which 'silent' VIDEO card for Antec Fusion

cncjay · Post by **cncjay** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 4:52 pm

Hello All,

Wanted to find out which silent Video card fits into the Antec Fusion without any issues. I read a review elsewhere on this website about punching out the case to accomodate the Gigabit SilentPipeII card, I rather not make that mod. Any other recommendations for a card similar to the Gigabit SilentPipeII ?

I'm looking for a PCIe card costing no more than $175.

Any recommendations ?

Thanks,
Jay

wjohnsaunders · Post by **wjohnsaunders** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 5:48 pm

There are any number of 7600GS cards with passive cooling. Most are typical 7600 short cards and the heatsink doesn't extend beyond the size of the card itself (check out the eVGA 7600GS). However you would probably want to keep the slot near the video card empty and use one of the Fusion's vented slot brackets to get enough air-flow running past the heatsink.

If you don't need that much power then most 7300's are passively cooled using a smaller heatsink than the 7600GS. They are probably not as affected by restricted air-flow like the 7600GS.

rm19 · Post by **rm19** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 5:57 pm

I went with the Gigabyte 7600GT and I did punch out the top of my case to accommodate it. The 7600GT is a pretty powerful card and it runs cooler than my X1900XTX with the fans on full blast.

I have a thread with some pics of it in the Fusion case:
viewtopic.php?t=35011&highlight=

Here's what the punch out looks like. This was no big deal to me as my amplifier sits on top of it and you can't see the bump.

PsyDuck · Post by **PsyDuck** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 1:59 am

The Gainward "7982-BLISS 7600GT 256MB TV-DD Silent FX"
http://www.gainward.net/products/produc ... ucts_id=67
Fits inside the Fusion without modifications ( I know since I have this setup myself).

Unfortunately it takes up a PCI-slot and there's only a few millimeters between the heatsink and the next PCI-card.

A perfect silent card for the fusion would be the ASUS "EN7600GS TOP SILENT/HTD/512M"
http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=2 ... odelmenu=1
Since it has the heatsink on the backside. It's a 7600GS though.

cncjay · Post by **cncjay** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 12:40 pm

PsyDuck - Thank you for the recommendations for the Gainward as well as the ASUS cards. The gainward card looks very promising. I've been spending quite a bit of time at the newegg website, they have a lot of nice details (pics & specs) about the cards they sell. On newegg, I found another card that shows potentials, I'm currenly reviewing its specs but ultimately, its great to hear from other people who have gone down the path i'm currently walking on and get their recommendations and feedback.

Referencing the ASUS card being a perfect fit, but what are the concerns it being a "GS" versus the others being "GT", what are its downfalls ?

I'm new to the HTPC arena. Given my needs, this will truly be a home theater type PC. First and foremost, it will store/play my 1000+ ripped CDs and also watch DVD's (ripped on hard drive or the original disk) on this PC. Aside from the heat factor, when watching video, whether its a DVD content, or hopefully eventually, HDTV content ( I'll put an HDTV card in the unit ) where is the impact on a graphic card for its purpose ? Does it really matter if its an ATI based chipset or nVIDIA, or does it really matter if its a GDDR2 versus GDDR3 memory. This PC will not be used for any game playing whatsoever.

rm19 - Thank you VERY MUCH for your recommendations and the pic you have posted. I was very strongly leaning toward the same exact card but to be honest, punching out the case would something I don't feel comfy doing because, I don't have the tool to make that punch or would know exactly the right spot to punch out the lid. Knowing me, the case will have lots of punches all over before getting it right (LOL).

Outside of the video card, I will eventually add an HDTV tuner card. Beyond that, I don't anticipate adding any types of other cards to the PC. So, if a card is 'doublewide' in its thickness and takes up an additonal slot, it is OK in my scenario.

The only other thing I have to worry is using the right type of CPU heatsink/fan, for which I have another thread, asking for its recommendations.

Regards,
Jay

PsyDuck · Post by **PsyDuck** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 2:05 pm

I'm am in no way an expert but the main differences between GS and GT cards is roughly 25-30% performance gain for the GT's and the GT cards have some extra features...see:
http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo_support.html

When deciding between ATI vs NVIDIA GPU I would go for the NVIDIA cards in a HTPC since they have the best performance/"power consumption" ratio...see:
viewtopic.php?t=7753&start=60

slimeballzz · Post by **slimeballzz** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 4:22 pm

PsyDuck wrote:The Gainward "7982-BLISS 7600GT 256MB TV-DD Silent FX"
http://www.gainward.net/products/produc ... ucts_id=67
Fits inside the Fusion without modifications ( I know since I have this setup myself).

Unfortunately it takes up a PCI-slot and there's only a few millimeters between the heatsink and the next PCI-card.

Where did you buy the 7982-BLISS 7600GT? I'm having a hard time finding the card in Canada..

Jarrett · Post by **Jarrett** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 5:47 pm

What's wrong with the XFX fatality 7600gt? I don't care who endorses it's...it has 14% stock o/c and is easy to find.

PsyDuck · Post by **PsyDuck** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 1:23 am

Jarrett wrote:What's wrong with the XFX fatality 7600gt? I don't care who endorses it's...it has 14% stock o/c and is easy to find.

