Recommended graphics card for Shuttle SD31p

[adman]

Hi folks

I'm looking for a recommended graphics card for my 2 Shuttle SD31p's. I just had a disaster with 2 of Gigabyte Radeon X800 256MB DDR cards (passively cooled ), it seems they are just not cooled enough (occassionally crashing in XP, and always after a few minutes gaming), added to that the heatsink is so big it sticks outside of the case slightly. Even had to insulate the cards from the case as it seems the grounding from the case onto the heatsink stops it working completely.

Looking to spend about £110-150 each ex VAT. Has anyone had good experience with a similar setup? Or any recommendations for a fairly quiet PCI Express video card that'll fit into a Shuttle (namely a SD31P)?

The boxes have
Pentium D 830
2 Gig PC5300
3 x WestDig SATA2 250 in RAID0 (btw very impressed with this!)
Cherry Wireless Pro keyboards (highly recommend if you're after a minimalist wireless keyboard setup!! Well made great looking German keyboards, UK layout, with AA LiIon batteries, gives access to BIOS too)
Dell 2005FPW monitors with DSUB/DVI/Comp (recommend!)

I went for the Passively cooled cards above to keep the noise down, don't really mind sacrificing a little performance to keep noise down. I'm a bit annoyed with these Gigabyte cards, there's no software provided to measure the temperate on them... yet that's what caused all the issues... is this a common theme with all graphics cards (ie not being able to view the temp)??

First post here, but thanks to all the posters to other threads on Hexus SFF, have done quite a bit of research on stuff you provided.

Thanks for any help/comments provided

cheers
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[tino]

Hi,

Sorry to here about your problems. Do you want to stick with ATI or switch to NVidia?

You can pick the 6800GT up for about £170-£200 just out of your budget I know or you could take a chance and buy an 6800LE and unlock the pipelines to GT level's.

I dont know whats available on the ATI side tbh but have you looked at another X800?

[adman]

Hi

thanks for the reply. I don't have any allegance to either ATI or NVidia. Haven't been able to find any articles tthat shine light particularly strongly in either direction (some go one way, some the other). I was originally intending to go for a 6800 (nonGT) with a fan, but saw this passive X800 model and thought "great".... little did I know about the heat issues. My budget can go to £200 but bang for buck, is it going to give me 25% extra performance over a base X800 or 6800? and how's the noise? heat?

If anyone else has a SD31p, I'd be keen to know what graphics card you have and any recommendations.

Cheers
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[DJMatty]

Hi Guys

I've just got my SD31P and I'm using on-board gfx at the moment. Looking into which card to get. Been looking at the Radeon X850 XT cards. I did try a gigabye one that my dad has got in his pc, but it's huge with that massive heatsink.

Not been keeping up with what's happening in the gfx card world so don't really know what's good and whats a reasonable for it at the moment, so any suggestions would be welcome.

I'll post back on what I find anyway!

Matt

[adman]

Well, for those still reading this, I ended up with a Pixelview 6800GT. Card fits in snugly into a SD31P, say goodbye to that second PCI-E(x1) slot though.

Next issue, the card is darn noisy, I didn't plug in the extra power to the card so the card went into a power saving mode (thus quieter operation). Even with this power saving mode it sounds like someone installed the new Heathrow Terminal 5 in my PC.

So, my question out there to anyone that has added a "better" & quieter VGA cooler, what's an exellent choice for a 6800GT (& Pixelview at that), and one that may fit into Shuttle? Have seen Zalman & Artic Coolers around, any recommendations? I'm not out to save cash on the fan, I'm out to kill the noise. I'm not enough of an enthusiast to bother with water or refrigrant units.

cheers

[StormPC]

I know this is an old thread but it is an interesting one to me. I have the SN25P which uses the same CPU cooler, PSU and chassis as the SD31P.

Adman is running a dual-core Prescot. This is the big problem I believe. A single Prescot is a very power hungry chip. Two of them glued together (the P4 830 D) has got to be a huge problem. I do not believe it is possible to build a dual-core Intel system in this box and run a highend videocard quietly. IMO it is straining the system greatly even with a low-end VC.

I am running an overclocked CPU (2650MHz 4000+ San Diego), an overclocked X1800XL (540/1240) a DL DVD burner, floppy, dual SATA II 120GB WD's in RAID0, 1GB of OCZ Gold PC3500 at 442MHz effective, all on stock volts with low fan speeds. My temps are low and my system is almost completely silent. It was the same with the 7800GTX I used for testing, very quiet. During gaming the fan on the X1800 gets to a point where you can hear it, but it is not loud at all. I can only hear it if I have the sound on the game turned way down.

Another reason to stay away from dual-core CPUs if you are a gamer. And if you must, better just get a 4800+ X2.

[DJMatty]

Well I decided to go for the sapphire ATI Radeon X850XT (256mb pci-e)

It's a double width card which has a huge cooling duct and fan on it, and I have to say that I only hear it when it powers up, and occasionally when it's under load.

Have been running dual displays at 1600x1200 quite happily, and it works a treat playing half-life 2 at 1600x1200 on display one.

Very happy with it!

Cheers

Matt

[StormPC]

Your system profile says Intel Onboard Graphics?

Well if you're system is running good that's a good thing to know. How are your system temps?

[DJMatty]

Ah thanks for pointing that out... fixed it now

Temps as follows:

System: 58
CPU: 47
Board: 51

My PC is on all the time and this is when it's relatively idle, I'll have to have a look when I'm playing half-life 2 or something...

Cheers

Matt