Low heat output card for moderate gaming?

[rcpratt]

Sad things happen when we grow up, get our own places, and our girlfriends want us to put our beautiful machines inside of a stuffy desk cabinet.

I'm currently using a Radeon 5850 with my machine, but it's to the point where any kind of gaming action sends it to 85 degrees C and super-fan-blast-mode. This, obviously is not conducive to being inside of a relatively small desk cabinet (it's just been chilling outside the desk for now).

What I'm looking for is pretty much the minimum best value card that will allow me to do some moderate gaming (COD, SC2, occaisonal WoW ), but be near-silent and not cause my entire desk cabinet to overheat. I'm not likely to upgrade again for a few more years, so it needs to be somewhat future-proof.

TIA

 

[BallaTheFeared]

You should future proof with a gaming girlfriend instead.

Otherwise you'd want something like the 7790 Dual-X, which is probably the most efficient card on the market and is low tier thus low power/heat/noise.

 

[Silenus]

Well you could upgrade to something 7 series that is more efficient. A 7790 would probably get you something roughly equivalent to 5850 performance for less power and heat output.

How bout this though. Why not think about modding the cabinet you have to perhaps give it some airflow while still hiding the computer visually. If there is a door on the front perhaps it can be vented somehow (think cutting vent holes in it then covering it in speaker grill cloth, or something along those lines. Let air in but still hide the contents). Then open up the back of the cabinet or have some large slow exhaust fans can pull hot air out of the cabinet. I'd even try this first before changing your video card.

That said, a side grade to a 7790 might not be much of a net difference. You can probably sell you 5850 for $140ish, and buy a 2GB 7790 for $170. The 1GB 7790 is even less.

 

[rcpratt]

How bout this though. Why not think about modding the cabinet you have to perhaps give it some airflow while still hiding the computer visually. If there is a door on the front perhaps it can be vented somehow (think cutting vent holes in it then covering it in speaker grill cloth, or something along those lines. Let air in but still hide the contents). Then open up the back of the cabinet or have some large slow exhaust fans can pull hot air out of the cabinet. I'd even try this first before changing your video card.

I'm definitely going to be doing some work on the back of the cabinet to increase airflow. I'm hoping that the combination of that and a new video card will adequately address it. My 5850 is so loud anyways that it's pretty darn annoying, so I'd rather address that before the front of the cabinet.

Thanks for the suggestions...I will look into the 7790.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

Yea hopefully you can do that, would be much cheaper than getting a whole new card which would probably end up having the same problem anyway.

 

[kalrith]

What's the desk cabinet like? I have my tower in a lower shelf/cubby in my desk. The front and back are completely open, but there's only about an inch of clearance around the tower. I have no problems with an overclocked 7870 (with the best-performing heatsink) and overclocked i5 2500k in there, and I'm only running 3 5-volted case fans.

If the cabinet is one that's closed, then make a mesh cabinet door for the front like the ones that come with some entertainment centers. Preferably open the back up completely, but some holes or exhaust fans would be another option.

Another question: how hot/loud was your 5850 before it got stuffed into the cabinet? If it went from 75 to 85, then maybe the problem is more with the card than the cabinet.

 

[jaedaliu]

Regardless of what card you get, You HAVE TO modify the wooden box to allow for air flow. as reference, I put my parents' router & modem in their closet. The wooden shelf it was sitting on warped from 2 solid state devices. Holes were cut in the door, the replacement shelf has been fine since.

The 7790 looks like a good option. Just make sure you have a way to remove excess heat.

 

[Stuka87]

Unless you do some major mods to the cabinet, you will have cooling issues. Why do they want them hidden anyway? Is it out in the middle of the living room or something?

 

[Smoblikat]

Buy ANY card you want, and get an antec khuler 620. Mount the cooler on the card...BOOM, DIY watercooling. It will be as quiet as the low RPM 120mm fans you can put on it, plus be able to operate in a stuffy cabinet since its water cooling. I have some pictures on how to mount it if you want.

