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Thread ID: 90705 2008-06-13 07:57:00 8600GT 512 DDR2 or 256 DDR3? technicianxp (6463) Press F1
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678128 2008-06-15 22:17:00 If you want quiet cards....

I have a Asus 8600GT in my HTPC. The fan is dissapointingly loud, but I
only cost $100+gst (the guy in the shop got a shock when I showed him his
pricing on his website). Also doent seem to have fan speed control/slowdown on idle.
Also have a Gigabyte 8800 with a OEM 'Zalman' fan. This is not a silent fan, I
guess the OEM version isnt as good, Ive had a few 'retail' Zalman fans & they were silent. So dont expect an OEM Zalman to be silent.

Look at the Palit perhaps, the Palit 7600GT I used to have was completely silent
with the OEM fan. 		sroby (11519)
678129 2008-06-16 10:21:00 Hi sroby

Wow thanks for letting me know. I was worried about that myself, which was why I decided to go with the Asus since it has no fan, only a huge heatsink.

A friend of mine has the XFX card and he's really happy with the performance, but I don't know if he's as sensitive to computer noise as I am.

Planning to pickup the parts tomorrow and hopefully put them together, although I'll have to use a noisy, rubbish Excel PSU until the 20 to 24 pin adaptor for my one arrives. Will post on how it all goes provided this cold wears off by tomorrow :yuck: . 		technicianxp (6463)
678130 2008-06-18 13:27:00 Hi again guys.

As I promised I'd update everyone on how this goes, so here it is.

All the parts were ready for pickup within hours of ordering yesterday from C1. Picked them up and eventually started building the system. Mainly because of trouble with the motherboard's IO plate and the case's screwless design not accepting a PCI slot cover, it took me until 12.00am to finish assembling it.

Powered the thing up, all fans and lights turned on but nothing came up on screen. Tried every possible troubleshooting method to no avail, with the BIOS code LED display on the motherboard itself showing 'FF' and no beeps coming from the speaker. A Google found other people had the same issue and it required repair. Gave up around 2.00am and today confirmed that the motherboard is stuffed after testing everything but the CPU with my dad's system. :crying

So now I've put in a RMA request to C1 but what's really killing me now is the fact that they take on average 2-3 weeks to replace faulty items. A PCI wireless card which I returned a couple of months back took two weeks for replacement, and feedback from other people here (www.gpforums.co.nz) isn't too encouraging either. Really hoping they'll get their act together this time.

If anyone knows some way to get stuff fixed through them faster then please let me know :) , otherwise I suppose patience is the key. 		technicianxp (6463)
678131 2008-06-19 00:04:00 perhaps a little late, but the xfx 8600 gt is better than all those cards. For gaming, it will give you the very best bang for the buck -> ddr3 vram is greatly advantageous over ddr2. The extra 256 mb in the 512 ddr2 asus that you get, you probably won't even utilize. Memory on a gfx card only comes into play when you have large amounts of AA and high resolutions. As for the noise, it isn't very noisy at all, actually I can't hear it over my case & cpu fans. There is no difference in noise between when it's on idle and when it's playing movies/games. I use it as HTPC too sometimes, have never noticed the noise, the neons get annoying though. Deathwish (143)
678132 2008-06-19 00:33:00 Thanks for that mate.

Yeah it is a little late lol, but no worries. I had a feeling the XFX would probably be a better performer since every review I read was recommending DDR3. However it took a while to find a review which actually made any mention of the sound level and when I did find one, it said the card wasn't quiet at all. I was a bit surprised but I really didn't want to risk it so went with the Asus.

I haven't been able to try it yet, but I'll probably get by alright with the 3650. My gaming demands aren't at full-quality Crysis level. As long as Far Cry and a few flight simulators run well I'm happy :)

Once again though thanks for the advice. Having the mobo dropped off at C1 today so I'm hoping it'll be back soon for me to try out. 		technicianxp (6463)
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