Artic cooling VGA silencer? (1 Viewer)

[Mike_J_Potter]

I am planning to order a Artic cooling VGA silencer (revision 3)for my recently purchased Radeon 9800 Pro. The card is nice and fast but the fan is too noisy for my taste. Has anyone used one of these heatsinks? I have searched the web and everyone seems to like them, besides the install looks a little bit tricky. Any additional input would be appreciated.

 

[Mike Fassler]

http://www.svc.com/vga-rev3.html

 

[Mike_J_Potter]

Thats the one I was looking at, guess I'll order it tomorrow newegg has a good deal on it. I'll take some before and after temp readings of the system if anyone is interested.

 

[Travis Olson]

I have version 2 on my 9800 Pro. It's the same noise level of the stock hsf but it cools much better. You can overclock pretty well with it. You think the stock fan is noisy? It was virtually silent on mine. Might be something wrong with the fan on yours.

 

[Scott L]

I like the big Zalman heatpipes but the Arctic Coolers do look intriguing; they blow hot air out of the case while the Zalmans may require good air case flow to get it working good. I just wanted something that was totally noiseless though. Right now my overclocked 5900 is at 42C idle.

 

[Mike_J_Potter]

I think mine is noisy to me since the rest of the PC runs almost silently, Or it may be my case some how causing a echo. I know with the artic cooling VGA cooler I can turn the speed down to reduce noise and still get good cooling so it should be helpful. I also like how it vents the heat out of the case, since I have noticed a slight increase in interal temperature since installing the card.

 

[Mike_J_Potter]

Got the cooler today, and the install was easy, besides keeping the holes lined up when I placed the heatsink on the card. The noise level is back to what it was before I had a video card with fan, and temps on the cpu and board dropped about 4 degrees C as well. Runs nice and stable too. My only real gripe is that the huge heatsink took up one of my PCI slots requiring me to rearrange everything to make room for it.

 

[Ben LG]

Hmm would this work with a GF4 ti4200? If not does anyone have any other suggestions for a similar cooler that does?

 

[Scott L]

They have a model for the GF4 Ti's:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...186-117&depa=0

That thing is rediculously small but people seem to love it's performance.

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

It says the GF4 Ti version also fits the 5700 which is what I have. I think I'll try it.

I really like the idea of a graphics heatsink/fan that vents the hot air directly out of the case.

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

Doh! I don't have a 5700. I have a 5900. I can't use the NV Silencer 1, what I need is called the NV silencer 4. But apparently it doesn't exist yet.

 

[Jesse Blacklow]

Just installed a NV Silencer 5 on my shiny 6800GT. The previous fan sounded like, no kidding, a dentist's office during a root canal. It was LOUD. Switched it out for the Silencer, and while I can still hear the fan a little, noise was cut down by at least half. Since the card is in an HTPC, it's a godsend. The temperatures didn't fall as much as I had hoped, around 5-6C cooler at load, less at idle. I might clean off the thermal compound (I got a $7 tube of Artic Silver 5, supposedly some of the best stuff around) and reseat the Silencer. Still, well worth it for people cutting down on decibels as much as degrees.

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

Two months later and the NV Silencer 4 for the 5900 still doesn't seem to exist. One site that intends to sell it says it won't be available until the end of the year or early '05. I don't understand why they have such a gap in their product line.

If anybody spots one, let me know!

Meanwhile, some of the brand names that make the cards are starting to use these Arctic Cooling silencers.

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

Another month goes by, I checked to see if it exists, and yay it's finally available. I got the NV Silencer 4 for my Nvidia 5900. It seems to be working fine. With it expelling the graphics card's heat directly out of the case, I'll be putting the slower, quieter case fans back in now.