Passively Cooled Radeon 9100

[WobbleWobble]

I'm looking for a low budget video card and I'm debating between the Radeon 9100/9200. I know the 9100 is faster, but the only reason why I'm leaning towards the 9200 is because it can come fanless. Are there any 9100s that use passive cooling?

Also, any GF FX 5200s that use passive cooling? I haven't seen any of either.

 

[Twista]

Originally posted by: WobbleWobble
I'm looking for a low budget video card and I'm debating between the Radeon 9100/9200. I know the 9100 is faster, but the only reason why I'm leaning towards the 9200 is because it can come fanless. Are there any 9100s that use passive cooling?

Also, any GF FX 5200s that use passive cooling? I haven't seen any of either.

A bunch of theses 5200 are fanless but 5200's suck ass man. They are a geforce 4 mx 440 with Direct 9.0 which will play lastest games but with low and pain stalking fps!

 

[karmasalad]

I've read of several people who have run their Radeon 8500 (which is the 9100 is based on) with the fan unplugged without any problems. For peace of mind, you might want to look into mounting a low-noise Panaflo or NMB on something like a Zalman Fan Bracket to cool it, which should produce less noise than the stock fan.

 

[BD231]

Go with the 9100 unless your building a box strictly for silence, I have a 9200 and the card puts out a great geal of heat with no cooling which heats up the case pretty darn well over time. Performance wise the 9100 should spank the 200 but I honestly can't notice the difference between the two cards in BF1942.

 

[gregor7777]

Originally posted by: Twista

Originally posted by: WobbleWobble
I'm looking for a low budget video card and I'm debating between the Radeon 9100/9200. I know the 9100 is faster, but the only reason why I'm leaning towards the 9200 is because it can come fanless. Are there any 9100s that use passive cooling?

Also, any GF FX 5200s that use passive cooling? I haven't seen any of either.

A bunch of theses 5200 are fanless but 5200's suck ass man. They are a geforce 4 mx 440 with Direct 9.0 which will play lastest games but with low and pain stalking fps!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the GF4 MX series DX7? I don't think their DX8. My point is that in DX8 games, the 5200 should be far and away faster than any GF4 MX.

I'd still suggest anything based off of the 8500 though.

 

[Stunt]

you can usually run fanless as suggested above.
but the hsf on those cards are low profile, for product life i suggest putting on a heatsink that is a bit better.
i put on a large northbridge heatsink, it takes up 2 pci slots, but i didnt need them, well worth the fanless imo.

 

[WobbleWobble]

Gaming performance really isn't a huge issue, but it'd be nice to play little games that do have 3D (not Quake or Unreal or anything like that). I'm thinking of getting the ATI Radeon 9100, then unhooking the fan and using the Zalman fan bracket to blow over it (I've done this for my Kyro 2 for the past year). I might replace the heatsink with a NB one, but it might not be necessary. Thanks for the help guys!

 

[wacki]

just to let you know, you can choose any card from ATI you want and just add a passive zalman VGA cooler.
lookup
ZM80C-HP

ATI just release a special edition fanless edition of the 9800 PRO that is completely fanless!

 

[WobbleWobble]

That heatpipe is half the cost of the video card. To me, that doesn't seem like a good option money wise.

 

[Goi]

Another option would be the passively cooled Radeon 9600.

 

[WobbleWobble]

I was thinking about paying more for the Radeon 9600 non pro, but it's quite difficult to find one locally in Vancouver. I only store I see that has it, I hate (I'm sure lots of you Vancouverites would agree with me if I told you the place). Ordering online is not an option, but I'll check out the local computer distrubutors for it.