Silencing an X800..

I've got a (relativly) old ATI X800 graphics card in my PC. It serves me well enough for what I do now that I rarely have time for gaming, and gives good enough performance for when I get the chance :)

The problem is that now i've moved my PC into my office, I notice the noise it produces much more than I used to..probably due to the fact its quiter in here. I've dug out an old fan speed controller which I had lying around from an old build, and have attached all my case fans to that which pretty much silences them, and my CPU has a zalman flower on it which is also pretty much inaudiable.

So the last thing on my list is my graphics card. Its not *that* bad when i'm not doing much with the PC, its still the loudest thing in there (probably as its a tiny fan) but I can live with it..but the second I start to put a bit of strain on it (watching movies full screen, or especially playing a bit of TF2) it kicks in at full speed and makes loads of noise.

So, I think I need a replacement cooler for it. I used to have an arctic cooler for my 9800pro, but I sold that along with the card and don't think it would be suitable anyway..it was awesome for noise though, so I am after something similar that would fit this card.

Problem is that I can't seem to find *any* silent/near silent graphics card coolers that are compatible - the all talk about the X1XXX series and not my card.

has anyone got any reccomendations on what sort of cooler I can get? I know that really I should be thinking more about replacing the card with a new one, but its going to be hard enough to find a spare £20 let alone a spare £150, so thats not really an option unless someone has a near silent, better card going spare :P

The other thing i've considered is modding the fan cable on the card at the moment to plug in to my fan controller, but on reflection I think thats possible a terrible idea which could overheat the card hah.

Any advice/opinions? :)

I had the same problem with a HIS x800, the fan was rubbish and got louder over time. I got one of these http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/...x=150&code=013 and that did the trick.

Something like this maybe http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...category=80151

Lol never mind i see you did not want another artic cooler, but they still are very good.

Arctic Cooling did a version of the silencer ( 4 or 5 i think) for the X800 that is pretty decent (got mine prefitted with it). Zalman also has a GPU heatsink similar to the flower ones or the CPU that may also be worth looking at, the VF-700

2nd vote for a Zalman cooler, I have one of theese on my 6800GT in my old machine - http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/...x=201&code=013 - that page says it's compatible with all ATi Radeo Xxxx series cards too :)

It's very quiet, mine came with a dud fan controller so always runs at low revs, making virtually no audible noise - and still kept it a few degrees cooler than the stock HSF

excellent thanks for the quick replies :)

Only thing thats got me thinking now is that i'm going to be spending £15-£20 on one..and ive just seen theres a 7600GT for sale with a silencer already fitted in the FS section..got me thinking about trying to raise another £20 and picking that up..hmm going to have to do a bit of reading up on the performance difference between the X800 and the 7600GT and see if its worth it or not. If not I think i'll pick up one of those arctic coolers like you just linked me to burtie :)

Spud1, from personal experiance an oc'd x800 will be a close'ish match to the 7600GT so I wouldn't worry to much about it.

I had an X800 and had two coolers on it from Arctic Cooling, both of which are a huge improvement over the stock cooler.

I think one was the ATI5 which is whisper quite and allowed me some very hefty overclocking. The other was their fairly recent passive cooler, the one with the huge fins, and you can't beat this for a totaly silent solution (just make sure that you have a case fan blowing over it if you want to oc at all).

Ok thanks - I think your pretty much right there, I'll see if I can get hold of an arctic cooler for it for now, and wait to upgrade until I have the funds to go for a really nice card =) Who knows I might be able to afford a whole new machine in a year or so :D

edit: just ordered one of these: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=627850

Should work rather well I hope, i don't tend to overclock so not worried about that, worst case I can always get hold of the fan adapter for it in the future if needed.

Thanks again for all the opinions :)