Fanless GT 240!

cordis · Post by **cordis** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 1:45 pm

Hey, I just noticed this on newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

It's not the most powerful card in the world, but I think it's the most powerful fanless nvidia card I've seen. A little ventilation in the case would be necessary, but it's nice to see a reasonably powerful card going fanless. And it also doesn't have a power port, it seems to draw all power from the pci bus. I guess moving to the new process node is starting to pay off a little for nvidia. Silent and low power, plus the built in hdmi port, it seems fairly ideal for a quiet htpc. I like it!

Greg F. · Post by **Greg F.** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 4:04 pm

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3709

this is a good article on the 240 cards. I like the card as I am not sold on ATI cards for Linux.

Vicotnik · Post by **Vicotnik** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 8:31 pm

DDR3 on that passive one though.

If my S1 would work with a GT 240 I would own one already. If only they could standardize the mounting holes already, dammit!

kater · Post by **kater** » Wed Jan 20, 2010 10:48 pm

What exactly do you mean with the mounting holes on GT2400? Size or location or both?

Personally I'd very much like to see the new 57xx Radeons to have the GPU located more to the PCI-E 6pin end of the card (not the I/O) - that would make slapping AC S1 on them so much easier.

NTNgod · Post by **NTNgod** » Fri Jan 22, 2010 2:51 pm

Vicotnik wrote:
If my S1 would work with a GT 240 I would own one already.

Arctic Cooling did add the GT240s to their S1 compatibility list a few weeks back.

I picked up a Galaxy 512MB DDR5 model about two weeks ago, and then got another S1 this week, and it mounted without a problem.

Greg F. · Post by **Greg F.** » Fri Jan 22, 2010 5:41 pm

Since the S1 with Turbo would add about fifty bucks to a card, I think the card the OP linked to seems like a good value.

Vicotnik · Post by **Vicotnik** » Fri Jan 22, 2010 5:47 pm

NTNgod wrote:Arctic Cooling did add the GT240s to their S1 compatibility list a few weeks back.

I picked up a Galaxy 512MB DDR5 model about two weeks ago, and then got another S1 this week, and it mounted without a problem.

I saw that too and now a Gigabyte GT240 512MB GDDR5 is on it's way.

I'd just checked the mounting holes quickly before and noticed that they are further apart than on the 4670, but I didn't think about that the S1 rev2 has multiple screw holes.

I hope it will work in a semi passive configuration, as I will not use the turbo module.

Greg F. wrote:Since the S1 with Turbo would add about fifty bucks to a card, I think the card the OP linked to seems like a good value.

There's a big performance difference between the DDR3 and GDDR5 cards though. Check the Anand article you linked to earlier.

"There is a DDR3 based GT 240, and a GDDR5 based GT 240. The former has 25.44GB/sec of memory bandwidth, while the latter has 54.4GB/sec. This results in 3 cards: An $89 GT 240 with 512MB of DDR3, a $99 GT 240 with 1GB of DDR3, and a $99 GT 240 with 512MB of GDDR5.
[...]
A DDR3 GT 240 is not comparable to a GDDR5 GT 240 in most cases, and youâ€™ll understand why when you see our benchmarks. The memory bandwidth starvation when using DDR3 means that the DDR3 GT 240 is often in its own lesser performance class, a problem when most DDR3 GT 240s are equipped with 1GB of the stuff and sell for as much as their GDDR5 brethren."

NTNgod · Post by **NTNgod** » Fri Jan 22, 2010 6:07 pm

Greg F. wrote:Since the S1 with Turbo would add about fifty bucks to a card, I think the card the OP linked to seems like a good value.

I suspect the Turbo recommendation by AC is a CYA thing; given how cool these cards run, the S1 is massive overkill.

I have direct airflow on the card itself from the fan mounted on the back HD cage in my P182, although not on the heatsink portion proper (the master x16 PCI-E slot in my board sits further down than the norm; the slave x16 slot is in the more traditional spot at the top).

I haven't run benchmarks yet, but in "normal" load usage in a room w/ ambient about 19deg. C, it's topping out just above 40deg. It idles about 32 deg.

The passive GT240 in the OP is one of the few GT240s that's not heavily rebated. The after-rebate cost of my DDR5 card + an Accelero S1 from NewEgg's ChiefValue site will actually be about the same price as the shipped cost of that DDR3 Zotac.

Granted, I did have to assemble it, but I got a faster card and (most likely) a better cooler.

TalkinHorse · Post by **TalkinHorse** » Mon Feb 15, 2010 10:11 pm

That fanless ZOTAC ZT-20404-20L card looks quite interesting. I see the NewEgg listing currently has 2 reviews, both positive. I'd be interested in seeing a bit more feedback, or a "real" review. Would like some reassurance that the cooling solution is adequate.

Vicotnik · Post by **Vicotnik** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 6:57 am

Get a GDDR5 version and a S1, or get another card altogether. $91.99 for a DDR3 GT240 is not reasonable, passive cooling or not.