Silent graphics card?

Question

I have a shuttle xpc st20g5 that i've just build and i bought an asus nvidia 6600gt 256mb for it to replace my old ati radeon x300. I dont play a lot of games but just the occasional black and white 2 or similar. I found that the 6600gt although it has blue leds in the fan created a lot of noise which i cant control. So i am wondering what graphics cards can people recommend for the followng. Needs to be 256mb, quite fast, no fan or an extremely near silent one, i only have a 240watt power supply so cant be anything to extreme and can only be one slot wide. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Well, since you dont have a lot of room for upgrades, I would suggest getting an aftermarket cooler for your graphics card. Zalman is a very dependable brand. They keep your graphics card about 20 degrees celcius cooler which gives increased performance. They also have very quiet fans.(most are adjustable).



This fan is compatible with your graphics card and costs only $25



http://shop2.frys.com/product/4361515?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Answer 2

Is silent rare in your case? I'd just have on the loudest heaviest heavy metal and rock out while I'm go my stuff on the pc, you know?

Answer 3

This card was recently reviewed by computer buyer and given a good write up for a mid ranking gaming card. It was relatively cheap and quiet.





http://www.computerbuyer.co.uk/reviews/236691/sapphire-radeon-hd-4550.html

Answer 4

sorry

i think a fast gpu requires a cooling maybe a lot of cooling ,and i can not

imagine a device which run hotter with out cooling fan.

get a liquidcooled system it give you peace of mind.

Answer 5

hi chris

silent graphic cards are becoming more popular as pc builders are tired of mega loud graphic cards that use loads of power and require 600+ watt psu,s

however the main problem with fanless graphic cards is the limited speed it can run at without getting too hot

there are however a few decent cards around such as the Asus Extreme 8600GT 512MB Silent ( http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/nVIDIA+GeForce+8+Series/Asus+Extreme+8600GT+512MB+Silent+PCI-E+?productId=28044 ) which has a fanless design but still manages to have some pretty decent specs including a 540mhz core clock and 512mb of ddr3 memory running at 1400mhz,and with a 128bit memory bus and support for direct x 10 and pixel and shader model 4.0 this is quite a performer

another card worth considering is the Asus ATi Radeon HD 3650 512MB ( http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/ATI+Radeon+3000+Series/Asus+ATi+Radeon+HD+3650+512MB+PCI-E+Silent+?productId=31318 ) which comes with a ASUS V-Cool® Silent Heatsink for near silent operation

it has a excellent 725mhz core clock and 512mb of gddr3 memory running at 1400mhz,this is the same as the 8600gt and is around as fast as a memory clock will run without further cooling such as a fan or water cooling

for a budget card theres plenty of radeon HD3450,s such as the Club 3D ATI Radeon HD 3450 Passive Dual Heatpipe 256MB ( http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/ATI+Radeon+3000+Series/Club+3D+ATI+Radeon+HD+3450+Passive+Dual+Heatpipe+256MB+PCI-E2.0+?productId=33753 ) and the Gigabyte HD 3450 256MB PCI-E ( http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/ATI+Radeon+3000+Series/Gigabyte+HD+3450+256MB+PCI-E+?productId=33759 ) and both these cards have modest specs including a 600mhz core clock and 800mhz memory clock,and again the core clock is pretty decent considering its fanless design,however a.t.i have a knack of producing some excellent graphic card designs using fanless configurations

however most cards will require a power supply upgrade,there are little if any pci-express cards(and agp) that will run with a 240watt psu,and i am pretty suprised that you managed to run the 6600gt with less than a 350watt psu

a inexpensive psu upgrade would be ideal and a excellent choice would be something like the Xilence 480W Gaming PSU ( http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/450w+to+499w/Xilence+480W+Gaming+PSU+?productId=19869 ) ,at only £22 this is a excellent and efficent psu

even something like the " 600W ATX SurgeControl Power Supply " ( http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/500w+%2B/600W+ATX+SurgeControl+Power+Supply?productId=22653 ) would be ok,i recently bought this to accompany a radeon HD2600xt i bought for my wifes acer t671 and it runs fine,as a budget psu i would not overload it,however a single graphics card,2 hard drives and 2 x optical drives would be fine using this psu

finally if you experience alot of noise from your graphic card you can allways change the cards stock cooler,for example replacing it with a " Zalman VF1000 LED Silent VGA Cooler " ( http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Fans%2C+Heatsinks%2C+Coolers/Graphics+Card+Coolers/Zalman+VF1000+LED+Silent+VGA+Cooler?productId=32961 ) would reduce the noise quite significantly and as with all zalman coolers they are of excellent quality

any problems let me know

good luck mate !