I have decided it is time to buy a new video card for my PC. It is more or less an HTPC / media server, you can see details and pictures of it in this thread.
As you can see, space is very tight in this case, but there is enough room to put an expansion card in the pcie slot. I was originally planning to put a sound-card there, but current tendencies have me leaning towards a video card. I don't / didn't ever game much, however lately I started some fps gaming again. I'm not playing crazy video intensive games, but I've realized I need more performance than my on-chip graphics offer.
For this reason I'm looking for a mid-range / low-end video card, up to approximately 100$ in price. I already have my eyes set on the Radeon HD6570 or HD6670 chips, as they are said to offer the best performance in this price range.
Furthermore, I currently have 2 screens attached, and would consider a third screen, which the advent of EYEFINITY technology would let me attach.
I read in this article about Eyefinity that in order to use Eyefinity, at least one connector has to be a DisplayPort connector. The problem here is that many low end cards don't have a DisplayPort connector at all.
This HIS HD6570
would appear to be almost perfect, due to it's stock passive cooling, low price, and also compact single slot form factor. However it will only support 2 outputs at the same time, and even if it supported more, I wouldn't even want to use VGA in this digital day and age.
In fact, it doesn't appear that any 6570 cards offer 3 digital outputs, whether they are passive or active.
So if I want to have 3 digital outputs, it would appear my only option is to look at 6670s.
This is great for several reaons, for one I would get superior gaming performance, and for another, strangely enough, spcr measured that this card has LESS power draw, meaning it is easier to cool.
Once again, there is a card that would appear to be almost exactly what I need, the Sapphire HD6670
It's passive, has 3 digital outputs, supports Eyefinity... however the problem is that the heatsink extends higher than the card itself, and due to the low height of the NSK2400 case, I only have room for a card that is 5mm taller than the metal slot mount backplate, which is to say, exactly as wide as the PCB on that card. In addition, the heatsink continuing on the backside of the card would cause a collision with my Minja CPU heatsink.
So, in conclusion, I have discarded every stock passive card, and am looking at getting a fan-cooled card, and silencing it myself.
Same as alexb in this thread I'm considering the two different Sapphire cards, the "ATI Design" and the "Sapphire Design".
In addition there is this card by HIS
Which only has a single slot backplate, and also offers HDMI, DVI, DP connections.
For all 3 of these fan-cooled HD6670s, space restrictions are not a problem, the card is about 5mm wider than the backplate, which means it fits the case heightwise, and with the 17cm PCB, card length is not a problem either, as it's just as long as my motherboard already is.
To make a long story short, I'm looking for feedback and advice whether and how I can passively or silently cool an HD6670 without the heatsink extending any higher/wider than the PCB.
My ideas are:
- undervolt (hardware or software, depends) the stock fan:
- This is the easiest thing to do, but I'm not sure how quiet I can get the fan - remove the stock fan, simply run passively:
- Given the size of the tiny passive heatsink on the aforementioned 6570, and considering the fact that the power draw of the 6670 is lower (or the same, there's obviously sample variance), this should offer close to enough cooling, albeit perhaps with some case fan ducting. - remove the stock fan, and jerryrig a Yate Loon 80mm or 120mm fan on 5V:
- Like option 1, this still introduces an extra fan into the case, which I don't want, but it will be very quiet, most likely quieter than stock undervolted. - replace the entire stock HSF with an aftermarket passive cooler:
- Biggest problem here is finding a cooler that doesn't have heatpipes that extend beyond the PCB. Nice stuff like the Accelero S1 or the Thermanright HR-03 all have heatpipes that make much too large of a curve to fit. And the Prolimatech MK-13 is way too long.
Reports of usage of these Chips (preferabaly passively) with temperatures would also be much appreciated.