Graphics card recommendation?

Zab

I'm looking to put together a new system which should be fairly high-end. I'd like a high-end card to go with it, but I'm not interested in anything that has a hair dryer attached, as my current card has. I'd also rather not have to mod it.

Any ideas?

DonkeyStyle \o/

I can't think of any high end cards that are passively cooled offhand.
You should look into getting one with proper fan RPM control.
My 6600GT fan was nuts before I flashed it with a modded bios (to unlock fan speed control)... now, with the help of a util, it uses a really low RPM when I'm not running a heavyweight 3D app... nice and quiet now.

I know you said you didn't want to mod, but I'd say the newer cards have temperature monitoring and fan control enabled off-the-shelf, so you mightn't even have to.

This is one of my pet-peeves by the way... manufacturers who think attaching a loud annoying fan to their product is ok.
I have to spend time and money silencing their crappy fans... thank God for companies like Zalman.

EL WOG

i have a BFG 6800GT OC, and am happy with it, it is very quiet, my power supply is way more noisey, with two small fans and a heat pipe on it
http://www.bfgtech.com/6800GTOC.html

tom_ass19

ya the 6800 is a good card, i use it myself, not too loud aswell......good card, go wit that one. get it at www.komplett.ie

Snowball

EL WOG wrote:

i have a BFG 6800GT OC, and am happy with it, it is very quiet, my power supply is way more noisey, with two small fans and a heat pipe on it
http://www.bfgtech.com/6800GTOC.html

bit of a mad looking card

K.O.Kiki

Gigabyte do an overclocked & passively cooled X800 & X800XL.
Though they're powerful, I've heard of inadequate airflow for their massive heatsinks causing shutdowns -- not major ones, mind.

However, the best non-watercooling way to quieten (and cool!) your GPU is with an "Arctic Cooling Silencer"-series cooler -- I think the internet agrees with me on this one.

gline

K.O.Kiki wrote:

However, the best non-watercooling way to quieten (and cool!) your GPU is with an "Arctic Cooling Silencer"-series cooler -- I think the internet agrees with me on this one.

yeh thats pretty much true

Khannie

Agreed. I had one on my 9800 pro. Silent as a silent thing. Do NOT use the thermal paste that comes with them though.

savemejebus

HIS brand x800 and x850 cards have arctic cooling prefitted on their cards and from what i've seen get excellent reviews

StRiKeR

Snowball wrote:

bit of a mad looking card

is that mag HSF comes with AGP version only, I have the PCIE version in my A64 and when it came in the post, opened it up and it uses the reference HSF, I took that off and put on the dangerden NV6800 block very quickly

Love the 7800GTX in my P4

duridian

K.O.Kiki wrote:

However, the best non-watercooling way to quieten (and cool!) your GPU is with an "Arctic Cooling Silencer"-series cooler -- I think the internet agrees with me on this one.

I also endorse and/or approve this product. I have 2 of them on 9800Pro cards and another on a 6800GT. Best type of vga cooler I've ever used.

Zab

Okay, thanks for the input all.

I haven't decided which direction I'm going to go in yet (it's definately going to be a silent direction, though). Ideally I want a something with passive cooling, but the options there don't look too interesting.

HIS brand sounds interesting. I was wondering when somebody was going to team up with one of the silent cooling companies. It just seems to make too much sense, particularly as the Arctic Cooling gear isn't very expensive.

Water is tempting, particularly as it can replace most of the fans in a system. I just don't know if I want the hassle/cost involved.

Sigh.

DemonOfTheFall

A budget is very useful to work to for these kind of things Helps a lot, you can eliminate most choices that way.