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farfolen · Mon Sep 02, 2002 1:56 pm

I used to have a very quiet system. It was crappy, with a mere ATI Rage Pro Turbo (with 4 megs of blazing sdram on board) and a very quiet (but small) Maxtor HD, but it had only two very quiet fans...one on the proc and another in the PS. Now I have a Radeon SDR, which sounds...like hell, the HD has been moved from it's insulated area so I can hear every click and I've gotten the monster (for it's time) CD-RW drive. What I want to know is, do any Graphics Card manufacturers make a card with the idea of as little noise as possible? My current system is too far gone, so I'm giving up on it. This card will be used in my new system I'm building from paycheck to paycheck. Doesn't matter which connector it is, AGP or otherwise, I just want my next system to be good, while being quiet.

p.s.= for all the helpful fellows out there (yes Austin, you included) that like to help so much they outline every possible config of a quiet/powerful/cheap machine (which isn't a bad thing by a long shot), I already know about the uber-quiet Seagate drives, and it's on it's way here.

paulio · Mon Sep 02, 2002 2:30 pm

Zalman are the company i use. They changed my hellish gf1 into a silent card with one of theses...

the url http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/product/product.htm

They also do CPU sinks that I personally haven’t tried but i no someone who has, and it worked on their athlonxp 1800. Basically your system can be top notch and still be VERY quit, if not silent. I'd recomend there flower heat sinks as well. Keep us posted.

farfolen · Mon Sep 02, 2002 2:42 pm

The current case I'll be buying the card for is very small. We're talking the Shuttle SS40's. I'd use that but I don't believe I'd be able to fit a card rigged up with it inside a Shuttle. Also there seems to be poor airflow in the Shuttles, a fact that I'll have to deal with when I get to it. I've got a couple ideas (drop the floppy in front, cut a hole big enough for a quiet 80 or 120 mm fan) but I don't think there's room to jerry-rig the Shuttle to accomadate THAT thing (have you seen teh cramped spaces next to the expansion slots in the Shuttles? wowzers). HOWEVER, I see they have one for a Radeon, my oh-so-loud current card...so here's lookin at you kid :wink:

Thanks for the help. Could still use any suggestions from other people, preferrably a card, made by the manufacturer, to be quiet. BTW, I didn't mention it in the previous post, but performance wise, all I need is a Radeon 8500 or better. nvidia's good to go too.

paulio · Mon Sep 02, 2002 2:46 pm

i don't think your gonna be able to get quite cooling in a Shuttle...however laptops manage to do it so maybe.

Mon Sep 02, 2002 2:52 pm

The Radeon 9000 (not pro) has only a passive heatsink. It's not the fastest gaming card, but it is a significant step up from what you have now. It is usually slower than the Radeon 8500.
[url=http://www.sapphiretech.com/9000/9000-192.htm]

Not bad for $70[/url].

I used to be concerned about the twin 40mm fans on the two VSA-100 chips on the Voodoo5-5500, but the @#$%^&*! Volcano 7 in my backup system makes so much noise that the rest of it is irrelevant.

Having experimented with many different fans, I am convinced that a large fan spinning slowly can move the same volume of air as a small fan spinning very quickly, but the lower speed fan makes less noise. A large high-capacity fan with a rheostat to let you balance your cooling requirement against your noise tolerance is probably best. This is the route that I am following with the Alpha PAL-8045 on my main system.

If noise is still a problem when I get my system re-assembled, the next step for me will be water cooling for CPU and VPU.

farfolen · Mon Sep 02, 2002 2:54 pm

I'm sure I could get quiet cooling in a Shuttle. Their Heat Pipe handles the proc and I don't really want "can hear a cockroach pass a methane-like substance" quiet...I just don't want a computer that screams both performance wise and in reality.

sam_b · Fri Sep 20, 2002 6:03 am

JustAnEngineer speaks the truth. I have a taisol (copper base thing) with an 80mm fan on top (pabst) running on 6v. The psu has two 80mm fans running on 5v. The only thing that makes the computer audible is the maxtop HDD idling, and it keeps my XP 1700+ below 50C loaded. Even with the pabst on full, it cools better than most stock 60mms and is much quieter.

As for the graphics card, just remove the fan and place an 80mm fan so that it blows over both surfaces of the card. RAM cooling for free.

I would be wary of the zalmans. I believe you can build your own better for cheaper. Most of the alphas would be a good choice.

etldan · Fri Sep 20, 2002 8:31 am

farfolen, what did you end up doing?

I'm trying to build a relatively quiet audio system right now: a pair of Maxtor Silent Drives, an Antec TRUE 430W power supply, quiet case fans, and a Volcano 7+ -- though I'm afraid that the Volcano will be louder (even on 'Low' speed?) than I thought it would be. :-?

I'm torn - the reviews of the 9000 place it behind the 8500 LE and the cost difference appears to be less than $20. In the long run it seems to be a better deal to get the 8500 LE as it will be a higher performance card that will last a little longer, but I keep wondering just HOW loud that fan on the card will be? I'm assuming that it's quieter than the Volcano 7+?

Then again, since I'm not immediately interested in high performance gaming right now, the answer should probably be "Get the 9000 w/out the heatsink now and then when you need a higher performance card, get it!" :wink:

Dan

farfolen · Fri Sep 20, 2002 10:08 pm

The "solution" I chose wasn't really what I was looking for, as my comp is still loud. I ended up getting the 9000 as it was a HUGE step up from the Rage Pro I had, and that was quiet. Combined with the two Seagates I've got and the (relatively) quiet Toshiba DVD/CD-RW drive I have and the systems pretty quiet. But I was at a loss for what I needed to do on my processor, and ended up using a slightly modified standard setup that came with it :-?

But I've heard a Volcano and that big fella was LOUD. If you're going to be using that...well, I wouldn't if I was going for a quiet system. Oh, and it's not so much the fact that the card fan is loud, but it puts out an annoying whining sound that stands out from the rest of the soothing and gentle sound of bearings spinning and electrons flying... The 9000 is a nice, quiet card though, if you want silence and your can deal with just good performance (not great) on today's games. Buy it...but think hard about whether you want the 64 or 128 meg.

farfolen · Fri Sep 20, 2002 10:12 pm

btw, I tried teh zalman cooler...and I messed up my card somehow :-?

so it's good that I built teh new system.

Fri Sep 20, 2002 10:42 pm

I will let you guys know in a couple of weeks how my latest experiment works out.

I plan to replace a noisy Volcano7 with one of these...

http://www.thermalright.com/slk800.html

...with one of these on top:

http://www.thermaltake.com/products/dcfan/a1357.htm

farfolen · Fri Sep 20, 2002 10:45 pm

sweet mary thats a big heatsink...

etldan · Sat Sep 21, 2002 12:14 am

Holy cow that's one Darth Vader of a heatsink!!

So farfolen, did you get the 9000 Pro or the 9000 standard?

-d

farfolen · Sat Sep 21, 2002 7:02 am

standard. the Pro is clocked a bit higher I believe...so it required a fan on top of the heatsink, so I couldn't get that one

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take a look at zalman

Thanks fella, but...

Shuttle...

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