Leadtek 6800 retail-cooling the most audible in my system?

blunden · Post by **blunden** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 4:54 am

I wonder what the noise in my P180 comes from.

My setup:

Antec P180 with all fans on LOW

ABIT NF7-S v2.0 with zalman passive cooling on the northbridge

AMD 2500+ @200x10 with the standard heatsink (or maybe spire, I don't know) with an 80 mm papst spinning around 1500-1600 rpm (I think it's this fan or something similar http://www.webhallen.com/prod.php?id=17907)

Tagan 2force 430W

Leadtek 6800LE with Leadtek's retail-cooling (the big copper thing)

Is the leadtek the culprit in my setup? Is it worth buying a Zalman VF700 CU? How well does it cool the card running on LOW?

EDIT: I now noticed that you could control the fan down to 25% in the newest version of rivatuner. Now I can safely say that my VGA-card is responsible for all the noice as dropping the fan down to 30% makes it very quiet. How do you think the noicelevel is now compared to the VF700?

=assassin= · Post by **=assassin=** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 3:12 am

I'm surpised the Leadtek isn't quiet, as they're usually among the quieter VGA cards...

Anyway, what are the temperatures like in idle/games with the fan throttled down compared to normal? If they're still ok and you're happy with the sound now, then there's no point changing. Just my opinion.

blunden · Post by **blunden** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 5:37 am

Quiet is subjective, it's quieter than the reference cooler. At 25% it's very silent and idles at 64-66 C. At 50-53% it idles at about 60-62 C. Though when gaming I will have to put the fan at around 100% or I will get artifacts in some games because of the heat ( I do sometimes anyway

). As I don't play games a lot, and when I do I can simply turn up my speakers

, it doesn't matter that much.

=assassin= · Post by **=assassin=** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 7:59 am

If gaming is rare, then just increasing the fan for 3D is the cheaper solution - it depends whether it's too noticable - the in-game sounds can help cover up a lot of the noise in some situations...

In terms of temperatures though, you don't really want to risk frying the card though - 60's at idle would likely mean much higher in 3D mode - so an investment in a new cooler is probably the correct route. I've checked out the cost of the Zalman and it's seems not too bad - I can't comment on it's cooling effectiveness though.

Btw, yeah, quiet is subjective - I've put up with a noisy system for over 4 years and so when my I got a newer system it sounded very quiet - as I'm getting used to it though I'm starting to hear it more now though.

blunden · Post by **blunden** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 3:00 pm

The card should be able to take about 90-100 degrees (it's set to throttle default at 120 C so I guess it should be ok). Though in with the fan on maximum the cooling is much more effective as I can't see it rising over 70 C ever.

scrandman · Post by **scrandman** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 4:46 am

I have the 6800nu, and it was the noisiest component in my PC. Temps never got above 54C and it only ever ran at 40%, but it was damn noisy still.

I solved the problem by removing the platic shroud, stock fan and installed a 120mm over the large copper heatsink using tie-wraps. Not overly pretty, but very quiest and temps are slightly better.