Silencing a 7900gt GPU...?

Fonky · Post by **Fonky** » Thu Apr 27, 2006 9:05 pm

Alright, I want a decent video card but I also want a fairly quiet overall computing experience because I enjoy doing audio engineering in my spare time. I've been eyeballing the GeForce 7900GT as the optimal card in the "bang for your buck" equation. However, they're apparently loud as hell. Now, I'm wondering if anybody on here knows of a place where I could pick one up that comes with a decent stock fan OR what sort of danger I'm getting into trying to mod one.... Any help would be MUCH appreciated. Oh, and if there's no good option with the 7900GT, what else might work well?

EDIT: By the way, I don't want to go passive, I don't think... I'm looking at the Zalman VF-700-CU 2 ball VGA cooler. Will that fit on a 7900GT?

cAPSLOCK · Post by **cAPSLOCK** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 2:37 am

You can use one of the zalman coolers, or else the Arctic Cooling NV SÃ®lencer 5, provided you cut a couple of centimeters off the plastic duct (See here scroll down a bit).

Replacing your gfx fan normally voids your warranty (except for eVGA cards IIRC), but you actually don't risk much, if you can put a heatsink on a CPU then you should be able to manage a gfx card...

My opinion: I would get the 7900GT and put a Silencer (I like the heat-exhausting function) on it, if it fits your budget, there's no better deal in that price segment.

depravedone · Post by **depravedone** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 5:20 am

Both the VF700 and VF900 coolers from Zalman will work on the 7900GT without a problem.

TD22057 · Post by **TD22057** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 8:31 am

I have an XFX 7900GT (factory OC'ed to 550/1680) and put on a V1 Ultra w/ a Nexus 80mm quiet case fan (in a pull configuration so it blows air upwards towards by chipset coolers and he exhaust fans). Works fantastic! GPU fan runs at 30% (silent) and keeps the card 10 deg cooler when web surfing/email etc. Under load it's still pretty quiet and beats the stock cooler by 10 deg. I haven't messed much w/ optimizing the fan speed under load since I'm playing a game w/ sound anyway which drowns out any noise the nexus makes. It is a little pricey, but it does work very well and I liked the fact that it directed air over the chipset cooler since my Ninja sits too high to really provide any chipset cooling.