Thanks to CA_Steve and quest_for_silence I am very pleased to have a nearly silent recording rig for my home studio discussed in this thread: viewtopic.php?t=69508

In a nutshell: Remove GPU: SPARKLE Computer NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti, add EVGA SuperNOVA 550G3 GOLD and a Noctua - NF-S12A PWM 120mm Fan, buy SSDs and spin down all HDs when not in use.

Enter a new problem: I want to do instrument proficiency training (I am an Instrument rated pilot) with X-Plane 11 on this machine. I removed the GTX 560 Ti because it was driving me crazy and I really do not want to put that back in but the Intel HD2000 on the ASUS P8Z68-M PRO will not even run this version of X-Plane.

I don't need all the bells and whistles in X-Plane 11. In fact I can effectively turn off all the eye candy scenery because it is not required for instrument proficiency (basically you are flying in a white box (in the clouds) so my needs are modest.

My ideas are: buy a used video card off eBay with a Zalman cooler or try to find one without a fan at all (passive) or try to find a quiet cooler for the GTX 560 I already have.

Do you have any ideas for me?

Thank you!

If you can get your hand on a used 1060(MSI has a great variant but I never owned one) they are power efficient. In the case you need more silence you could mod it to further increase the cooler at low fan speed (with low speed 120mm fan or even a couple of A12X25).

Welcome back. Phoronix looked at X-Plane 11 with Linux and an assortment of video cards last year. You can get a feel for cards vs frame rates at different 1080p quality levels.

I bought a used MSI GTX 1050 Ti Gaming X card on ebay a little while ago for $100. Passive fan for most everything I do. It'd be a good fit for even high to very high gfx quality level with quiet fans.

Wonderful recommendations. Thank you!

CA_Steve, wow, that is quite the find (phoronix).

It seems the MSI 1060 comes in 2 variants. One with dual and one with single fans. Wondering what difference this might make with noise...

A good dual fanned 1060 will be much quieter than the single fanned versions. Also, be aware that there is a nerfed version of the 1060 with only 3GB of VRAM and lesser performance. This thread may help.

There are some passive GT 1030 models out there, and even some passive GTX 1050ti (Kalit Palmx, IIRC). If you're feeling sporty, undervolting a GTX 1060 MSI Gaming X a bit can get its power consumption (and noise) very low. Even at stock it might be ok.

The 3GB and 6GB variant have the same power consumption, and the 3GB is roughly 15% less powerful. The cooler are the same on both MSI model.

There is a comparison here between a 1060 3GB and 1060 6GB: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digi ... -review_14

It comes down to the opportunity you have in your area to get one.
I didn't knew there were 1050ti passive, if you can hear your computer while running X-Plane, get the 1060, else get the passive 1050ti.

fyi, Palit doesn't sell in the US..

Steve, I went with your original recommendation, a used MSI GTX 1050 Ti off of eBay.

Thanks for everything!

Have fun, Sky Pilot.