The MSI GeforceFX 5600 card was given the editor's choice in the July 2003 video card buyer's guide . It was described as being cooled by an "almost silent fan (25 dB)."

I'm considering this card as a possible upgrade and reasonably-quiet alternative to dropping a wad on a Zalman heatpipe (and likely killing my system trying to install it - I'm not that much of a modder).

Anybody have experience with this particular card? How quiet is it by SPCR standards?

you may want to read this:
http://www.ocaddiction.com/reviews/video/fic_r9600pro/

and decide if you really want to buy a 5600. The 9600 pro should be easier to cool. The 9600 already comes passivly cooled.

I have considered the 9600, but I can't find the cards anywhere around here (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada). I've also looked at online stores here in Canada, and the 9600s are nowhere to be found. I actually would quite like to get a mid-range card that's passively cooled, but it seems like it's the holy grail of gaming.

The 9600 PRO is available, but I'm not sure how quiet those cards are. I just note that the MSI FX5600 has been noted in a couple of reviews as being a "quiet" card. I thought I'd find out what the SPCR experience has been.

I would say that any card with a 40mm fan is NOT silent !!

At least not by SPCR standards.

The reason being that in order to move any air 40mm fans need to rotate fast thus giving a high pitched whine.

Who says it moves much air at all? Maybe it's a quiet fan because it's low rpm, just what the card needs but not allowing much overclocking.

I don't know about MSI's newer cards, but my MSI GF4 Ti4200 has a VERY loud factory fan which I unplugged and substituted with a nearby NMB.

From Anandtech:
"ATI's Radeon 9600 Pro - Thanks to a 0.13-micron manufacturing process it requires very little cooling"

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1812

you can look at the pic of the fan it's using.

the HSF on the card looks exactly like the one that I had on my Radeon 64mb VIVO (original radeon).

I have the original radeon running on my parents computer, i removed the stock fan, and suspended a panaflo L1A blowing on it at 5V (as per the poor man's zalman bracket MikeC did in one of his articles).

I'm pretty sure doing that would make the 9600pro/non-pro to be far quieter then any stock cooling on the FX5600.

oh, and from reading i've gathered comparing the 9600 series and the FX5600, the 9600 series is a lot cooler running then the 5600.

fan measured 25db in a review, they said it was very quiet, the quietest of the current crop of cards reviewed, except the heat pipe ones