Hey
I've been reading SPCR quite a lot, but haven't been posting that much. Now I *have* to.

TLDR - quiet GTX 580 - Asus / Sparkle / other

Basically I want to upgrade my gaming rig, and at the same time reduce its noise.
Just now I have GTX 260 SLI (Zotac AMP2), and they become quite noisy when gaming (I can't mount them with 1 free slot in between), and in idle there's a lot of rattling and coil noise (Afterburner won't help for that, although they're much quieter at 30% than stock 40%). The most of the games were running fine, but Battlefield 3 has terrible stuttering, so I decided to get myself something faster and quieter at the same time. Water is not an option - I want to donate it to my brother after some time, and he doesn't like any water in his pc. I guess all these cards will fit his Chieftec LCX tower case.

The current candidates are (1920x1200, constant 60fps high / good fps ultra detail; I want it relatively quiet, but with OC potential - 850-900MHz):
ASUS Direct CU II / Matrix / Matrix Platinum - I have no idea what's difference between them; Matrix seems to be a little more oc-oriented, but is it better or less noisy?
Sparkle Calibre - Accelero looks interesting, but is it better than ASUS in terms of noise, GPU&VRM temperatures and overall build quality
basically any other 580
Radeon 6990 + Accelero Twin Turbo 6990 ? ... it looks like a lot of gaming power, but isn't it a bit extreme?

I've read quite a lot reviews, but noise-wise they don't seem to be reliable. The data and opinions across sites differ way too much to trust them. By browsing SPCR forums I found that you generally like AC Accelero, but I'm not 100% convinced it'll be the best choice. I'll probably have to mod bios too no matter what I choose.

My options in terms of card and cooling choice may be limited a bit, as I live in Poland and I'd like to buy everything locally.
Here's the rest of my rig specs - perhaps it'll help a bit or maybe you'll have other ideas on what I can improve. There are usually some sounds when I'm gaming, so the computer doesn't have to be noiseless in such case, but I'd like to decrease idle noise significantly:
CPU: i7 920 @ 3.8 with Prolimatech Megahalems and 2x Scythe S-Flex (hooked to mobo with exhaust fan, 700RPM idle)
Mobo: ASUS Rampage II Extreme
PSU: Seasonic M12DII 850W
Case: Silverstone Raven RV01, big bottom fans running with no controller at 750RPM (considering buying one), with exhaust fan replaced with S-Flex, running off the same channel as CPU fans (speedfan can control only 1 fan on this motherboard); no modding
HDD: Samsung F1 1TB, WD Green 2TB, SSD for system; removed 4 of 6 caddies

That's quite a lot of text, but in short the most important thing right now is getting a trouble-free GTX 580, and if you have any other suggestions, they're welcome.

Thank you in advance.

I suggest to read this article at Behardware, it compares several GTX 580 cards, link:
http://www.behardware.com/articles/840- ... zotac.html
The MSI Lightning has the lowest power draw, followed by a Zotac equipped with the Zalman 3000 cooler.
If you have good case airflow, it can help with the temps of the GPU, so you can trade a bit higher temps for lower noise.

I dont have much experience with other GTX580, but i do own a Galaxy 58NLH5HS3PXZ GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card, comes with Artic Cooling acelero plus already, by defult the idle fans are limited to 30% and they wont ramp up until 72C (i yet to reach this temp), but i do use it with MSI Afterburner and you can set the fan to ramp how ever you prefer, you cant go below 30% unless you flash the bios, i think there is another forum member here to that did it and he idles at 20%, i didnt bother as its fine at 30% in my case. Not sure if its available to you locally, but here is another, KFA2 GeForce GTX 580 Anarchy Edition (1.536GB,DDR5). The sparkle last i heard came with fans at 40% default, but i havent seen if you can flash the bios. Search the forums you will see some comments about both.

