Re: HD3850 Silent Cooling
Have you considered the Thermalright T-Rad^2 I think it stays within the footprint of the card vertically. No idea how it will perform passively but I'm sure a couple of low speed 92mm fans would keep it sufficiently cool and be practically silent.
Re: HD3850 Silent Cooling
Which case have you got? how much clearence? in which directions?
While not cheap or passive the Scythe Musashi is suposed to be very good and it's fans are very quiet.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Scyth...as-9800GTXplus)
it sticks out slightly higher than the card
http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/vg...0-main_150.jpg
Re: HD3850 Silent Cooling
I imagine the T-Rad2 looks similar to the scythe when on a card as well :) Oh and here is a link to it on Scan.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Therm...ated-heatpipes
Re: HD3850 Silent Cooling
Yes looks like it sticks out very slightly, but maybe not quite as much as the Scythe
Here's a pic on a 3870
http://www.pro-clockers.com/images/r...rad2%20027.jpg
useing 2x92mm fans means they don't stick out, unlike the 120mm in that image
Re: HD3850 Silent Cooling
Would the Thermalright HR-03 VGA Cooler fit? That can be mounted with the rad bit on the opposite side of the card, between the cpu and gfx card? Or when you say you need it to fit in the case is this due to height restrictions? In which case i probably wont fit as the heat pipes go over the top of the card.
Re: HD3850 Silent Cooling
Thanks for the responses. It's an Inspiron 530 standard case. Heightwise, those coolers look fine as the pipes of the Accelero were just about stopping the case panel from going back on. I'm just looking into these, not too sure where to yet though. Not too concerned about amazing cooling, since I'm not really too interested in overclocking, more so looking for minimal noise as I've got the PC being used as a media center amongst other things.
Cheers,
Nick