Gigabyte 6600GT: passive cooled or fan?

[midnight growler]

I've narrowed down my my video card search to the Gigabyte 6600GT (PCI-Express x16). However Gigabyte has two versions of this card, a regular fan version (D) as well as a silent heatsink version (VP). I've read a lot about these two cards, but nothing that mentions the two at the same time.

My question is would it be worth it to spend the extra $30 or so for the silent VP model? I would suspect cooling would be more of an issue with it than the fan version. I'm thinking about getting a PCI slot fan to go along with the VP for for an extra $5 or $10. My main case fan would cool the top heatsink while the PCI slot fan would cool the bottom heatsink. Would this work alright or would it disrupt airflow to the CPU?

 

[fbrdphreak]

If you want silent cooling without voiding your warranty, go with the passive one. Downside is it probably won't overclock well, if you plan on doing that.

Personally I would buy the regular version and put an aftermarket cooler on there. There are powerful passive options out there. I personally only know of Arctic Cooling's NVSilencer. Supposed to be very quiet and cool at least as well as stock

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
If you want silent cooling without voiding your warranty, go with the passive one. Downside is it probably won't overclock well, if you plan on doing that.

Personally I would buy the regular version and put an aftermarket cooler on there. There are powerful passive options out there. I personally only know of Arctic Cooling's NVSilencer. Supposed to be very quiet and cool at least as well as stock

Aim a nice 80\92\120mm fan at that passive cooler and it'll probably be better than a Silencer.

 

[midnight growler]

I'd like to keep my warrenty for as long as possible so Im not too excited about getting a new fan. Im not too interested in overclocking either, by the time this card starts to lag behind in future games, the price will probably be low enough to just buy another card and go SLI.

I'm thinking about getting a PCI slot fan like this. I have two big questions about it though:
1) Will it 'steal' air thats supposed to up to the CPU and power supply?
2) Will there be any impact because its taking hot air away from the card rather than blowing cool air onto the card?

 

[imported_Kensai]

No it won't steal air. It will give you some more case airflow which is good.
Sucking the hot air out of the case is better than blowing warm air onto it.

 

[aidanjm]

Originally posted by: midnight growler
I'd like to keep my warrenty for as long as possible so Im not too excited about getting a new fan. Im not too interested in overclocking either, by the time this card starts to lag behind in future games, the price will probably be low enough to just buy another card and go SLI.

I'm thinking about getting a PCI slot fan like this. I have two big questions about it though:
1) Will it 'steal' air thats supposed to up to the CPU and power supply?
2) Will there be any impact because its taking hot air away from the card rather than blowing cool air onto the card?

If you aren't thinking of overclocking, then definitely get the passively cooled card. The reduction in noise you get with a passive graphics card is worth the extra $30 in my opinion.

Have you heard any reports on how much noise that PCI slot makes? They can be pretty noisy.

You could buy a card with fan, then use an Artic Coolr silencer (these do have pretty quiet/ silent fans), but why go to the trouble, when you can get a card that comes passively cooled as standard?

 

[narcotic]

deffinitly get the passive cooling version, I don't care how much more it costs - you'll thank me later.
I have the one with the fan, and its the loudest and most annoying sob thing I've ever put into my rig.

 

[Munky]

I'd personally get the cheapest one, and then put a zalman vf700 to cool it. I'm using one, and not only is it really quiet, but it cools better than any stock HSF, and you can OC the card pretty far. The only catch is it's gonna eat up the adjacent pci slot, and will void the warranty on your card.

 

[Tanclearas]

I posted the following in this thread:

Well, I just replaced my PCIe Leadtek 6600GT (with a 60mm fan) with the Gigabyte SilentPipe fanless 6600GT.

All of the following numbers are approximate. The idle temp would fluctuate by about 2C, and the load temp is roughly the max I would experience, give or take a couple of degrees. The ambient room temperature was about 21C.

Leadtek
Idle: 40C
Load: 70C

Gigabyte
Idle: 53C
Load: 85C

There is no question that the fanless model runs hotter. It's also not really much of a surprise. I haven't had a chance to try any overclocking, but I'm not too worried about that. The PCIe Gigabyte model uses 1.6ns memory, and the memory comes clocked at 1120MHz out of the box. It looks like the AGP model is the same.

It looks like the PCIe "D" model uses the nVidia spec of 1000MHz for the memory, so for the extra $30, you get a silent model with faster memory. I'm not sure about the D model (or if it matters to you), but the VP model also has VIVO.

 

[adala]

In case you haven't decide on your purchase...
Check out the link

I have the passive cooler one. Yes, it gets hot. No, I dont overclock since this comes with default 1.6ns memory and runs very well at its "stock" speed.

 

[Tip Top]

Is the 2d graphics on a crt monitor with the gigabyte 6600gt passive really crisp?
Same question for the Leadtek' 2d graphics on a crt monitor?
Which is better if there is a difference?

Also the vivo of the 6600gt is interesting.
How crisp is the capture of the video in signal?

Saw this interesting review of vivo and think the fx5900u and parhelia have good video in.
Do you think the gigabyte 6600gt passive card's video in is on par with those cards? Or do you think it is on par with the other examples there of video in?

Do I maybe like the video in of the fx5900u because it is a fx5900u or because it is made by msi?

By the way what do you think of any of these card's video out?

 

[Tip Top]

http://www.viperlair.com/reviews/video/his/r4xx/x700p/pg2.shtml

is the link with the video in and out review of some cards that I forgot to enter into my message above.