Seeking silent video card for antec fusion

gadgetzilla · Post by **gadgetzilla** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 12:52 am

Greetings All,
I'm nearing completion of my HTPC.

I'm seeking a silent (or near silent) video card that will:

1) Fit in an Antec Fusion case
2) Has the ability to decode blu-ray DVD's
3) "possibly" have HDMI connector.

Any suggestions?

Thank you,
Gadgetzilla

plympton · Post by **plympton** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 8:25 am

gadgetzilla wrote:Greetings All,
I'm nearing completion of my HTPC.

I'm seeking a silent (or near silent) video card that will:

1) Fit in an Antec Fusion case
2) Has the ability to decode blu-ray DVD's
3) "possibly" have HDMI connector.

Any suggestions?

I just picked up a Sapphire 3450 from Newegg this week, hoping that it will cure my on-board 6150 blues. I hear it's not too hot with 1080i ATSC, though, but I'll let you know. There are 3450's that will have HDMI converters, or you can just get a DVI->HDMI cable for about $6.

-Dan

falcon26 · Post by **falcon26** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 9:16 am

Buy a 8800 GT and then an artic cooling S1 cooler for it. It is completely passive no fan hence no sound and it cools better than stock with a fan

AznJason · Post by **AznJason** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 4:45 pm

falcon26 wrote:Buy a 8800 GT and then an artic cooling S1 cooler for it. It is completely passive no fan hence no sound and it cools better than stock with a fan

But it won't fit a Fusion.

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 7:00 am

If you don't play games with that HTPC HD 34x0-series is enough. I always wonder why peoples go suggest gaming cards for HTPC-set-ups...

loimlo · Post by **loimlo** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 8:02 am

I am for thejamppa, AMD HD3450/3650s are the best multimedia cards for HTPC. 8800GT is a great gaming card, but AMD's UVD is superior to nVIDIA's Purevideo for off-loading blue-ray movies. Get a passive cooling 3450/3650, you will be satisfied.

gadgetzilla · Post by **gadgetzilla** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 10:37 pm

Thank you so much for the feedbacks. I'm currently researching the suggestions.

Often I've seen people recommending high end gaming cards for HTPC applications. It seems a bit overkill but explanations given are that HD rendering requires high end GPU's.

The $50 sapphire card from Newegg is looking very tempting so far

Thanks,
Gadgetzilla

plympton · Post by **plympton** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:33 pm

gadgetzilla wrote:Thank you so much for the feedbacks. I'm currently researching the suggestions.

Often I've seen people recommending high end gaming cards for HTPC applications. It seems a bit overkill but explanations given are that HD rendering requires high end GPU's.

The $50 sapphire card from Newegg is looking very tempting so far

Thanks,
Gadgetzilla

I'm happy with the Sapphire I got - I had to upgrade to Vista to get to working (at all) with Windows Media Center, but after some fits and starts, well, it probably wasn't a terrible thing to do anyway.

For $50, it was probably worth it.

-Dan

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 6:57 am

falcon26 wrote:Buy a 8800 GT and then an artic cooling S1 cooler for it. It is completely passive no fan hence no sound and it cools better than stock with a fan

Definitely, way too much card for an HTPC. Anything that does HD decoding in hardware (Radeon 3xxx or Geforce 8600-series) will work just fine.

SouthPaw · Post by **SouthPaw** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 7:55 am

plympton wrote:I'm happy with the Sapphire I got - I had to upgrade to Vista to get to working (at all) with Windows Media Center, but after some fits and starts, well, it probably wasn't a terrible thing to do anyway.

For $50, it was probably worth it.

-Dan

Ouch! Thanks for posting this info. I'm interested in this card but I cannot upgrade to Vista because the 2 PCI TV tuners I have do not play well with Vista. Are there not any XP drivers for this card? Can you explain why you had to upgrade to Vista just to get this card to work? What steps did you try to get it to work in MCE2005?

Thanks!

