Noisy GT730 fan

[wogfor]

I have an older pre-built HP system that I tried to game on years ago and added a GT 730 card. (It had onboard graphics before). It's also had other upgrades, such as a new CPU cooler, better case fans, more memory, and a upgraded network card as the older onboard networking chip was outdated. It's old and outdated, but still get used daily. I'm not ready to retire it yet.

I had noise issues with it and finally was able to trace it down to the GPU. The fan has become very noisy. I keep all my systems clean and this one is no exception. The card and fan are clean so I assume the fan itself is giving out.

I don't want to try and tear the card apart, and as I said I'm not ready to retire it yet. I do have several games installed on which seem to like Windows 7 better, that don't seem to work as well on my big computer.

I can get another GT730 for $70 or more, or I see there are some 1030's for around the same price. Would the 1030 be alright with the old system? The CPU is a AMD 4 core Athlon chip. I also admit to being an Nvidia guy.

Your thoughts are welcome

I would also add that I would not be opposed to an AMD card- maybe a 6450? I know little abound the brand

 

[Kashimi]

If you can go for the 1030 I would. Newer chip architecture, you can expect better performance. Almost double from what I'm seeing.

 

[wogfor]

I ended up picking up a GT 710 from Microcenter because I just needed to get the thing off my kitchen table. ($45) I took apart the 730 heatsink and fan and confirmed 2 things: The fans bearings were loose and the source of the noise, and also that the thermal paste was hard as a rock and crumbly and needs replacing.

I see possible replacements are available, but I'm not sure this is worth it. The card has been in use for sometime and maybe it's just tired. The new card seems to be doing just fine for what the system is.

 

[Kashimi]

Then you have to decide if you want to play with a project card and use it or sell it, or keep the 710.

 

[wogfor]

I ordered the fan, which comes from Hong Kong. Costs a whole $7 with free shipping Bad thing is that it may not ship until October.
In the meantime, this old machine was giving me fits, but finally after removing the UPS software (something faulty in the unit) running a disk check, and removing several other programs I wasn't using, including a bunch of bloatware that came with the thing, I got it running fairly smooth. I played Bloodrayne and Star Defender 4 for several hours and the thing is running perfect. Forgot how much simpler some of the old games were.

If I get the 730 running eventually, I may put it into another build I did that I haven't quite figured out what to do with.

On my list of things to do is replace the faulty UPS unit!

 

[Kashimi]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM5uNxtT0Mk

This seems like something I think you would enjoy that I caught on youtube the other day randomly.

 

[wogfor]

Got the Hong Kong fan, it's an exact match.

Reinstalled with new thermal paste. Have to see if it works after all that!

[/URL][/img]

Microcenter is still selling these for around $90