According to SPCR's own review, running both fans at full speed will lead to a noise level at 22 dBA/1m. Reducing the fans to just 7 V (easily possible with a Zalman Fanmate) will reduce the noise level to just 13 dBa/1m. Using a fan controller would be a very good controller, because, as you can see, you can easily dictate the noise level.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article942-page7.html

Thank you a lot for the responses.
Looking at info you provided:

Tzupy
Zotac - Infrared pics of back side scared me a bit.
MSI - it's got low power consumption, but the cooler is a bit too noisy for me and it might be difficult to swap it
ASUS Matrix Platinum - it looked pretty solid in behardware review; 32°C at idle appear to be overkill, so perhaps Afterburner / reflash might result in much better idle noise characteristic

Abula
Galaxy / KFA2 - I've checked all price grabbers, googled, and they appear to be unavailable over here.
Sparkle Calibre - they appear to have exactly the same cooler as Galaxy / KFA2, so I'll count it as a vote for this card unfortunately I heard about some QA/builkd quality problems such that these cards can be unstable even with factory overclock; I'd have to confirm it, as perhaps the users had poor airflow or weak PSU

kuzzia
That SPCR review made me buy this case. I used to use FanMate, as it can handle 2 fans at once (with adapter), but the problem was that there was not enough airflow for dual graphics cards. I don't really need any fancy bling-bling features. Something like FanMate + easily accessible switch to instantly enable 12v would help a lot, or even a switch to toggle between 7v/12v and it would be perfect if it could be done automatically when launching a game.

Can't you buy a fan controller that can be placed in an external 5,25" or 3,5" bay? That would make it much easier, wouldn't it?

Yeah

I was browsing some Internet stores looking for one. However that switch would be useful, so I don't have to adjust the knobs all the time.
T-Balancer looks interesting too, but I don't know if I can adjust the fan speed programatically, or is it autonomous-only system. And it's pricey. Another idea that came on my mind was buying USB-driven relay. The cost is similar to the cheaper 5,25" panels, and it might switch 12v line on/off in parallel to the line from FanMate.

Regarding graphics cards, it appears that:
ASUS DirectCU II is available here
Sparkle Calibre is available too, it's one of the cheaper cards, but has no backplate
ASUS Matrix non-Platinum is unavailable
ASUS Matrix Platinum is barely available and a bit pricey, but acceptable
Zotac AMP2 is barely available and costs as much as 590 or 6990, which is just silly

The EKL Alpenföhn Peter fits on a GTX 580 with a standard layout. You can keep the original baseplate for VRM/Memory cooling. This combination gets great temps for GPU and VRMs.
You can use two 120/140mm fans of your choice with it. Scythe Slpistream and Be Quiest SilentWings are some of the good choices. Gelid makes an adapter to plug PWM fans into a graphic card's fan plug.
This is a great combo, but it is expensive and takes up a bit over four slots, five effectively.

To have a quiet GTX 580 you have to go after market cooling with your own choice of quiet fans.
I'd recommend Thermalright Shaman (got one on my GTX580) but it seems to be sold out almost all over the world.
If you could find one, buy one plus a reference GTX580 and your Gold .

edit:
They're gaming oriented but guru3d.com does test most cards and checks their noise. Not as accurate as SPCR but their noise charts is relative so useful.

Edit2:
For reference my WinFast GTX 580 (reference board) dropped 10°C on idle by changing to Shaman and the fan on ~730rpm.
On Furmark burn test reference cooler on "vacuum cleaner mode" (full speed) hit around 78°C @3min. With Shaman on full 1300rpm, 54-55°C @3min.
Even on 40% (lowest with out flashing bios) I could hear the damn fan on the reference cooler. Mostly hear a gentle whoosh in the dead of night.

Thanks again.

Both Alpenfohn Peter and Thermalright Shaman look really great, but also scary. 4 slots...
Just now my config looks like that:
Xonar | GTX260 Cooler, GTX 260 | GTX260 Cooler, GTX 260

If I install any of these monster coolers, they'll be blocked by Xonar. With 260 it's not a big deal, as Xonar is short and the fan isn't covered, but with these it might be different...

Now it looks like I either go water or will regret it. I haven't been into water cooling for >10 years.

Anyway when I'm back home, I'll check the drawings for both coolers, and if Xonar overlaps, I'll probably have to go either ASUS DirectCu II (or Platinum) or Sparkle Calibre (but EVGA backplates aren't available here).

But can you tell me, maybe I'm just worrying too much about stuff I shouldn't and the whole VRM overheating problem doesn't exist outside of my head?
Maybe they can handle these 120C easily?

Is your Xonar a PCI or a PCI-Ex card?
If it's a PCI one, shaman will definitely be to big..
If PCI-Ex one it might fit if you use the 2nd gfx slot on the MB.