SouthPaw

plympton · Post by **plympton** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:17 am

SouthPaw wrote: Ouch! Thanks for posting this info. I'm interested in this card but I cannot upgrade to Vista because the 2 PCI TV tuners I have do not play well with Vista. Are there not any XP drivers for this card? Can you explain why you had to upgrade to Vista just to get this card to work? What steps did you try to get it to work in MCE2005?

Yes, there's XP drivers, and it worked great with the SageTV demo I tried, but I really liked the MCE interface (though to be honest, it was always a little "on the edge of working" most of the time, since I added so much cruft to it over the last 2 years). I installed the drivers, and just got a black screen when I launched MCE, nothing more to say! I googled around, and had a lot of similar questions, but the answer was always "update your drivers", well, duh.. they were the newest from the web.

I think it could have been fixed by re-installing MCE from scratch, but as my install was really XP + MCE hack, I didn't feel like going through that for a "maybe", and since I had a copy of Vista laying around anyway.. what the heck.

Vista works better than XP for MCE, after learning its quirks. Sensors work, so I get temps and speeds with RMclock (just not HD temps... ?). Even my HDTV Wonder, officially unsupported, appears to work.

They STILL haven't fixed the subchannel bug (no guide listings for subchannels), which requires a hack that mostly works for ATSC, kinda, but still.....

-Dan

SouthPaw · Post by **SouthPaw** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 9:17 am

Thanks Dan for the clarification. I read your first post as MCE2005 OS did not work at all, as in you got a blank screen just booting the OS. I have a pretty clean install of MCE2005, but I really don't use the MCE part that much so I should be good.

Thanks again,

SouthPaw

plympton · Post by **plympton** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:48 am

SouthPaw wrote:Thanks Dan for the clarification. I read your first post as MCE2005 OS did not work at all, as in you got a blank screen just booting the OS. I have a pretty clean install of MCE2005, but I really don't use the MCE part that much so I should be good.

Thanks again,

SouthPaw

Yeah, that was the infuriating part - the whole OS worked great, but MCE didn't! I'm not sure, but MCE2005 was REALLY difficult to get working consistently - it was a house-of-cards that any tweak made it come crashing down. I still think I'll eventually go to SageTV or MediaPortal, but they're not quite "there" yet.

-Dan

electr0n · Post by **electr0n** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 2:29 pm

Buy a 8800 GT and then an artic cooling S1 cooler for it. It is completely passive no fan hence no sound and it cools better than stock with a fan

But it won't fit a Fusion.

Just to clarify is the 8800GT the issue or just the S1 cooler? I also have a fusion as well with a 6800 vid card and am looking to upgrade to be able to play Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs. Sound isn't that much of an issue for me as my case is in an enclosed cabinet about 15 feet away.

AznJason · Post by **AznJason** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 2:44 pm

electr0n wrote:
Buy a 8800 GT and then an artic cooling S1 cooler for it. It is completely passive no fan hence no sound and it cools better than stock with a fan

But it won't fit a Fusion.

Just to clarify is the 8800GT the issue or just the S1 cooler? I also have a fusion as well with a 6800 vid card and am looking to upgrade to be able to play Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs. Sound isn't that much of an issue for me as my case is in an enclosed cabinet about 15 feet away.

It's the S1. I have a 3870 with a VF1000 on it. Even at 5V it wasn't quiet enough, so I think I have it running at like, 4V. It's not silent, but quieter than the whoosh from my other fans.

electr0n · Post by **electr0n** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 11:18 am

AznJason Thanks - that's good to know.

gadgetzilla · Post by **gadgetzilla** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 11:17 pm

[/quote]

I'm happy with the Sapphire I got - I had to upgrade to Vista to get to working (at all) with Windows Media Center, but after some fits and starts, well, it probably wasn't a terrible thing to do anyway.

For $50, it was probably worth it.

-Dan[/quote]

Dan - Thanks for the validation. I will go ahead an place my order for the card. At $50, its a great price. I just picked up the Pioneer's BluRay ROM as well. Anxious to hook all this and try it out.

