Coolest PCIe card made in the last few years?

valnar · Post by **valnar** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 2:54 pm

Cool as in 'not hot'.

It needs to be cool, low profile, quiet and have DVI. Those are my main requirements. Fanless is a plus.

I bought a new passive ATI 4350 and it was 92c in my small Lenovo desktop PC! I had to return it. Not that I was too surprised since there was no space or airflow in that case, but I have an ATI 2400 in another and it sits idle at 68c. I want something at least that cool. It could be the slowest thing in the world as long as it keeps cool and has DVI. This is for my work PC which is a small Lenovo desktop. It has a Q35 chipset and only built-in analog VGA output. My LCD screen is wiggling like mad because of the bad A/D conversion. It has to stop.

Any recommendations? I was thinking of the nvidia 7300GS. Would that be just as cool as the ATI 2400?

AZBrandon · Post by **AZBrandon** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 4:29 pm

The 4350 has an incredibly low TDP of just 25 watts. If it was running that much hotter than a 2400, I would think that was due to the heatsink design more than the power consumption. As such, there's no way to guarantee anything else would run cooler if the case is so horrible that even a 25w video card is running hot. Either that or you'd need to find an aftermarket heatsink you can use.

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 5:04 pm

The 4350 fanless was fine for me. I bought several for work. The only cards that might be lower power and somewhat modern are

7300 GS _____________#Â¦) 9W-10W-16W
7300 LE______________#| 10W

You wouldn't want to buy any nvidia based card higher than the 7300 and you don't want to mess with the 7300 GT as it will draw the same power as the 4350 you apparently didn't like.

Unfortunately looking at newegg I don't see a 7300 that is fanless. There is a 7200GS that is fanless. I assume it is low power but I don't know.

valnar · Post by **valnar** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 4:20 am

I bought a PCIe 7200GS and just installed it in my Lenovo small desktop. After 15 minutes it was up to 92c on an idle screen. I had to remove it.

40974111 · Post by **40974111** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 5:18 am

Can we get a photo of the system posted? We may be able to spot a solution seeing the set up in front of us?

hmsrolst · Post by **hmsrolst** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 5:30 am

Since you have onboard video, I suggest you just get an ADD2 card which provides for DVI output. If you search ebay for "ADD2", you'll find a bunch of them, some of which are Lenovo. The generic ones might work too. I have a Silicon Image which has worked in two different boards.

valnar · Post by **valnar** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 6:00 am

The Lenovo is a M57P and has a Q35 chipset, so only VGA on the back. I think that ADD2 board will be perfect! I didn't know it existed. Thanks.