Video Card noise level

[garyc]

Ok, I've done enough lurking & reading am now building a dedicated PC for Sage. I want to be sure I have enough horsepower (both CPU & Video) to not have some of the issues discussed in this forum, but I also want the PC to be QUIET.

I'm using 120mm case fans, a Zalman 7000 CPU cooler, a Seasonic power supply, etc., but haven't yet bought a video card. My initial thought was to get a reasonable no-fan video card (NVidia 5500 or ATI 9600 non-pro), but several recent discussions have me thinking that if I want to do any post-processing these might have enough video "oomph."

I know it's a subjective issue -- but for those of you with higher-end video cards with fans (9600XT, 5700's, and above), how noticeable is the video card fan noise? Do the fans spin slowly (and quietly) when displaying video? I don't care if they speed up somewhat when playing graphics intensive games (I don't do that), but do want them to be QUIET in normal use (preferably without requiring a warranty-voiding replacement of the heatsink).

The card I'm currently leaning towards is an ATI AIW 9600XT - not for the TV tuner, but because it's actually a tad faster than a 9600XT, would give me the option of recording raw video if I ever wanted to, and can be had for only $20 more than a 9600XT. I'd be particularly interested in any comments from owners of this card.

This clearly isn't a direct Sage question, but I do think a QUIET PC will enhance the Sage experience

Gary

[stanger89]

Here:
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduc...125-142&depa=0
All the power you'll need, reportedly the best PQ available, and silent to boot!

FWIW, I have a Radeon 9500np, P4 2.4 with Zalman 7000AlCu, Fortron 120mm PS (similar to the Seasonics), and right now I think the loudest, or perhaps I should say most annoying thing in my HTPC is the HDDs (a WD2000JB and Seagate 160GB).

Just curious is that a Super Tornado or Super Silencer?

[garyc]

Super Tornado 400 -- and it is virtually silent. The ONLY noise I hear from my system is the hard drives -- even the CD and DVD drives are virtually silent (Plextor Premium CD/RW and Plextor 12x DVD). Of course at the moment I'm just using an old video card -- once I add a higher end card the noise level might jump a bit. I may have to just spring for the Gigabyte card you suggested, although I'd prefer not to spend $300 for the video card.

How satisfied are you with the performance of your 9500NP?

As for the hard drive noise, I ordered a Zalman noise prevention heatpipe and am going to mount a single drive in it to boot from. I'm building a separate system with a large RAID array that I'll keep out of the way (a closet) for the video storage and will also put most, if not all, of my 250s in that system. From the reviews, the Zalman mount should virtually eliminate the hard drive noise. If it doesn't work to my satisfaction, I'll just set up that system to network boot and won't have any hard drives - that WILL eliminate hard drive noise

[stanger89]

Sounds like you're about where I'm planning to be, except I'm planning on using a 2.5" notebook drive instead of trying to quiet a 3.5".

As for my 9500, I guess I'll just quote myself

It just really bugs me that it just tears no matter what resolution/settings I use (VMR9), but what really gets me is that even when I drag windows around my desktop they will tear.

That combined with the bad taste left from a long string of broken drivers (Cat 3.5 through Cat 4.2 all had broken interlaced Overlay), and the fact that nVidia seems FAR more interested in Video/HT (nVDVD 4, the Geforce 6800), and I'm done with ATI.

That was from here BTW.

In fairness, it was way better may Geforce 4 MX 440, and I was happy for a time.