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9800GT is overkill for Dad and is making his office too hot - advice for alternative?

J

jnmunsey

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 16, 2006
Messages
337
Build my step dad a new system and threw in a 9800GT since it was pretty cheap. Well, he will NEVER need the performance of that card. I got it at the egg and really won't return it but still I need to put something else in his box. Thoughts for something that still has decent enough 3d but is a LOT cooler? I prefer Nvidia but not critical.

Also he just uses the box for Web/email/Ms word/scanning & image editing and not a whole lot else. Yeah an overkill system but I like to spoil my parents.

Thanks
 
jnmunsey said:
Also he just uses the box for Web/email/Ms word/scanning & image editing and not a whole lot else. Yeah an overkill system but I like to spoil my parents.

Thanks
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i think that answers your question.

get a small card with a fan

there are some models of the 4670 that have good cooling.

may be slap an after market fan.


3850 have very good temps too and there is an IceQ version that is vey cold.
 
Mr. K6 said:
What's he doing in 3D? Gaming? Professional work?
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Really nothing in 3D... I dunno why I put it in there. It was $120 which for me is freaking cheap for a 3D card that good. Now his office is sweltering from that card. His cpu is a q6600 running at stock speed.
 
Arnge said:
3850 have very good temps too and there is an IceQ version that is vey cold.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice.
Regardless of the card I get the amount of heat that EXITS his box is what matters, so the quality of cooling shouldn't affect that right ?
 
how do you know it's the card and not another component? if he's not using 3D, it shouldn't get that hot.
 
Oh how hot were x1900XTs ? That is in my current box with an Accelero and I wouldn't mind swapping except the 9800GT may not run on my DFI NF4 Ultra-D
 
1) Why do you need a gaming card if hes not going to make use of it.

2) I don't understand how a single 8800GT in 2D mode can heat up an entire office. Are they THAT hot?
 
i put a cheap 8400gs in my father inlaws computer and that whole computer is cool and quiet no problem at all with complaints of heat and i got the card for 19.99
 
jnmunsey said:
Thanks for the advice.
Regardless of the card I get the amount of heat that EXITS his box is what matters, so the quality of cooling shouldn't affect that right ?
Click to expand...
Are you one to tweak? If so, grab something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125244 . One of the things I've found amazing about my 4870 is how much one can cut down the power at idle. The 4670 should probably be able to do the same. I use ATI Tray Tools to cut the core voltage and clocks speeds at idle and that pretty much kills all heat output.

I know you said you'd prefer NVIDIA, so maybe you could do something with a passive 9600GT like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125098 and use Rivatuner.
 
I find it hard to believe a 9800GT out of all cards is causing his office to get burning hot.
 
Omerta said:
I find it hard to believe a 9800GT out of all cards is causing his office to get burning hot.
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Well it is increasing the temps of his 16'L x 14'W x 8'H room enough to notice and feel warm. Also keep in mind the location of his case is not in an ideal place for cooling - not a lot of air circulating. CPU temps at idle with the q6600 around in the mid 30s °C due to this.

The problem is most of the heat is collecting where he sits and it gets cooler as you get away from his desk. I want to reduce this without adding a room fan... He's been using the ceiling fan though.

Also my real father has a near identical system and has the same issue. My brother commented on it as well. Stick your hand next to the fan exhaust on an 8800gt or 9800gt - it is very warm air - that air will warm up a small room...
 
i'm still having trouble believing it's the graphics card in and of itself that's creating enough heat to make a difference in an entire room. what about the PSU? is it an energy efficient model? how close to max capacity are you running it?

of course that doesn't change the fact that the 9800 is overkill for him. borg his PC and fold in the background :D
 
jnmunsey said:
Well it is increasing the temps of his 16'L x 14'W x 8'H room enough to notice and feel warm. Also keep in mind the location of his case is not in an ideal place for cooling - not a lot of air circulating. CPU temps at idle with the q6600 around in the mid 30s °C due to this.

The problem is most of the heat is collecting where he sits and it gets cooler as you get away from his desk. I want to reduce this without adding a room fan... He's been using the ceiling fan though.

Also my real father has a near identical system and has the same issue. My brother commented on it as well. Stick your hand next to the fan exhaust on an 8800gt or 9800gt - it is very warm air - that air will warm up a small room...
Click to expand...

The q6600 will put off a pretty good amount of heat also.
 
It shouldn't matter how hot the card is, it'll add the same amount of heat to the room if it's 30ºC or 1000ºC assuming power usage is the same. I would just get a 4670 or 4650 then because it can only put 75w of heat into the room at max.

If I'm not understanding this right correct me, I haven't slept in 18 hours and Mt. Baker wiped me out today.
 
dystopic said:
of course that doesn't change the fact that the 9800 is overkill for him. borg his PC and fold in the background :D
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Oh sure and turn his room into a Sauna! Actually "folding" was one of the reasons I put it in there. I was going to discuss it with him this week and suggest he let his PC help do research to cure diseases, among other things.

