2600XT - will a case fan provide sufficient cooling?

[poisonthewell]

First off, I'm not a gamer, as evidenced by my GPU choice. I have an HIS 2600XT (256MB, GDDR3 if it matters) that is in warranty with a fan that's rather loud when I boot my system. After a few minutes it quiets down and is silent.

I don't really want to RMA the card because other than the fan, it works just fine.

Questions

1) Any ideas on why it's loud at startup, but no other times? It will play 1080p mkv files for hours and not make a sound.
2) If I remove the dedicated fan attached to the card, in theory should a 120MM or 80MM fan placed next to it provide sufficient cooling? The fan is quite small, much smaller than most aftermarket GPU coolers I've seen. I'm willing to give a case fan a try and see how hot it gets, but if this isn't a sound idea at all please let me know.

Any other suggestions (other than spending money on a new GPU fan) are welcome, thanks for looking!

 

[Keitero]

The loud startup noise from the fan occurs on most cards. My 3870s do that as well when I power on my computer. As long as you can feel the air moving across the card, you should be fine with an 80mm or 120mm. That being said however, you should monitor the card's temps and stressing it under a load to see how hot it can get to.

 

[poisonthewell]

Thanks for the reply. The noise I'm hearing is definitely not what many would consider normal. It occurs for a good 3-4 minutes before winding down to a more quiet mode. I've had the card for close to a year, and it only started doing this recently. For those that live in colder climates, think of the noise that occurs when you first start a car that has a loose belt during the winter.

 

[poisonthewell]

Bump

 

[s44]

Just stick an Accelero S2 on it.