SPCR

Hello

I new to the board. I am on the quest to owning a super quiet PC. I am a huge fan of this site and have followed its advice on a number of components and software, these changes have had a huge effect. I have significantly lowered the noise of the PC

The last hurdle is the GPU. I have created a user defined curve so it is being managed as best as it possible, heat to RPM wise. I just wonder is there any other way to lower noise and temps that will not cost the earth. Has anyone tried taking the card apart, cleaning and applying new thermal paste (I have artic cooling mx4). If did that work? I know there are aftermarket coolers but they cost around £50 to £60 which seems a huge investment for some further quiet. At that price I could sell my existing card, add £60 to it and buy a higher model Strix card.

I also looked at buying an Asus 285 Strix. I knwo this will be quieter and cooler but it only has 2GB whereas my current card has 3GB. It would seem silly to downgrade the cards performance.

I would appreciate any suggestions or ideas.

Many thanks

A cheaper mod would be to remove the stock fans and use a set of quieter 120mm fans in place. Gelid do a graphics card 4-pin PWM adaptor so that you can run any PWM fan in place. I have one of these on a different card.

3x 90mmx25mm fan, zip tie screw.

New thermal paste does help to varying degrees depending on how it was done.

You can also try under volt to reduce the heat output, assuming you aren't trying to squeeze the last fps out.

Welcome to SPCR!

Gazmatron wrote:I just wonder is there any other way to lower noise and temps

what case and with what case fans?
what is the highest ambient room temp you might see in a given summer day?
what are your temps and rpms at max load?

edh wrote:A cheaper mod would be to remove the stock fans and use a set of quieter 120mm fans in place. Gelid do a graphics card 4-pin PWM adaptor so that you can run any PWM fan in place. I have one of these on a different card.

Hi edh

Ok that is inetersting. I was not aware that was possible. I have looked up some examples online. Have you done this yourself? If so how did it go?

baii wrote:3x 90mmx25mm fan, zip tie screw.

New thermal paste does help to varying degrees depending on how it was done.

You can also try under volt to reduce the heat output, assuming you aren't trying to squeeze the last fps out.

Hi Baii

Thanks for that, again another interesting idea. I can see exmaples of the 90x25mm on Amazon. One question is, if I have 3 separate fans they will all need to be individually connected to a fan controller and controlled separately right? That seems like it might be tricky.

The voltage idea is also something I hadn't considered, but as you guessed I was looking at trying to overclock the card for more performance

xan_user wrote:Welcome to SPCR!

Gazmatron wrote:I just wonder is there any other way to lower noise and temps

what case and with what case fans?
what is the highest ambient room temp you might see in a given summer day?
what are your temps and rpms at max load?

Hello Xan_user

Thanks. Going on SPCR's review I recently bought the Fract Design R5. I have the two stock case fans, I ordered another one to make it three, its in the post. I am very happy with the case. It has brought overall temps down compared to the Cooler Master HAF 912 it replaced.

I live in London so at the moment room temps are probably in the 20° region (with some light heating). In summer it varies but it can get to the high 20's.

This is an ongoing process. The new case only arrived a few weeks ago. Only this week I fine tuned the fan curves which has made a big difference. As for the GPU again I followed SCPR's advice and using MSI afterburner I created a user defined temp/rpm curve. I set the fan at 35% to 70°, 40% at 80° and then full speed at 90°. This has made a big difference. Until reading SCPR's post on here about afterburner I didnt realise that a GPU temp of 80° was ok.

I played a game the other day for 2hrs. I would say this game is fairly demanding and I was averaging 55 to 60fps so I know the GPU was working hard. When I finished the GPU was 75° and working around the 38% mark. Let me say I am not unhappy with this. I could accept this going forward as its a big improvement on what I have been putting up with for some time. But in the quest for a quieter experience I just wanted to ask the folks on here if I can some way get the GPU even quieter.

Cheers

edh wrote:A cheaper mod would be to remove the stock fans and use a set of quieter 120mm fans in place. Gelid do a graphics card 4-pin PWM adaptor so that you can run any PWM fan in place. I have one of these on a different card.

Yeah, I agree, removing the stock fans, the plastic cover, and then attaching a couple 92/120mm fans with zipties could work. OF course, you'll have to evacuate the heated air from the case that was previously pushed out throught the back end of the VGA card. IF you have the fan cable adaptors.

The paste can help a few degrees, if the thermal compound is stale. Worst case, nothing. At least extrapolating from previous test on CPUs:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/the ... 16-17.html
(page 16: toothpaste. I'm not even kidding. I saw tests with peanut butter as well. Not abyssmal, but not good either.)
http://overclocking.guide/thermal-paste ... rogen-ln2/

good stuff. sounds like you are well on your way to silence. to get that GPU much quieter will probably make a fan swap and/or case ducting.

nagi wrote:OF course, you'll have to evacuate the heated air from the case that was previously pushed out throught the back end of the VGA card.

..which really isn't all that much as compared to the total heat output of the card. Don't sweat this part.

I've used Arctic Cooling S1+ with a 700rpm 12cm fan over the VRM part of the card and a 12cm fan over the other area. Works like a charm.

Not sure if this cooler is still available but the S3? should do the trick.