Lower-power-consumption video card or new PSU?

[Good Wombo]

Hello, need some advice on my next course of action. I've quietened my computer (see specs at the end of post) to a stage where it seems like the PSU (Zalman 400B) noise is my only obstacle. The noise level at boot-up or when I stop the PSU fan is one that I'll be satisfied with. I'm guessing that my video card (GF4 Ti4400) is causing the PSU fan to ramp up, and I'm guessing (from the vga power consumption sticky in the vga forum) that it has a similar power consumption to the 6800GT which is ~14W (DC) more than something like a 9600XT, which may be significant enough according to the noise-vs-power charts in the SPCR review of the PSU. I figured my options may either be:

1. Replace the PSU with the Phantom 500 (no Seasonics in Australia). Pre-2005 Phantom 350 seems to be pretty unreliable, with the 2005 ones better but not a guarantee. I couldn't find much about the reliability of the Phantom 500 PSUs...

2. Replace the video card with a low-power-consumption card like a GFFX5200 (non-ultra) or GF6600 (non-gt) as they seem to consume at least 10W (DC) less than the Ti4400... preferably an Nvidia (but not necessarily) card. I don't have anything against ATI btw - I'm using an X800XT in my gaming rig! I just want to be able to use the LCD-scaling options in the Nvidia control panel on this computer for playing older games that may only have a max resolution that is lower than the native 1280x1024 on my LCDs.

I don't know if praying that Shuttle releases a Zen with Pentium-M/A64 support, AGP/PCI express port, and a PCI port will get me anywhere.

Which option do you think I should go with? I'm a little wary of option 2 as I don't want to change the video card and still find myself unhappy with the PSU noise. I'm also a little wary of option 1 because of all the problems people have had with the Phantom 350 in particularly. ARgghh!!

Here are the specs of the computer:
Barton 2500+ w/ Thermalright SLK947 (antec red led fan at 5V - had it lying around, surprisingly quiet, but doesn't push much air, but temps are fine)
Asus A7N8X-Deluxe motherboard
2x512MB DDR333
Leadtek GF4 Ti4400 w/ ZM-80A heatpipe
E-mu 0404 sound card
LG DVD burner
Suspended 120GB 7200.7 Seagate HDD
SLK3000B case (stock rear fan at ~4V or maybe less)
Zalman 400B PSU

[alglove]

What about something like fitting an Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 1 (Rev. 2) to your Ti4400? That way, you would remove much of the heat directly, as opposed to having it heat up your case.

[Elixer]

I seriously doubt 15W change in power is going to make a big difference in the noise from the power supply. You might try a fresh air duct from your top drive bay to your power supply. From a noise perspective it certainly makes more sense to replace your power supply than your video card.