How to shut your computer up without dynamite.
These new video cards are fantastic. We’re playing games at resolutions completely unheard of only a few years ago. But there is a major by-product of all that performance. Heat. And with heat, comes heat removal. And that means fans. Usually loud ones.
I have the BFG 6800OC. Overclocked right out of the box. Dual fan, lighted copper heatsink. However, dual, high-speed, teeny-tiny-move-the-air-around-the-box fans. Which means loud. Granted, it’s a major improvement over the Abit Siluro OTES 4200 it replaced. That beast had an externally-exhausting 7200RPM blower on it that sounds like a JT9D.
But I digress. So, we’ve got high-pitched fans on the 6800. High-pitched noises are far more annoying to the ear than low-pitched ones. So, bigger is better for fans. Less turbulence and lower speeds for same or better ariflow means less noise. Enter the NV Silencer 5.
It took all of 20 minutes to install, and it’s not hard to do. Mine had one of those rubbery TIM pads on it for the GPU, which I promptly scraped off and replaced with real thermal compound.
I’ve not beaten this and tested it like the boys at [H]ard|OCP do. I don’t push the clock on everything here to the limit. I just want a stable, quiet box that can work and play without driving me mad. However, a few tests were done to make sure nothing was going to melt.
Case temperature is about the same (give or take a degree), but the box is under my desk, and is mostly breathing in it’s own air. GPU and CPU idle temps are relatively unchanged. However, the GPU temp won’t hit 60° C now, where it would easily hit 70° under load before.
And, it’s quiet. You can’t hear the thing over the other fans. Just a little hum now, no more squeal.
NOTE: This is neither a solicited nor paid review for any of the products mentioned. Nor do I want any money for mentioning them. However, the NV Silencer met a specific need I had, and I wanted to share. Your mileage may vary.