 

[rcpratt]

Unless you do some major mods to the cabinet, you will have cooling issues. Why do they want them hidden anyway? Is it out in the middle of the living room or something?

?

It's in our second bedroom. The desk is not wide enough to allow the tower to go underneath the desk. Obviously we'd both rather it be hidden than hanging out on the floor in front of the cabinet with cables visible.

Another question: how hot/loud was your 5850 before it got stuffed into the cabinet? If it went from 75 to 85, then maybe the problem is more with the card than the cabinet.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70245725/#/60245721

Only one picture, so it's kind of useless, but the back of the cabinet is just thin plywood. Easy enough to just fully remove since nobody will ever see it anyways. Definitely would be simple to remove the entire center section of the cabinet door (leaving the ~2.5" trim) and covering with speaker mesh as well.

It's been hot/loud for awhile (a year?+) now. The card has definitely kind of crapped out, which is why I'm looking into replacing it as well as modding the cabinet.

Buy ANY card you want, and get an antec khuler 620. Mount the cooler on the card...BOOM, DIY watercooling. It will be as quiet as the low RPM 120mm fans you can put on it, plus be able to operate in a stuffy cabinet since its water cooling. I have some pictures on how to mount it if you want.

That's actually rather reasonable, if it really is zero maintenance. Definitely an option...

 

[Insert_Nickname]

It's been hot/loud for awhile (a year?+) now. The card has definitely kind of crapped out, which is why I'm looking into replacing it as well as modding the cabinet.

If you don't mind a little DIY, you could try reseating the heatsink with new thermal paste. I did that with my old 4850 and it sure helped temperatures. After all if its crapped out what have you got to loose...

 

[Jimzz]

Yea get a dual fan 7790 like this...

1Gb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202029

2Gb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125454

A 7850/7870 undervolted would also work.

And as said you need to have vents on your cabinet or nothing will work.

 

[lagokc]

Sad things happen when we grow up, get our own places, and our girlfriends want us to put our beautiful machines inside of a stuffy desk cabinet.

If your girlfriend is making you put your machine inside a cabinet it isn't your own place, it's hers. :whiste:

I agree with Balla, the best longterm solution is to upgrade your girlfriend. Otherwise the Radeon 7750 is presently the fastest card that doesn't require an external power connector.

 

[jaedaliu]

?

It's in our second bedroom. The desk is not wide enough to allow the tower to go underneath the desk. Obviously we'd both rather it be hidden than hanging out on the floor in front of the cabinet with cables visible.


http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70245725/#/60245721

Only one picture, so it's kind of useless, but the back of the cabinet is just thin plywood. Easy enough to just fully remove since nobody will ever see it anyways. Definitely would be simple to remove the entire center section of the cabinet door (leaving the ~2.5" trim) and covering with speaker mesh as well.

It's been hot/loud for awhile (a year?+) now. The card has definitely kind of crapped out, which is why I'm looking into replacing it as well as modding the cabinet.


That's actually rather reasonable, if it really is zero maintenance. Definitely an option...

If you're removing the rear, you're probably fine with any card and cooling solution. There will have to be a little gap in the back for air to escape. You can probably keep using your current card if you remove, clean, and reattach the heatsink. Odds are dust or aged heatsink goop is causing the increased temperature and fan speed.

 

[kalrith]

If you're removing the rear, you're probably fine with any card and cooling solution. There will have to be a little gap in the back for air to escape. You can probably keep using your current card if you remove, clean, and reattach the heatsink. Odds are dust or aged heatsink goop is causing the increased temperature and fan speed.

I agree with this. There's no need to go with a low-heat card if you're fixing the cabinet issue. As has already been said, your current card would probably work with some cleaning and new thermal paste.

 

[skipsneeky2]

My house was roasting yesterday and for the most part my TF3 7850 did not touch 60 cel,that is with a aggressive fan profile that can ramp as high as 55% depending on temps and for my much older games i have a 450 core/600 memory profile putting my 7850 at about 7700 performance and this is when the card has a hard time hitting even 50 cel.