Options to improve noise on reference 660 Ti cooler

[antef]

I recently bought a PNY 660 Ti from Newegg when it was on sale just for a day or two for $200 AR. I knew it had the reference cooler and that it's not the ideal setup for OCing or lowest noise, but I was hoping it would be quiet enough at idle, and I couldn't pass up a 660 Ti for 200 bucks. Anyway, the fan idles at 1200 RPM with mid-30's C temps, and the only real issue I have with the noise profile is that it produces a slight buzz. Up close, the sound of the other fans in the system mostly drowns it out, but a few feet away the buzz is heard over other things. Are there any options I have to improve this that won't void the warranty? I've read you must flash a modded BIOS to turn the fan lower than this speed. Is it possible to open the plastic enclosure and swap the fan itself without further modification?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[f1sherman]

Take your pick.

 

[buklau]

I have an arctic cooling mono plus cooler on my asus radeon 7850. At less than 45% fan speed 1100RPM, you can't even hear it. Even at 100% fan speed 1500RPM, it's as loud as my stock asus direct copper cooler at 40% fan speed.

 

[tweakboy]

When in desktop put it on 30 percent fan. When you wanna game change that to 75 percent, and your set...

 

[truckerCLOCK]

+1. For the Artic Coolers. I used the TwinTurbo II and at 100% you can barley hear the fans. At 60% I had to double check fans cause I didn't think they were working.

 

[jacktesterson]

Twin Turbo 2's are quiet but look funny installed on a lot of cards

 

[f1sherman]

Twin Turbo 2's are quiet but look funny installed on a lot of cards

Then check out Extreme with GTX 460.

Fan may not be blowing over PCB, but heat sink still does the job of collecting and dissipating more heat than normal sized one.

 

[antef]

Thanks for all the links. I'm not sure if I'm ready to put on a complete custom cooler yet. When you do that, if you need warranty service, do you just replace the stock heatsink/fan and send it in? Or do you just give up warranty on the card forever. I guess replacing just the fan from the current cooler isn't a real option? I'm also interested in a BIOS mod to get the idle fan speed below 30%, because I'm betting that will help the sound and I think idling around 40 C or so would be okay. I see people discussing this here, I'm not sure how good/safe of an option that is. If it's an easy mod/flash, then it should be easy to flash back to stock in the future if need be.

 

[antef]

So I asked PNY to verify and she confirmed they won't honor the warranty if you replace the cooler or alter it in any way. I really think lowering the fan speed below 30% would help but BIOS mods seem rare for this generation of cards, and also carries its own risk. I'm now considering whether or not selling this and spending an extra $100 to get the MSI 660 Ti OC is worth it or not. Slight overclock and quieter cooling, worth a hundred bucks? Haven't decided yet...

 

[KevinH]

So I asked PNY to verify and she confirmed they won't honor the warranty if you replace the cooler or alter it in any way. I really think lowering the fan speed below 30% would help but BIOS mods seem rare for this generation of cards, and also carries its own risk. I'm now considering whether or not selling this and spending an extra $100 to get the MSI 660 Ti OC is worth it or not. Slight overclock and quieter cooling, worth a hundred bucks? Haven't decided yet...

They're going tos ay that. No way they can tell if you replace the cooler and put it back on though.

I have a PNY too and I have a close to dead silent system except for it. Might be time.

 

[amenx]

Lesson learned since my gtx 470 days. Never, ever go with a reference card again. Only cards with exotic, heat-pipes, dual/tri fan coolers such as those made by Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, etc, will do for me now. These cards usually cost only a little more than the ref cards, but their cooling, noise performance is massive in comparison.

 

[BrightCandle]

There was a review about half a year ago of reference verses the internal cooler designs and they determined the internal coolers were quieter for the same cooling if your case moved enough air. Otherwise they were worse.

The panacea of quiet is water cooling with lots of rads and 800 rpm fans. Near silent because it spreads the heat dissipation out over a large area. Ever since GPUs went above 150W I have felt the need to remove the noise. Of course if you are worried about replacing the cooler because of warranty then you certainly wont be wanting to use a water block!

 

[antef]

Lesson learned since my gtx 470 days. Never, ever go with a reference card again. Only cards with exotic, heat-pipes, dual/tri fan coolers such as those made by Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, etc, will do for me now. These cards usually cost only a little more than the ref cards, but their cooling, noise performance is massive in comparison.

I'm going to have to agree, I haven't upgraded in awhile and my last card was an MSI 8800 GTS 512. It only had one fan but I don't remember noise being a problem. I bought the PNY because the price was appealing, and even though my system is not silent without it, I just couldn't take the buzz. I made my decision and already returned the card to Newegg. I told the guy I considered the buzz a defect and he agreed to waive restocking fee as well as gave me a UPS label to ship, very nice! That's service.

So now I'm deciding what to get instead. I'm still pretty certain I want to stick with 660 Ti instead of going 7950. Of the 660 Ti's, I was set on the MSI, but after some reading it seems the ASUS is even quieter so now I'm considering this - good idea?

And I have to wonder why these exotic cooling solutions are necessary. The stock Intel cooler isn't too bad and is simple, I know these GPUs have twice or higher TDPs, but why is that the case? It seems out of hand.