Video Card Suggestion

[evilecho]

Hello again,
   I am trying to find a near silent card that supports 1080p with HDMI audio out support.... oh and trying to not spend alot of money. I have seen posts but none of the posts I've seen mention anything about the sound level of the card. This is going in a wooden case so a little bit of sound isn't too bad, just want it to be as silent as possible for a little cost... Thanks.

_nate (o:`,

[Thingie]

The reason why pc-cases are made from metal is because it helps the cooling of the pc. If you build it in a wooden box you'll loose this extra cooling with the result that all the fans will have to work harder to get everything cooled. If you want a silent pc you need a good part of passive cooling (pc case) and a good airflow. The airflow can be natural (rising warm air) but big fans, 120mm and bigger, are even better. If you use a big fan it don't needs to turn fast (lesser noise) to make a good airflow. The graphics cards in my MD's are all passive cooled and it works great because of the good airflow. If you use a card with a fan it will spin faster as it gets hotter inside the box.

Grts

Thingie

[totallymaxed]

Hello again,
   I am trying to find a near silent card that supports 1080p with HDMI audio out support.... oh and trying to not spend alot of money. I have seen posts but none of the posts I've seen mention anything about the sound level of the card. This is going in a wooden case so a little bit of sound isn't too bad, just want it to be as silent as possible for a little cost... Thanks.

_nate (o:`,

Fanless nVidia 9400 or 9500 would meet that criteria fine. You can get them retail for about £35 UKP and possibly less if you hunt around a little...or if your located in the US ;-)

Andrew

[DeathMagnetic]

You could even go the whole hog and get an NVidia ION based Mini-ITX board. You can get fanless versions and they are capable of 1080p playback.

[evilecho]

I do have an ION board... but trying to make another one I already had work.

[DeathMagnetic]

I see. Just look for something on eBay that's fanless and has onboard video acceleration.

[theteju]

Please read this page and do your research before the purchase. I think its useful.

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Vdpau

hope that helps.

take it easy.