Quiet videocard?

[zelek]

I picked up a Gainward GF3 Ti200 and I think it's great, but the fan is the loudest thing in my case. My P4 heatsink and psu aren't very loud, which is probably why I can hear the whine of the card so much. I almost got the Leadtek gf3 ti200 tdh instead, and I was wondering if anyone knows if it's fan is quieter? Or, would something like a blue orb be less noisy?

I could never hear my Elsa gf2 gts card. I also have a Radeon 8500 oem, and while it isn't exactly silent, it is just less annoying than the gainward card.

 

[cmdrdredd]

do you use speakers when playing games? or headphones? If so why do you care so much about the case and fan noise?

 

[Zim Hosein]

zelek, maybe the fan on your Gainward is defective as I've never considered the fan on my graphics card an issue.

 

[oldfart]

People have different ideas what is quiet and what isn't. I'm sometimes very surprised at what some people consider quiet. My VisionTek GF3 also had a very loud fan. No, it wasn't defective, just loud (bad design). I replaced it with a Crystal ORB which was almost as bad. I removed the "TT" lid and did a 7 volt mod. Now, its quiet and still cools very well. I put an MSI GF3 Ti200 in a PC recently that had a much better design. Nice and quiet right out of the box. I'm hoping the new GF4 ref HS/Fan design is a quiet one.

 

[thornc]

Just use passive cooling... no fan no noise.....

 

[tallest1]

Radeon 7000 has a heatsink and no fan. Not sure if it makes noise tho

 

[zelek]

>Just use passive cooling... no fan no noise.....


I had thought about unplugging the fan. Is that going to shorten the life of the card considerably, even if I don't overclock?

 

[oldfart]

You could run the stock fan off 7 volts instead of 12. this would require it to run off a PS connector instead of the one on the card. If you want to do it (its not too hard), I'll give you more info.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I don't get your obcession with making your stuff quiet? I'd rather have my PC sound like a rocket on liftoff and cool it down 3x as well as it would with it bting as quiet as a cold night on a lake.

 

[oldfart]

I cant understand how people can stand to be in the same room with a noisy system. Many people feel the same way. To each his own.

 

[sc0tty8]

Dude, you cooling is quiet....

I got some pretty interesting cooling....a big oh box fan on the side of my computer on med......

I would not put smaller fans on...I would volt mod them first.....from 12v to 7v....

For video(especially GF3) I recommend usin the diggest heatsink.fan combo, like them alpha rackmount heatsinks....they will help ya....

 

[thornc]

...
Just get a good card without active cooling(fan)...of course if you are an hard-core gamer this isn't an
option in which case a voltage mod or a better Heatsink-fan would be better...