In reading various threads, everything pointed to only work with Vista so I decided to go that route. I have Vista Home Ultimate loaded. Heck, even the VFD in the Antc Fusion works !!!

Regards,
GadgetZilla

chaninator · Post by **chaninator** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 2:05 pm

gadgetzilla wrote:Thank you so much for the feedbacks. I'm currently researching the suggestions.

Often I've seen people recommending high end gaming cards for HTPC applications. It seems a bit overkill but explanations given are that HD rendering requires high end GPU's.

The $50 sapphire card from Newegg is looking very tempting so far

Thanks,
Gadgetzilla

Which $50 Sapphire did you eventually settle on?

Delta_42 · Post by **Delta_42** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 8:34 am

electr0n wrote:
Buy a 8800 GT and then an artic cooling S1 cooler for it. It is completely passive no fan hence no sound and it cools better than stock with a fan

But it won't fit a Fusion.

Just to clarify is the 8800GT the issue or just the S1 cooler? I also have a fusion as well with a 6800 vid card and am looking to upgrade to be able to play Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs. Sound isn't that much of an issue for me as my case is in an enclosed cabinet about 15 feet away.

If you only want to upgrade to watch hi-def movies, look at a passive 8500GT or a ATI equivalent. The 8800GT is a serious gaming card and massive overkill for just watching movies on a HTPC

chaninator · Post by **chaninator** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 12:08 pm

I too have been actively researching an appropriate video card for my Antec Fusion case. My requirements are similar to gadgetzilla's:

1. Passive cooling
2. Fit Antec Fusion
3. HD/BD decode acceleration
4. HDMI
5. HDCP
6. Full 1080p
7. Video post processing support on XP

I have decided that a passive Radeon 2600 XT would be best (either a Sapphire Ultimate or HIS SilenceIII...may have spelled that wrong)...I'm just waiting for a decent sale in my area

.

The NVidia cards (8500/8600 etc.) with Pure Video lack XP drivers (NB: Nvidia DOES have drivers for Vista) that perform video post processing on less than optimal HD material (e.g. noise reduction, proper de-interlacing etc.). From what I have read, this may be fine for most well authored BD/HD DVDs, but I feel better knowing that may player will handle whatever I throw at it. Also, Vista is not in my immediate future.

I found this post very informative:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=986338

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 6:26 pm

HD 3450 would rock. I have Sapphire's, only con in that card is that it doesn't supply HDMI adapterwith it. Other than that its great value card.

gadgetzilla · Post by **gadgetzilla** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 10:30 pm

After much research, I decided to install the PowerColor HD3650 card in my antec Fusion. It is available at Newegg.com

The video card fits well in the antec fusion case. I will provide pictures and additional details in the next couple of days.

Regards,
Gadgetzilla

chaninator · Post by **chaninator** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:04 am

OK...now I get it...3650 is the new 2600 Pro with 55 nm die (i.e. lower power consumption) and supposedly improved AVIVO. So why not go with a 3470? Sounds like the 3470 supports improved post processing (vs. the 3450), full 1080p and is also available in passive versions...what does the 3650 buy you that would be valuable to a quiet HTPC?

derekva · Post by **derekva** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 12:08 pm

chaninator wrote:OK...now I get it...3650 is the new 2600 Pro with 55 nm die (i.e. lower power consumption) and supposedly improved AVIVO. So why not go with a 3470? Sounds like the 3470 supports improved post processing (vs. the 3450), full 1080p and is also available in passive versions...what does the 3650 buy you that would be valuable to a quiet HTPC?

Seconded.

I'm seriously considering upgrading my HTPC with a Sapphire HD3470 as it has more than enough performance for HD viewing, is passively cooled without taking up additional slots, and is cheap!

-D

Seeking silent video card for antec fusion

Seeking silent video card for antec fusion

Re: Seeking silent video card for antec fusion