was huge. They had a queue setup where guys that were in the Step Up program could look to see how close they were getting to having their card(s) shipped out. Once again, EVGA FTW! :D
I'm so much of an EVGA fan boi that even if all the other OEM NVIDIA card makers suddenly had stock, I'd hold off and wait for EVGA.
I was thinking of going with mostly Corsair stuff in his build, as I've always had great luck with Corsair hardware, but after having such fantastic experiences with EVGA, I think I've changed my mind, and will be using as many EVGA components as I can in his new build.
I'll be 51 years old on February 17th, and I bought my first EVGA gpu when I was (I think) 31. So thank you, EVGA, for a wonderful 20 years of graphics goodness. Here's hoping for another 20 ahead. :)