Best 970 for quiet & cool system.

I'm glad you asked this question because I was just going to ask the same question. I was all set on getting Sapphire Radeon 290 4GB TRI-X OC Version card because it's supposed to run nice and cool and quiet but screw it! They are going for $315 (USED!) at Amazon plus shipping unless you get Prime.
 
I'm worried with a cooler designed like that it will blow the hot air around inside of the case rather than helping move the air out.
 
Get one of the shorter cards similar to the gtx 670 and use an accelero mono.
 
bbbrad said:
I'm worried with a cooler designed like that it will blow the hot air around inside of the case rather than helping move the air out.
Click to expand...
Same worry here, honestly. Only solutions that directly evacuate heat from the case are the reference blower, or a water-cooling loop.

Could always fit an NZXT G10 to the card and use an under-volted H55. The pump is nice and quiet at 5v.
 
1) MSI / Asus - they have the feature that stops the fan when below certain temperatre (60C for MSI 67C for Asus), only after reaching the treshold fan starts. be aware though, that Bit tech guys discovered, that while OCing the auto fan profile aint working with Asus Strix, and you have to manually dial fans to 52, thus removing that "hybrid" cooling.

2) GIGABYTE G1 that just uses powerful cooling system and keeps noise at bay

3) Galax 970 OC that has system similar to Asus/MSI, but with small change - when below certain temperature only one fan stops, the other is still moving.

I would stay away from EVGA, as different reviews state that EVGA dropped ball with cooling their cards - too loud is both ACX and ACX 2.0. Personally? I ordered MSI 970, looks like cool, quiet and highly overclockable.
 
Just keep in mind that MSI card has a retarded warranty void sticker on one of the backplate screws, meaning you can't even repaste without voiding your warranty. That makes it an instant do-not-buy in my book (and in fact a NEVER BUY for me personally).

If you can look past that, then yeah MSI GTX 970 Gaming hands down. One of only two 970s to carry 8+6 pin connectors instead of 6+6 or a single 8 pin like Asus.

Interesting that neither TechPowerUp or KitGuru reported having problems with the fan profile on the Asus.
 
So far the MSI is looking the best. I don't do very strenuous gaming, mostly mmo's and moba's so the hybrid fan mode might be good. I wonder if when the fans kick on they start going crazy trying to cool the card fast?
 
bbbrad said:
I'm worried with a cooler designed like that it will blow the hot air around inside of the case rather than helping move the air out.
Click to expand...

That's what the case intake/exhaust system is for. That case already has 2 exhaust and one intake, and that intake is heavily restricted by the HDD cages. Adding a blower-style cooler will only compound the negative pressure element.

Have you considered the Fractal Design Define Mini? Similar looks, bottom intake, two front intake, can fit 120mm or 140mm top fan, also comes with intake filters and noise reduction padding. http://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases/define-series/define-mini

If you're set on the Nanoxia Deep Silence 4 Mini, then I would not risk getting a blower and would probably go for the MSI with Twin Frozr, but if you get the Fractal Design Define Mini I think you'd be safe with either style. Also, the only time I've seen MSI Twin Frozr fans get loud is on boot with my GTX 670. They run backwards at 100% for a few seconds to prevent dust buildup on the blades, then it's quiet once the OS loads and my custom fan profiles kick in. I don't anticipate that they'd make it uncomfortably loud every time the fans turned on. Besides, you'll know inside your return period, and if not, you have a community here where you can easily unload gear like that.
 
Last edited:
MorgothPl said:
I would stay away from EVGA, as different reviews state that EVGA dropped ball with cooling their cards - too loud is both ACX and ACX 2.0. Personally? I ordered MSI 970, looks like cool, quiet and highly overclockable.
Click to expand...

EVGA's warranty and support out weight a slightly louder fan. Esp since quieter fans will come out later from 3rd party or whatever.
 
In my personal experience the MSI Gaming cards are quiet as hell, I am very particular these days about the noise my cards make too. I've never tried the Gigabyte cards but I hear they are not bad either (something like they cool a little better than MSI maybe but with different noise profile). I don't game with headphones on and laugh whenever I see guys who claim the noise doesn't bother them due to having headphones. For a while it has been Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte as probably the best choices in aftermarket cards.

I am also not a fan of the EVGA ACX cards. They are loud, I don't get when people say they aren't. Their warranty support may be good but only if you are the OP :(

Too bad water cooling a card is too darn expensive, that and the fan/rad/pump choice is key to noise as well!

The 970 Gaming cooler also seems to have new fan design FWIW.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
MrSneis said:
I am also not a fan of the EVGA ACX cards. They are loud, I don't get when people say they aren't. Their warranty support may be good but only if you are the OP :(
Click to expand...

