The PowerColor Radeon HD 6850

Look at those fins... 3 slots worth.
http://www.vortez.net/news_story/could_ ... _card.html

I've been waiting for this since the announcement and pictures were posted last fall. With the Scythe SP1225FDB12L 120mm fan that is currently installed on the front blowing across the fins it should do well in my son's Mini p180. Then I get his Gigabyte silent 5770 to replace my silent Sapphire HD3870.

If you pick up any stock 6850 (Gigabyte, ASUS, etc.) you can easily undervolt it to sub 1.0V, slap on an Accelero, and run it "passive" with a decent case exhaust. This is exactly what I am doing in my Lian Li Q08 with an i5 2500k -- the whole system only has one front 140mm exhaust, which is controlled via a T-Balancer MiniNG and only starts up during gaming. The setup is passive on idle.

What's meant by the 3 slot design? Do most cases have enough room for sticking something one slot width backwards, given most motherboards have the PCIe slot first?

it's a 2 slot card, but it probably needs the extra room to get enough air.

IMO, it's just another on of those "fanless" products that needs a fan close by or at least some serious airflow...

I'll take that any day over a video card with a 40mm or 60mm fan a non standard fan header and a heat sink so small that even a 120mm fan won't cool it quietly.

I'll also take it over a fanless HS that isn't flat and leaves you with no easy way to add a fan to it.

Seriously. I'm currently using a Radeon 5570 with a 120mm fan on 5v blowing across it (hanging at an odd angle by wires tied to the CPU HS and the back of the case). A card with a HS that big and flat would allow me to strap a 120mm fan flat to it instead of having to rig something unstable like what I did for the 5570 I'm using.

And that's assuming I don't just go into RBE and slow the darn 6850 down enough to leave it truly fanless. Give me that 6850 and the monster HS and so long as it's faster than a 5750 after I take RBE to it I'll be willing to let it run fanless at less than stock speeds.

I'll add something else to my previous comment : I think the fins are pointing the wrong way for a front to back (or bottom to top) airflow.
A fan strapped on one of those, or a fan close by, will be fine on the side the fan is on, the other side, forget it ! No normal airflow is going to go through those fins on the back of the card unless you have a fan on there.
The only way I see this design working is in a case with a side intake for the GPU, with a fan blowing towards it.

Yeah, the fins are perpendicular. Works fine if you strap a fan onto it, but won't take advantage of regular case airflow unlike an Accelero S1 rev. 2, for example.

Seems like it's finally out:
http://www.powercolor.com/global/News.asp?id=1119

I'm wondering how long before it hit the stores?

Dear all

I just contacted PowerColor for availability and it is supposed to be on the market next week.
At least through some german internet retailer called Alternate (http://www.alternate.de).
They did not give me any ref price, so I will have to wait.

Actually I wanted to buy some Sapphire 6850 but then CES did hint to me in a different thread to this fanless model, and I think it deserves to wait some days for it. What I doubt is that my case will be cool enough for this monster, so I am thinking about buying one Nexus 120 or maybe a Slipstream 800rpm to keep it cool while silent.

I have to confess I have no experience as this would be my first build, so I hope my intentions make sense.

What do you think?

Rgds
Alejandro

Take a look at the fan setup for the Lan-Gear.com Micr-ATX case. I think that is probably perfect for this card:
http://www.lan-gear.eu/langear-home

You will have to search around their site to get a good picture of it, but when you find it you will see what I mean.