Can't see how that card would fit inside the Antec Fusion??

slimeballzz: I bought in Sweden so I have no idea where you can find it in Canada.

slimeballzz · Post by **slimeballzz** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 11:49 am

I don't think the XFX Fatality 7600gt fits as the heatsink sticks out too much and will hit the top panel.

Anyone know if the Zalman ZM80D-HP heatsink will fit without modifications?

andrewju · Post by **andrewju** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 1:46 pm

Dear All,

I'm just a beginner in HTPC and definitely a newbie on this forum. But I think one other thing has to be mentioned in this thread. As I understood, cncjay is looking for an HTPC video card. He is saying he's going to use HDTV card later on - he's going to watch HDTV. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but HDTV would (in most cases) require HDCP support from all the devices up to the monitor/TV. And this is not possible if you use a video card without HDCP support.

So apart from looking for a card that will fit the Antec case, it should also have HDCP chip on-board. Otherwise you'll miss some (or most?) of the advantages of HDTV.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

P.S. I'm also in the "planning" phase to build up an HTPC and I'm now looking for the best suitable hardware. From the video cards I currently have two on my list:
Gigabyte GV-NX76G256HI-RH - 7600GS with HDMI interface and HDCP, passive cooling
ASUS EN7600GT/HTDI/256M - 7600GT also with HDMI and HDCP, but coming with active cooler (I'm browsing for a silent replacement for it)

P.P.S. As mentioned on Zalman's site, their passive cooler ZM80D-HP won't fit PCI-E cards built on Nvidia chips. I'm not sure why - I already asked them on their forum (Q&A section) but got no reply yet.

rm19 · Post by **rm19** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 12:40 pm

andrewju wrote:Please correct me if I'm wrong, but HDTV would (in most cases) require HDCP support from all the devices up to the monitor/TV. And this is not possible if you use a video card without HDCP support.

You may be thinking of HD-DVD or Blu-Ray high-def formats which have content protection. Without a complete HDCP component chain, I believe the picture quality downsamples to a lower definition 540p(?) resolution.

I don't believe HDCP applies to over-the-air HDTV broadcasts as I haven't had any problems outputting HDTV from my ATI HDTV Wonder or my ADS Tech HDTV PCI cards via the VGA or DVI outputs at full 1080i/720p.

autoboy · Post by **autoboy** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 5:02 pm

HDCP content protection, which prevents you from watching content over a digital conection without a HDCP video card, decoding software, and display device is only on HD-DVD and BluRay. He did not state HD-DVD or BD was a requirement.

High Def content recorded over the air is not protected and will play just fine over DVI, HDMI, VGA, or Component cables on a standard video card.

Many people claim the best card for HTPCs is the 7600GT because it supports inverse telecine with HD 1080i content. The 7600GS is apparently not fast enough for inverse telecine. Inverse telecine is important for the best deinterlacing possible. It will give you the best quality. However, and what is really funny and kinda sad, is that most people with 7600GTs do not know that this feature is not turned on by default. There is a feature in the Nvidia control panel that turns it on. Here is a good article that explains it. However, this artilce fails to address HD 1080i content.

All nvidia video cards can do inverse telecine for recorded SD content and DVDs so getting a 7600GT for that is a waste. I use a 7300LE and get great results. It was $50, passive, and can do all the same things as a 7600GT as long as I stick to SD or progressive scan content.

For 720p HD broadcasts, the 7300LE works great because it does not have to deinterlace anything so inverse telecine is not used. However, for 1080i material, my 7300LE skips every other frame with the inverse telecine enabled. Same with my 6150. Now that I have HD material, I have to turn off inverse telecine. I just leave it off and everything works great. I really don't see too much difference in DVDs so I'm cool with it for now. Downloaded content is almost always progressive scan so you can play it fine on any card.

When the new 8300GS comes out, i'm hoping it can handle 1080i with inverse telecine, HDCP, and will be passive and I will upgrade.

For you, I would recomend a 7300LE (mine is overclocked to 525mhz from 450) or 7300GS and forget about the expensive passive 7600GT for now. When you go HD, you can also get a new 8300GS that should be able to handle 1080i with inverse telecine and will come with HDCP support. Getting a HDCP 7600GT is an expensive option right now and not required for your content. If you go my route, you will get better SD picture quality than 95% of the 7600GT owners because you know what inverse telecine is and how to enable it with your 7300GS, and you will have saved $ and will have the latest DX10 card with all the new unknown goodies that always come with new hardware. Plus, you will have that 7300GS for your moms computer with crappy intel video.

If you don't want to bother with switching video cards and just want the best now...get the passive 7600GT. If you don't care about the best possible picure quality, a 7300GS will be fine for a long trime. I doubt you will ever tell the difference anyways. I can hardly tell and I pay very close attention.

andrewju · Post by **andrewju** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:38 pm

Ok, then I was wrong. I didn't know HDCP is not applicable to over-the-air HDTV.

Thanks for the clarification!

devin306 · Post by **devin306** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 11:19 pm

Using newegg as a search engine of sorts shows four passively cooled 7600GS cards that should fit, the XFX 512mb being my personal choice. Doesn't seem to be any GTs with passive cooling. Easy enough to slap a Zalman quiet cooling kit on though..