Just adding some subjective opinion of the fan. It's slightly louder than the previous Zalman I had (VF700) at 5V but also pushes more air. My overall system temp actually went down coming from a 7900gs (OCed to 600Mhz).

The fan's noise can be characterized by a motor noise at a higher pitch than that of a S-Flex. The noise quality is on par wtih a slipstream @ 1200pm, but much more quiet than a slipstream at 1200rpm. (FYI, I haven't been too impressed by the noise quality of the slipstream, but they do run well at 600-800rpm and still push a lot of air)

The panel of the muffles the card's fan noise very well and my case remains quiet (All S-Flex 1200 @ 9v).

Hi folks,

Mikity, Longbow, Engineer, damn.it.exe - Thanks for the compliments. I love this card, but 8800GT prices have gotten a little whacky since the release of the 9600 cards. This card is back down to $189 again, but now that's after a $30 rebate. There are other 8800GT's in this price range, but few include the upgraded cooler.

At this point, while I'm still thrilled with the performance I'm getting in games, the MSI fan is easily the loudest thing in my system. My next system re-build will do something about this. The length of this card is about the same as a motherboard, and in the right sized case the card itself could be used as the top side of an air chamber / duct. The case side panel would be another side and the bottom of the case would be the bottom. With a slow moving fan in front and open PCI-slot covers in the rear, this card could probably run semi-passive with a big passive heat-sink.

However, with the US economy heading for meltdown, it may be a while before I begin a full-system rebuild! But, I may try the card-as-duct mod in my current case.

Jay

Why not just take the stock fan off and strap another quiet fan onto the heatsink?

Because ducts will give me more FPS and solve world hunger.

i belive the fan on the video card is set to run at 30% of full speed

u should be able to tune it down to say 20~25% and see how it goes, i think i saw the settings in riva tuner or some other tools

You're right. And with the headroom provided by the aftermarket cooler, running at 20-25% should be unproblematic.