Fanless (or silent) GPU

[tog]

Given that do you think I'd be OK with an Antec Sonata 3, 3.3GHz i5 2500k, and midrange GPU like the Sapphire Ultimate Radeon HD 6670 which runs at 80C at max load?

..and, more urgently, is the 6670 actually hackintosh compatible? It's in the CustoMac builds on this site but I've heard mixed reports...

 

[Red Chief]

Hi tog,

The Fortress is better suited for passive cooling with its vertical airflow (heat goes up). I want one too. As far as I know, you can go fanless removing all the useless fan holders, and using a massive cooler made for that purpose, like the Thermalright HR02, which is heavy with spaced fins. I think the Scythe Ninja 3 should do the trick too, but I'm not sure it fits (the HR02 does, but be careful with the DDR3 heatspreaders).
Depending where you live, it would be a nice idea to monitor the temps with iStat Menu. In summer, fanless is clearly a bad idea for hardware.

About the GPU, Duke Nukem is not a very demanding game, and you'll be able to play with low settings, 720p resolution or older games like WoW, but try Crysis or GTA4 and your GFX will melt. You may experience graphic bugs in a matter of minutes, due to temperature going well over 110°C on the VRM.
The thing is: you don't need to go fanless to be silent. A good fan like Noctua NF-S12 (not the NF-P12), Scythe Kama flow at 500rpm are completely silent. They don't move much air, but it's enough to lower the temps of a non OC'ed CPU/GPU.
Plus, airflow "hides" electronic buzzes and high-pitched HDD scratches that are much more annoying. A totally silent computer would cost something like 300$ more than a standard one, with a passive PSU, high-end coolers, acoustic foam for vibrations, an SSD, thick steel or thicker aluminum case, and so on.

 

[Red Chief]

Just seen phil_phister's wet dream on a well-known German e-tailer, the passive 6850 from Powercolor!
http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info. ... etail.html

Still, I would fix at least a 92mm fan with cable ties on it.

 

[Rectape]

Hi,

I'm looking to those graphic cards too.

Can somebody tell if it's working with the sandybridge recommend builts?

There's also the ZOTAC GTX 430 FANLESS.

I wanna go silent.

Thanks

 

[charred_water]

I couldn't find a fanless card which was recommended (and still available to buy) so I went with the Gigabyte GV-R6850OC-1GD which was recommended in one of the custom Sandy Bridge builds. This card has two ultra quiet pwm fans. Gigabyte calls it their WindForce technology. I had my doubts due to past experiences with very loud/shrill fans on graphics cards. But the GV-R6850OC-1GD is actually very quiet. I have an Antec Solo case with three Nexus fans, a fanlesss Prolima Megahalems heatsink on my Core i7-2600 and a Nexus NX-5000 with Nexus fan so I am into quiet systems. I can't hear the graphics card fans with the case closed. I am not a gamer so I have not stressed the graphics card and can't say how it sounds under load. But it's certainly quiet under normal usage. I too would be interested in hearing if someone has a fanless graphics card working in a Sandy Bridge build. I asked for advice on several threads. Since no one had any recommendations (which were still for sale), I bought the Gigabyte GV-R6850OC-1GD and fortunately it worked out.

 

[tog]

There's also the ZOTAC GTX 430 FANLESS.

Is that the same as this GT430, or does the X make a difference? It looks high ( 4.37in - 111.11mm), will it fit in a standard case like the Antec Sonata III?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zotac-ZT-40601- ... 980&sr=1-1

 

[Rectape]

Ah excuse me I made a mistake.

Yes it's this one, but on the picture there are 2 dvi and 1 hdmi:

http://www.zotacusa.com/zone-geforce-gt-430-zt-40601-20l.html

 

[tog]

Hi partimers, any news? My build has been slightly delayed so I'm thinking there may be some news on the quiet mid-range graphics cards front since I last researched...

Up to now the MSI Cyclone 6850 seems to be my choice. Quite powerful, with quite some people stating it is quiet (it even has a switch to choose between silent/performance modes).

Interesting, did you find any better sources on the noise level? That review's noise testing hardly sounds professional! I presume you need to open the case to access the switch...

It also may comfortably fit my Antec Solo.

Have you got any further confirming this?

Ta,
tog

 

[partimers]

I have ended up buying MSI 6850 Cyclone. I actually bought two of them, one for my Hackintosh and one for my XBMC HTPC on the living room. The card is rather quiet. On idle (for example on playing videos) it is not louder than my Noctua NF-12P fan case. On load (while gaming) it ramps up. But not noticeable since gaming sounds make it practically not audible. I am quite happy with them.

 

[tog]

I have ended up buying MSI 6850 Cyclone. I actually bought two of them, one for my Hackintosh and one for my XBMC HTPC on the living room. The card is rather quiet. On idle (for example on playing videos) it is not louder than my Noctua NF-12P fan case. On load (while gaming) it ramps up. But not noticeable since gaming sounds make it practically not audible. I am quite happy with them.

Ah cool, would you mind sharing all the components you used for your system with me? The 6850's pretty high powered based on its position at http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/best-graphics-card-game-performance-radeon-hd-6670,review-32183-7.html - perhaps more than I need, though it never hurts to be future proof. What's your case like? Does it need good cooling to cope with the card when you're running moderately fancy graphics/games on it?

Cheers,
tog