Thanks for the responses folks, except for SentToSchool.
 
SentToSchool said:
You're stupid for putting a card like that in there the first place.
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Yeah, that's productive. And totally compliant with the new "don't be a dickhole" policy.



Anyway, jnmunsey, you might consider looking at some older, fanless cards. I had a Gigabyte "Silent-Pipe" (aka, passively-cooled) 7600GT that I was quite pleased with. Seems to me this would be a perfect fit for your old man; lower power consumption ergo lower heat output (and who wouldn't be pleased to cut out some fan noise?). As an added bonus, an older card like this will be cheap cheap cheap. And you should give me the 9800GT as a "thank you" for providing you with such a genius idea.
 
Does your mobo have integrated graphics? If not, can you replace it with one that does?

The coolest Video Card is none at all.And the more powerfull mobo IGPs should have juice for all your Dad's needs.

BTW, you did not get him a 30" screen did you? Those can get really warm.

Oh yeah, SentToSchool, you are the only person acting stupid in this thread.
 
Uhh I still can't believe a card (or computer) is heating up a room that big. I have two computers (Q6600, GTX260, Q9550 4870) in a 10x10 room and it doesn't heat up the room (significantly). Really, I think the answer will come from a doctor than a tech forum.
 
I think the amount of the heat increase is relative, and like I wrote, it is most noticeable where he sits.

Actually I did get him that HP 22" PVA monitor and it has the funky horizontal line issue that everyone else complained about so I am returning it at no cost to me and his 27" Dell 2707 should arrive soon. Not sure how hot it gets...

are there any IGPs with DVI? Regardless no I won't switch to one of those. Too late - got the Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R

My step-dad has not really complained but if I can cool him off a bit I will be happier.

Once again thanks everyone.
 
I doubt that the 9800gt is putting out that much heat, especially if it is in 2d clocks. My bet is the 70% efficient power supply you have and that q6600 which are also not known to sip power.
 
I have the Antec BP550 PSU in there. The 120mm back exhaust fan spits out warmer air than the PSU's fan.. I dunno. I am gonna leave things for now and will do some trial and error with another video card and PSU and try to cool that puppy down.

Oh and the Freezer Pro 7 heatsink on the q6600 has never been very warm at all, whereas when I touch the 9800GT card it is very hot on the HS and backside. By far that is the hottest thing in the case...
 
swap the q6600 for a lower power chip, like an e7200 or e5200 and undervolt the hell out of it. Then swap the 9800gt for a 3450 or something completely passive.

A smaller, more efficient PSU will help as well.
 
The fact is that this card/computer should not be running hot enough to EVER heat up a room noticeably unless the thing is under load, which the op says is never the case. I'd move it to a more open area/ feed it more air so heat doesn't build up in the closed environment its in.
 
Get a BE-2400, 740G-780G motherboard and call it a day. Should be cheaper than the 9800GT and would expel less heat and be plenty of performance based on his activities.
 
Lol, I just bought all this stuff and built this system for him so not much I can do now except maybe swap the vid card... I think he can live with it...

Also I want him to have a faster system for the future.

Oh an lastly, I forgot to mentio he has 3 640GB WD drives in there lol. RAID 1 plus additional backup...

oh and there is no onboard...and what onboard has DVI ?
 
Again, the CPU is probably putting out more heat then the video card is. The Freezer is more efficient at dumping that heat into the air so it feels cooler, while the 9800GT has a smaller heatsink and therefore doesn't throw the heat into the air as well so it feels hotter.
Short version: The CPU is probably putting out more heat than the video card but it feels cooler because of the better heatsink.
 
jnmunsey said:
Oh sure and turn his room into a Sauna! Actually "folding" was one of the reasons I put it in there. I was going to discuss it with him this week and suggest he let his PC help do research to cure diseases, among other things.

Thanks for the responses folks, except for SentToSchool.
Click to expand...

hehehe. yeah, don't mind the trolls. they're everywhere these days.

dumb question, but why not simply move the PC farther away from where he sits? i realize there are limits to how long DVI cables can get, for example - though i think HDMI have longer tolerances.

that aside, does his office have a window? if you're feeling industrious, maybe run a mylar air duct (tastefully hidden) to some place in the room where the heat won't make a difference. in other words, "think outside the box." the PC will generate heat no matter what you do to it, so perhaps it's best to think about how to better ventilate his office.
 
caw2007 said:
The fact is that this card/computer should not be running hot enough to EVER heat up a room noticeably unless the thing is under load, which the op says is never the case. I'd move it to a more open area/ feed it more air so heat doesn't build up in the closed environment its in.
Click to expand...

Exactly. The 9800GT at idle is probably only consuming about 40w. Turning off an incandescent light bulb will reduce the heat in the room by more than swapping out the video card. Swapping out the card is only going to be able to reduce heat output by about 30w at idle max. 30w isn't going to suddenly prevent a room from heating up.
 
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