Stock cooler may be quiet by relative standards but it is the loudest component in my system (apart from Hard Disk seek noise, which I can live with as it's intermittent).
Can anyone tell me how the stock cooler noise would compare to that from an aftermarket solution - a Thermalright HR-03 GT with a Zaward 92mm fan running at 1500 RPM? The AC Accelero S1 will not fit in my case.
I am loathe to do this work if the concensus is that it will not be much quieter (and also I would lose the 'direct exhaust' of the stock cooler).
If using an aftermarket heatsink & fan, would you plug the fan into the graphics card's own fan socket (like the stock cooler) or use one of the fan headers on the motherboard?
Finally, if anyone has any ideas why Nvidia's 'ntune' software might be causing blue screens of death on my machine (which is running Vista 64 with 8 Gb RAM) when I try to run it, I'd be really grateful! Are there better altenratives?
8800 GTS (512) cooling noise: stock vs HR-03 GT
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
You plug the fanconnector into the motherboard, The one on the graphicscard is a 2pin connector and will likely not fit. Running a 92mm fan at 1500rpm seems overkill for a hr-gt03, run it at 900, and you will have a almost quiet vga with "lower than stock" temps. (best choice is to strap a 120mm fan to the cooler, and run it even slower), I'm running a Noctua at inaudiable 550rpm. my vga settles at 45 idle/55 load.