Probably people like me that don't exactly have a quiet PC to begin with :p I can't get my EVGA 970 ACX 1.0 to go any hotter than 64C and 1700 RPM, the noise isn't really notable over the rest of the PC. That was running Valley Benchmark Extreme HD for about almost an hour in a 65F room.

And no, I wouldn't buy a ACX cooler anything if I was going for a whisper quiet PC.
 
Last edited:
bbbrad said:
Yeah the Nanoxia DS4 is almost exactly the same as the Fractal Mini except the Nanoxia has a removable front filter and you can remove more of the HDD cages (I plan on removing all but the very bottom one) The bottom 3 cages on the Fractal Mini aren't removable.

This is what I am hoping to do. http://www.quietpc.com/images/products/na-ds4-waterint-large.jpg
Click to expand...

That picture makes me like that case even more. I'm not a huge fan of using radiators on intake, because I like to dump my heat outside of the case rather than inside, but I do like the direct path that the air has from front to back if both top and back are exhaust. Also, I can understand why one would want to remove all but the necessary cages. Given that setup, and when thinking about it from a thermal perspective, I think either cooler would be fine. Acoustically the centrifugal fan is the least favorable, but is does force directional current and allows for stacked SLI cards if the board supports it.

Given what I know now, here is my overall thoughts. If you are planning on running single card and quiet is a priority, get a dual radial fan cooler, but if you're planning on SLI at any point get the reference blower.
 
bbbrad said:
I'm worried with a cooler designed like that it will blow the hot air around inside of the case rather than helping move the air out.
Click to expand...


You want to put that in the first post

I used to have a HAF 922 so I would prefer that style of cooling but now I'm using an ITX case so I'm also looking for one that mostly vents outside of the case
 
mhenley said:
That picture makes me like that case even more. I'm not a huge fan of using radiators on intake, because I like to dump my heat outside of the case rather than inside, but I do like the direct path that the air has from front to back if both top and back are exhaust. Also, I can understand why one would want to remove all but the necessary cages. Given that setup, and when thinking about it from a thermal perspective, I think either cooler would be fine. Acoustically the centrifugal fan is the least favorable, but is does force directional current and allows for stacked SLI cards if the board supports it.

Given what I know now, here is my overall thoughts. If you are planning on running single card and quiet is a priority, get a dual radial fan cooler, but if you're planning on SLI at any point get the reference blower.
Click to expand...

I am going to be using a single card and 2 ssd's and hopefully a water cooler for cpu(not sure what will fit similar to the picture I linked h55?). I believe I saw in a review that there are also holes on the bottom to mount an ssd on the inside-bottom of the case between the psu and hdd cages.
 
As long as there is enough clearance for the video card, I think you can go with whatever thickness you want. The pictured unit appears to be the same thickness as an H80, and I think that those new black Noctua fans would be perfect for this since they have high static pressure and are incredibly quiet (not to mention durable) with their SSO2 bearings.

Also, if there isn't space for the second SSD where you think it is, just grab a dual 2.5" drive to single 3.5" bay adapter like this one http://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-Inch-Internal-Drive-Mounting/dp/B0064VP70W if you want grey metal or http://www.amazon.com/Internal-2-5-Inch-3-5-Inch-Mounting-HDM-226/dp/B008N96TZU/ if you want black plastic.
 
Last edited:
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
mhenley said:
As long as there is enough clearance for the video card, I think you can go with whatever thickness you want. The pictured unit appears to be the same thickness as an H80, and I think that those new black Noctua fans would be perfect for this since they have high static pressure and are incredibly quiet (not to mention durable) with their SSO2 bearings.

Also, if there isn't space for the second SSD where you think it is, just grab a dual 2.5" drive to single 3.5" bay adapter like this one http://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-Inch-Internal-Drive-Mounting/dp/B0064VP70W if you want grey metal or http://www.amazon.com/Internal-2-5-Inch-3-5-Inch-Mounting-HDM-226/dp/B008N96TZU/ if you want black plastic.
Click to expand...

Thanks I didn't know they made something like that.

Do you if you cant make the fans on the MSI spin slower rather than completely off? I'm sure the fans at a couple hundred rmps wouldn't be audible and could keep temps down better.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Sorry for the late response. I'm not sure if that feature exists, but I would assume that the option would exist in the bios and could be modified once a flashing tool becomes available. People were disabling the startup dust removal fan activity, so I can only assume that options will exist for more fan control outside of what Afterburner can do in the future. This is, of course, pure guesswork.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top