Needs an out-of-the-box silent single slot Nvidia card

They make noise, too.

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rostv3d
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Needs an out-of-the-box silent single slot Nvidia card

Post by rostv3d » Mon Feb 25, 2013 11:04 am

Hi

I've been searching and browsing the great forums of SPCR, but can't seem to find an answer to my particular need.
I'm looking for a single slot Nvidia card to fit in my Lian Li PC-Q07 (only one PCI bracket). Also, the card should be no more than 180 mm in length.

I know the requirements are narrowing my selection down a lot. But I'm basically looking for the best performing - while also quiet - card out there.
  • Single PCI slot - only using one bracket
  • Max. 180 mm. in length
  • Nvidia GPU
  • Great performance in games
  • Silent - preferably without aftermarket cooling
Hopefully someone here can help me. Thanks in advance!

CA_Steve
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Re: Needs an out-of-the-box silent single slot Nvidia card

Post by CA_Steve » Mon Feb 25, 2013 2:02 pm

Don't know if I'd recommend putting any gaming card in that case - as there is no active case cooling. Some of the GTX 650 cards have single slot bracket - but require 2 slots of space for the card (due to the cooler). If that will work, then there are cards by PNY and Sparkle. Don't know how quiet they are...and this isn't super high power gaming...

edh
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Re: Needs an out-of-the-box silent single slot Nvidia card

Post by edh » Mon Feb 25, 2013 2:48 pm

rostv3d wrote:
  • Single PCI slot - only using one bracket
  • Max. 180 mm. in length
  • Nvidia GPU
  • Great performance in games
  • Silent - preferably without aftermarket cooling
I'm afraid you're not going to get all of those things at once off the shelf. Something like a GT610 with a passive cooler will fit and fulfill most of those requirements but the bad area will be performance in games. There have been some passive GT640 cards from Zotac but tehy're too long. The way I look at silence, no fan cooled card is silent because the fans have to spin so much faster than the 500-800rpm 120mm fans which are totally feasible for most system components.

You're up against it in that case I'm afraid. You can't fit a big aftermarket passive cooler as there isn't the length and the drive bracket at the bottom of that case will also get in the way. Did you originally intend to use the Q07 for gaming at all? I really do think that you're not going to get much of any modern card in it off the shelf, let alone one with great game performance and silence at the same time.

If you are willing to mod to achieve silence and don't need the bottom drive mount then I would remove the bottom drive mount, cut a 120mm hole in the bottom of the case, mount a 120mm fan to it at 5V, then install a GTX650 or similar with the stock fan removed. This will be a quieter setup than the standard fan.

boost
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Re: Needs an out-of-the-box silent single slot Nvidia card

Post by boost » Tue Feb 26, 2013 5:20 am

rostv3d wrote:Great performance in games
Silent - preferably without aftermarket cooling
Out of the box silent gaming cards are mythical creatures, they don't exist. On this forum poeple complain about the the noise level of the Asus Direct CU coolers, and those are the best for high performance stock cards.
rostv3d wrote:Single PCI slot - only using one bracket
Max. 180 mm. in length
Nvidia GPU
No.
Afaik there are two (really one in two color schemes) gaming grade nVidia cards that use only one slot for conectors. The cooler is still dual slot and it's 25cm long: KFA² GeForce GTX 680 LTD OC

The Lian Li Q11 is one of the smallest cases to fit gaming grade gear. I suggest you look into that.

rostv3d
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Re: Needs an out-of-the-box silent single slot Nvidia card

Post by rostv3d » Tue Feb 26, 2013 9:17 am

Thanks for the replies guys.

The main purpose of the system isn't gaming (as you might have suspected). Thus, I'm not necessarily looking for a high performance card, but more like the best possible performing card, while considering my requirements. By quiet I don’t expect zero noise – but I do need it to be pretty silent when not performing 3d intensive work.

I'm not going to mount a 3.5" drive (in the bottom bracket at least), so that leaves some extra room for cooling.

boost
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Re: Needs an out-of-the-box silent single slot Nvidia card

Post by boost » Thu Feb 28, 2013 5:56 am

If you remove the hard drive bracket (4 screws) there's enough room for a dual slot cooler. The Geforce 650 Ti is the fastest nVidia card with single slot connectors and a very short PCB. The 650 Ti can't play the most demanding games at the highest detail in 1920 resolution, but most current games will run at these settings. Newer titles, developed for PS4 and Xbox 720 then ported to PC especially, will be even more demanding.
The SPARKLE GeForce GTX 650 Ti has a single slot connector, dual slot cooler layout and is very short ~150mm. The cooler should be ok in 2D mode, 3D mode is supposedly not quiet, but not terrible either. The card only draws 70W in games.

The ventilation in the PC-07 isn't designed for a graphic card. If you remove the HDD bracket consider cutting a hole in the bottom of the case to improve airflow around the graphic card.

rostv3d
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Re: Needs an out-of-the-box silent single slot Nvidia card

Post by rostv3d » Fri Mar 01, 2013 11:05 am

boost wrote:If you remove the hard drive bracket (4 screws) there's enough room for a dual slot cooler. The Geforce 650 Ti is the fastest nVidia card with single slot connectors and a very short PCB. The 650 Ti can't play the most demanding games at the highest detail in 1920 resolution, but most current games will run at these settings. Newer titles, developed for PS4 and Xbox 720 then ported to PC especially, will be even more demanding.
The SPARKLE GeForce GTX 650 Ti has a single slot connector, dual slot cooler layout and is very short ~150mm. The cooler should be ok in 2D mode, 3D mode is supposedly not quiet, but not terrible either. The card only draws 70W in games.
That Sparkle card looks very promising indeed. Seems to be my best option right now.
boost wrote:The ventilation in the PC-07 isn't designed for a graphic card. If you remove the HDD bracket consider cutting a hole in the bottom of the case to improve airflow around the graphic card.
You're probably right and I'll do that if I end up buying the GTX 650 Ti. Thanks for the great suggestion.

Happy Hopping
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Re: Needs an out-of-the-box silent single slot Nvidia card

Post by Happy Hopping » Mon Mar 25, 2013 10:23 pm

There is good reason for me to keep my XFX 7950GT with heatsink as a backup video card. :mrgreen:

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