My MB is http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=P67%20Pro3

Took some pictures of my current rig while I'm in Japan.
The computer:
http://i891.photobucket.com/albums/ac12 ... MG0802.jpg

As you can see the Shaman is big and does take 4 slots.
http://i891.photobucket.com/albums/ac12 ... MG0803.jpg

My huge CPU cooler (Silver Arrow) is Blocking the upper PCI-Ex slot, if it didn't I could use it.
http://i891.photobucket.com/albums/ac12 ... MG0807.jpg

If you have space the Thermalright Spitfire has a different shape, it's still big and it goes over a few slots, but it does leave space underneath it.
http://www.thermalright.com/products/in ... d=30&id=93

Edit:
Just got a reply from Thermalright support, seems they have stopped production on VGA coolers since the market is too tough at the moment for aftermarket coolers. They're keeping an eye on it and might return when things get more favorable.
So if anyone wants any of their superior VGA coolers get them now if you can find one.

Too bad the Galaxy isnt available to you, its to me the perfect gtx580, their bios was done with noise in mind, the card stays in 30% speed no matter what, i wrote to Galaxy if it was PWM, and they said the fans wont ramp up until 73C, playing 4 hours SC2 the most i seen is 65C, i bet there are more demanding games that will push pass the threshold, but in my case its been great experience, again i mostly play SC2.

Now on the Sparkle, in theory it should be the same, as the cooler is, but i read comments about their bios starting at 40% (i think this is the default Nvidia setting for the GTX580), in here and other forums people have flashed their gpu to change fan settings, not sure if it will work though, but i avoided Sparkle for this reason alone, read much better reviews about the Galaxy in terms of noise, and i wanted the BP . There is someone here in SPCR that also got the galaxy and flashed to 15% speed (i think), check this two links, KFA2 (Galaxy) GTX580 Anarchy editon - quick review and Recommendations for quietest GTX 570 (or even 560 or 470)

Personally i would avoid water cooling, unless you are going for heavy OCing, Air coolers of today seem the prefer choice for quiet pcs.

Good luck with your choice,

You guys are so great and helpful

Here's a link to my mobo picture:
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_ ... 1v_500.jpg

and the cards (I'm sorry for the quality, I've got only phone camera) - you can see dual 260 and Xonar D2X to the left; it measures 18cm aka 7in
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v124/ ... rance_.jpg

It was fine before I bought a sound card. There's one tiny PCI-E slot above the cards, but due to huge NB heatsink it's not accessible except for bundled sound module.
Shaman will "fit", but I'm really worried if it'll have enough clearance to suck air effectively. The fan is pretty huge, so it should work. TR Spitfire won't fit as I have huge CPU Tower cooler - Megahalems. It looks like the easiest option would be to just donate this rig to my brother and buy a totally new one

Shaman costs around $80 here, Accelero Extreme Plus II $85 (converted PLN->USD)
Sparkle Calibre is one of the cheapest GTX580 I can get here - it costs around $600, and when I add the cost of the cooler, it's a little more than I wanted to spend.

So unless one convinces me to buy ASUS, I think I'd buy that Calibre, try to flash it to decrease minimum fan speed and control it with Afterburner... or perhaps I might just flash it with Galaxy firmware if both are reference? If flashing doesn't help, then I might buy Thermalright Shaman. This cooler is a beast, but perhaps I'll be able to achieve comparable results with Accelero hoping that VRMs won't explode.

The spitfire can be turned either upwards or downwards facing (up towards the case or down into the case). I checked their online installation pdf.
How much is the spitfire?

With the Shaman you get small heat sinks to put on all the memory and VRM. With the 140mm fan pushing air on top of that you don't have to worry about any explosions.
As you can see on this video @2:22 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxdNKSASrdM the bundled heat sinks are enough for everything, I even have a few spare ones.
It's a GTX 480 but GTX 580 is identical in layout.

Hmm, it would be a tight fit like with your 2x GPU's now.

Go for the sparkle, try to flash it. If it's still annoying go for the Shaman. Like your Megahelem the Shaman will last you more than one build . Just keep the stock cooler in a drawer for when you want to sell/give the card.

Great information here. Considering the latest releases, particularly Skyrim, I'm thinking a GTX580 will be able to power my U3011 at max res (2560x1600).

Like OP, I need a quiet 580 with possible aftermarket cooling. This card will be an upgrade over my 8800gts. I can overclock my q6600 if necessary (yes, that's an old chip, but still good). My motherboard only has 1 GPU slot, so this card will have a lot of work to do. I reckon a 580 will be enough. The 600s are due soon, so there's hopefully a price drop coming.