Thanks for the info. Bummer about both GPU and CPU fan speed controls. Shame on you Asus

Haven't been able to find an answer for this anywhere; is the Asus 6850 DirectCu a reference-board still? I.e. if I wanted to put on a AC Twin Turbo Pro on it, would it fit?

Yeah, sorry will try to ask more precisely. What i meant was how low is it turned down by standard in idle? (in percentage). Are you able to slow it down even more than what it can slow down by itself? For example if it is already running at minimum speed (lets say 20%) as standard, then it might no...

Wondered that as well. Although it sounds like it could get risky, if the fan became unable to speed up as much as needed during load. The best solution would surely be if one could lower the voltage given to the fan through a bios change or something, but given the discussion about the card in anot...

I cant, as there isn't room for the fan on the other side. (RAM gets in the way by ½-1 centimeter or so, it seems like the RAM slots are quite close to the CPU on P8P67 boards - or maybe the Megahalem cooler is just that tiny bit bigger than my old setup).

So I turned down th 3 bottom 180mm fans now. All three running around 600-670 RPM (instead of 750-800 RPM). Not a huge change in fan speed but it did result in huge change in noise. Also replaced the Scythe S-Flex fan on the CPU, which might have been faulty (it had a high pitched noise at higher sp...

To be fair, I can run Furmark on it without the fan turning up much at all (2000-2100 RPM) so that could be considered pretty good (although not very quiet). Just really stupid it cant turn further down when its running 30 C at idle :/

Can you turn down the fan speed even more in both idle and load? If the temps are low enough.

Hey.
Having the same issues with the Asus DirectCu as you have discussed in the last few posts.
At 20% (and 25% actually) the fan wont go below 1800 RPM. Turning it further down in MSI Afterburner has no effect.

Doesn't sound like a rare occurrence at least.

Does it matter much for the effectiveness of the fan (both for airflow and noise) if it is blowing out air from the CPU rather than into it? (see below) There isn't enough space between the RAM and heatsink to fit the fan in on the other side. And which CPU fan would be recommended for such a setup?...

Asus 6850 DirectCu. I tried lowering the case fans through bios right now. It works somewhat. However you can only control 2 case fans* that way (and one of those will probably be the top fan when I turn that on again - its disabled currently to pinpoint the noise factors) and CPU fan. At least slow...

It says V2 on the package. Catalyst wont slow the fan down below 20%. MSI afterburner shows it as slowing down below 20% (tried 10%), but in reality, the RPM never changes below 25% fan speed (minimum is around 1750-1800 RPM). Don't know about the Motherboad controls actually. Thought it only worked...

Got this card today and its very loud even at idle. Running 1750 RPM at its lowest (doesn't seem to go lower below 25% fan speed at all), even when reduced with MSI afterburner controls. Do I have a faulty one or is this really how its supposed to be :/ The noise is somewhat high pitched making it e...

Got the the system build and its pretty damn bad for some reason. The 180mm fans (the newer AP181 ones) are very loud even at low speed. Might I have got faulty fans or do I just need to volt them down myself? :/ They seem to be running at 800 RPM by default. Going to play a little with the speed wh...

A few more comments on noise for the custom coolers: MSI's twin-fan cooler also looks to be very potent without producing too much noise. We just wish we could trade an increase of 15° C or so in GPU temperature for whatever that would give us on the decibel meter. This could well be the quietest ca...

Not really. The Air Penetrators sound like a jet at 800 rpm and up, but on lower RPM's they are fine. I have mine constantly at 450 RPM and I cannot feel any difference in noise when I turn on/off my PC. I don't know what voltage that is (my guess 4-5V), but they start properly too. Of course, one ...

Models optimized for quietness (well, optimized for cooling probably, but then you can turn the fan down) should be out at the same time as the reference card (or within a week at least), so you should be able to go for a manufacturer-cooing solution pretty much immediately. Both Asus and MSI among ...

Looks like Asus 6850 DirectCU has a V2. I am going to go for that one. Some forums have noted it seems better built and has 2 power connectors, although manual says it runs if you just plug one in. You got some links about that? Received my 6850 DirectCU a few days ago (while waiting on all other c...

Its quite close to what I (hopefully) will get in a few days. Getting an Asus motherboard myself, but Gigabyte is just as good for sure. As for monitors; I have a 22" TN now, and while its decent, I would never buy a TN again. Especially the low viewing angles annoy me (bigger screens tend to change...

Another MSI 6950 Twin Frozr review out http://www.guru3d.com/article/msi-r6950-twin-frozr-ii-oc-review/11 Sadly their noise measurement seems a little useless. (Why is the 6870 so loud in idle compared to everything else for example). If one trust their numbers though, the card seems to have the sam...

I reached the same conclusion about SSD's. Better wait and see what Intel G3, Micron C400 and Sandforce 2 brings along in the next few months. You'll likely either be able to get something better or something cheaper then, depending on preferences. Personally I would always make a fresh install of W...

WoW can be somewhat more demanding than shown in the TomsHardware test though, as they also admit: Even the fastest card dips under 40 FPS, despite peaking beyond 120 FPS in other spots. And while the two slowest cards seem to serve up reasonable speed, you might find that more demanding raiding env...

Asus 6870 is quite a bit more expensive here than the 6850 ($175 vs. $245) , and getting quite close to the price of a 6950 ($280-310 depending on brand/cooler), while having a rather small performance increase, so that one isn't worth it imo, even if it was as quiet. Already ordered a 6850, though ...

Multi screen setup sounds neat for sure. If only for a full screen app running one one screen while having browser etc. on another. If I ever went for more real screen estate (beyond a single 24") it would probably be multi-monitor rather than a bigger monitor. Moving back to noise, would it be wort...

Agree with above post. 1680 resolution is something I would look to improve. Save for 2560 X 1600 30". There was a recent deal for $950 dell monitor refurb. This will buy you more enjoyment. waiting for intel gen 3 ssd does make sense. Though going SSD from 10K raptors is still a noticeable differe...

By modifications you mean putting on another cooler altogether I guess? Did it on my old HD4870 with a Accelero S1 and it was a bit of a mess (had to stabilize it with a homemade solution, as the card would bend (imo) quite a bit otherwise), which is why I'm very much inclined to go with a pre-appli...

@CA_Steve Thanks for the feedback . Difference between 2500k and 2600k is also Hyperthreading and larger cache (8MB vs 6MB). Which isn't to say those two are worth th cost (most benchmarks shows they arent), but the differences are there. Just not sure those benefits aren't something I would suddenl...

Could use a little feedback on a computer I'm planning to get next week or the week after. I have spend quite some time deciding on these parts, so the type of advice I'm looking for, is really anything that might come to your mind about compatibility issues or random comments you might have. Especi...

Nice build, somewhat resembles what I'm considering myself, except the dual GPU. Cooling the two GPUs largely depend on the motherboard for ensuring some space between the cards. The P8P67 Pro 'only' have 2 slots between the two main PCIEx16 slots so it could certainly be hard to fit much in there i...

Thanks. I've also seen people who say coolers with heatpipes running vertically works fine (http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=60334&p=524104&hilit=silverstone+fortress#p524104), so it is a bit confusing to figure out what works and what doesn't :) Especially considering the r...

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, I'm not switching out the old case because it can't do its job. I wanted to give my old computer to a family member (beside the dead video card) so that is why I'm considering a new case to go with the new hardware. Wont OC the video card. Contrary I might actually unde...