Building PC For Friend - Best Quiet Video Card Option With Great Performance?

S

SlapShot

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 31, 2004
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167
As the title says, while I'm in the midst of building my new rig, a friend has just had his mobo die, and needs my assistance to build him a new one. It simply makes no sense to try to upgrade his old unit.

His requirements don't differ too much from mine, with one exception. He is a huge music and audio aficianado, as was his father, who left him an amazing audio system when he passed away some time back. His pc is located in the same room as his audio system, and so, during normal use (non gaming) he needs a quiet pc, and by extension, a quiet video card.

He does do some gaming (currently WOW) but is awaiting Diablo III and especially Skyrim, which he wants to be able to play with all of the bells and whistles. The noise produced by the pc isn't important during gaming, simply when he is surfing the net, working on the pc, etc. and listening to his audio system.

What I've specced out for his pc is exactly what I am doing for my new build, although I am going with a case known for being quiet, and a high quality, but very quiet power supply and HSF. His system will be based around an i5 2500K.

What I am just not sure about is the best video option given his gaming needs. I'm going with a 6950, for my system, which I will overclock significantly, but overclocking means fan noise, so thats not the best option for him. I'm thinking maybe this, since its supposedly almost silent:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161385

review:

http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_pages/his_radeon_hd_6970_iceq_turbo,10.html


Or posibly two of these?

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/gigabyte_gtx_560_super_overclock_review


I would greatly appreciate your assistance with recommendations and options. You guys are the experts. Thanks.


JC
 
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What resolution is your friend going to be playing at? WoW and D3 aren't very GPU dependent with WoW being very CPU dependent at higher resolutions, but the 2500k can handle that no problem. Skyrim will be a different story however.
I'd have to agree with mtbush about the ASUS DCII, very quiet with great performance and overclock-ability, but I'd like to throw in MSI Twin Frozr II/III series. Pending knowing what resolution he'll be playing at, 6950 is probably the best price/performance with 560ti being ever so slightly behind.
 
mtbush said:
I would skip the Gigabyte and HIS cards and go with an Asus DirectCUII GPU, their super quiet and solid performers. I've owned the GTX580 version for about 8 months now and it's performed very, very well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&N=100006662&isNodeId=1&Description=DCII&x=0&y=0
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This. I have the same GTX 580 (although this holds for any of the DCII range) and it rocks, it's seriously quiet even when overclocked, and if you use a tool like Afterburner you can set your own fan profile to make it even quieter. When playing BFBC2, all settings on high, my card never gets above 72C with the fan at 30%....
 
if theres a third slot to be spared affix a 140mm quiet pwm fan to the card and use a pwm vga adapter.
this will be quieter than any stock card save some low end ones.
 
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Almost all cards downclock to a very quiet level in 2D mode (if the noise it makes in gaming isn't of consequence).
 
I have the MSI 6950 2GB Twin Frozr III and its extremely quiet! I'd definitely recommend the Twin Frozr series from MSI if you're looking for a quiet card.
 
I'll 3rd the ASUS DirectCU II series, or even up the anti to an ASUS Matrix GTX 580 Platinum.
The Matrix is meant for overclocking, runs quite cool and very quiet!

Note, both require three slots... so make sure there's enough room for the build you are doing.

The MSI GTX 580 Lightning (regular or Extreme Edition) are both excellent cards as well for great performance and cool/quiet operation.
 
The biggest difference you can make with a quiet GPU is manually controlling the fan. Find the lowest fan speed you can get away with in game, and manually force that whenever you play games - then manually force the fan to minimum speed at idle. Doing this with my XFX HD4830 turned a noisy card, into an almost silent one.
 
I'd grab two ASUS 6850/6870 DirectCU (not II) cards because they're incredibly quiet and will be faster than a GTX 580.
 
iconiK said:
I'd grab two ASUS 6850/6870 DirectCU (not II) cards because they're incredibly quiet and will be faster than a GTX 580.
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I had originally considered this, but after reading of the micro stuttering issues in games, decided against it. Arent there possible issues with any AMD cards below the 6950?


JC
 
Tazmonian said:
What resolution is your friend going to be playing at? WoW and D3 aren't very GPU dependent with WoW being very CPU dependent at higher resolutions, but the 2500k can handle that no problem. Skyrim will be a different story however.
I'd have to agree with mtbush about the ASUS DCII, very quiet with great performance and overclock-ability, but I'd like to throw in MSI Twin Frozr II/III series. Pending knowing what resolution he'll be playing at, 6950 is probably the best price/performance with 560ti being ever so slightly behind.
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He has the same Samsung monitor as I (we both picked them up at Costco a while back, a Samsung 27in. 1920x1080. He expects he may upgrade it within twelve months though, and let his wife have his.


JC
 
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SlapShot said:
He has the same Samsung monitor as I (we both picked them up at Costco a while back, a Samsung 27in. 1920x1080.
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At that resolution for Skyrim with all the bells and whistles ASUS DCII 6950 or Twin Frozr 560ti. He might have to OC for better performance but both of those cards excel at that while staying cool and quiet. Also, both cards will tear up any Blizzard game thrown at them, so if he doesn't mind sacrificing some eyecandy in Skyrim he can save some money and get a 6870.
 
Something with Asus DCII, Twin Frozr, or an Accelero if you're going higher end.
 
Ohmycaptain said:
For a case, I'd highly recommend the Antec Solo II case. A guy I knew who owns a music studio and needed a silent PC bought this thing, and let me tell you, it is SILENT.

Thanks for the affirmation. Thats the case I had targeted for him to buy.


JC
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if your going for Ultra quiet, no stock fan will do it for you. even the ones that barley spin at idle have tend to have motor noise you can hear.
 
Buy a card with an aftermarket cooler on it, instead of the reference coolers - they tend to be much quieter. Or buy my used GTX 480 w/ the Zalman VF3000F on it ;)
 
ASUS 4 LIFE! Don't mess with anything else. If ASUS makes it, I'll buy every part they have. :) ASUS is one of the few that will venture into Custom PCB's and this is why they have the best hardware. They spare no expense to bring you the best components. Sure it cost more, but the quality is top notch.
 
PsychoAMD said:
ASUS 4 LIFE! Don't mess with anything else. If ASUS makes it, I'll buy every part they have. :) ASUS is one of the few that will venture into Custom PCB's and this is why they have the best hardware. They spare no expense to bring you the best components. Sure it cost more, but the quality is top notch.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, I just can't stop laughing at that.
Asus are without doubt the worst company for build quality I've dealt with in this sector. I gave them five chances with my own personal products, every single one failed within 18 months - 4 out of 5 failed within 9 months. We're not talking budget crap here either. I know people's experiences differ, but saying Asus products are top notch quality couldn't be further from the truth.
 
never had any issues with any of my ASUS products since the early 2000's , call me lucky but i've had every generation of their ATi cards and Motherboards and only 1 board has failed and it was back when I was using the AMD XP chips and it still didnt fail for over 3 years of usage.
 
For quiet use, I would second the Twin Frozor models from MSI.

Most all reference cards have pretty noisy fans once they get over 35% duty cycles.

Nvidia or AMD, your choice, but the frozor part should be heavily considered.:D
 
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