SPCR

for a silent pc, which is preferred? matrox g400 max, or matrox g450?

Not much of a dif... the 400 Max runs a bit hotter & came w/a fan. I pulled mine years ago, replaced it with a Zalman NB HS -- but any number of small HS will cool it ok. I think the 450 came fanless.

MikeC wrote:Not much of a dif... the 400 Max runs a bit hotter & came w/a fan. I pulled mine years ago, replaced it with a Zalman NB HS -- but any number of small HS will cool it ok. I think the 450 came fanless.

is the fan noisy, or 12v panaflo quiet?

it's a 40mm fan -- for it to have any cooling effect, it HAS to be noisy. I yanked it and ran it fanless with the stock HS for a long time (years) than did the HS change last year. I don;t know that it made much difference. In summer, I stick a 5-6V Panaflo 80L over it -- with decent case airflow, it's perfectly good to ~30C room ambient. Does not get much hotter here.

Stick with the G400, replace the HSF with a bigger passive HS, and you should be fine. Underclock with PINS file mod if required (at least I think this can be done - run search for "G400 PINS" at http://forums.matroxusers.com/ . The reason I say stay with the G400 is for the exceptional native on chip TV-out - which the G450 ditched.