PowerColor's SCS3 HD6850: Radeon HD 6850 Goes Fanless

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[citation][nom]WhysoBluepandabear[/nom]And the dude that said water cooling is loud, needs to re-evaluate his knowledge on water cooling.[/citation]
water cooling is loud, lol, unless you have a really big rad and 9 fans spining at 1/4 speed
 
I have never really been annoyed by fan noise coming from my PC. I either have headphones on or the volume cranked when Im playing a game or a movie. Personally, Id rather deal with some fan noise and know my hardware is being properly cooled then trying to make it silent and wondering if the stuff inside is trying to cook itself it not. To each their own, I suppose.
 
[citation][nom]Yargnit[/nom]That brings up an interesting question. Would it be possible to build a system that is silent (inaudible from say a distance of 1m) when surfing the net, watching videos etc, but is a full blown high end gaming rig when desired.[/citation]
Yes, but it would be expensive! Zalman sells/sold a totally fanless case, and it worked well, but it cost over a thousand dollars.
Endpcnoise.com has some amazing silent or quiet systems, but you pay quite a premium for the build.

My 1.5 cents: Put the computer in your basement and use really long cables. (yes, I am aware of the cable length limits. But you can get extenders, or run video over IP.)
 

Nice one... :lol:
 

Second idea on a silent PC.......STOP BEING SO DAMN PICKY lol I have never understood hw some people can be so picky about noise. Im not talking about 6990 noise lol but to go fanless on a GPU? My MSI Twin Frozer cant be heard over my CPU fan at 60% fan speed lol
 
Ahh. I love the Slip Stream 800. It is acing my tests on the D14. OTOH, it is a sleeve bearing fan, and when this vidcard is in a standard case, the fan will be oriented in a way that is bad for a Sleeve bearing fan.

Further, I see that the cooling fins are set closely together, which suggests the need for a bit of static pressure. I would suggest trying a Gentle Typhoon AP-11 (500 rpm) or AP-12 (800 rpm). Together they would make an ultra-quiet video card.
 
What I didn't like about this article is the way it was tested in the first place. No one would use it in a open air enviorment OR in a small poorly ventilated case.
It would work very well I would think in Cooler Masters larger case like their HAF X case would have no problem keeping this card very cool with a huge side mounted fan and with a optional fan that also moves air along the video card. And there are a lot of other cases that this card would work well in but this wasn't even checked out. Why?
It would probably run close to the range of the mounted fan temps using this case. It would be a good mix if you did your homework and buy to fit the overall system capability.
This was not even addressed in this article which is very poor thinking up front. Even mentioning putting it in a desktop or a mini atx case is loony bin material.
If you start out with a set up to fail it isn't any supprise why it does. Heatsinks need air movement to work so a open case setup isn't valid.
 
[citation][nom]cburke82[/nom]Second idea on a silent PC.......STOP BEING SO DAMN PICKY lol I have never understood hw some people can be so picky about noise...[/citation]
I use my computer for video editing and sometimes I shoot video while tethered to it to avoid the compression of HDV. A fanless or nearly fanless GPU would be worth an extra 100 bucks to me, assuming it fit in my case.
 
Ok, i have a question about this hd6850 serei. What if i want to use a central digital monitor and two old vga displays for eyefinity? Would i be able to do that or i will have to buy 2 minidDP to vga converters (30€ each)? Will this board be able to move crysis2 in that configuration or better if i stick to my old hd4870?

THanks, and sorry it this an OT
 
Great article - thanks for bringing this card to my attention. I currently have the next best option (1GB Sapphire HD 5670 Ultimate) and was wondering when something better might come along in this rarest of markets. I will wait until X-Plane 10 comes out before pressing ahead with an upgrade... hopefully the price will be a bit more favourable then.

Thanks again.
 

Didn't one of the pages have temperature levels in various cases?
 

I guess for this one purpose it does make some sense. Though I wonder how much a quiet twin fan setup set to low speeds would show up on your video. How close is the camera/mic to you PC wile filming?
 
I'm confused how this card can be recommended at all. Mediocre performance compared to other HD6850s. It runs extremely hot under pressure, the quiet operation no where near makes up for how much A/C you'll be paying for, and three PCI slots is just ridiculous... One of the biggest factors for an HTPC is size.

The design and performance of this card just has me completely baffled and why anyone would purchase it is well beyond any reasonable logic.

Once again, Powercolor is overrated.
 
i don't get how you guys are so oblivious to noise. I'm a light gamer, but i don't get why you really need anything more powerful than a 6850 anyway.

Noise levels is so important. My computer which is quiet compared to most lives in my room. Where i live we can only get really slow mobile broadband. If i want to download a new game via steam, or even a new browser it takes 6 hours. The only time i have time for that is at night, and the hum drives me insane.

When you are busy reading an ebook, surfing the net or programming, it is way easier in dead silence, which barely any computer can give.

It is so easy to have a very quiet rig, but in all of those have integrated graphics, with this you can actually play games at decent settings. Still it doesn't quite cool enough, but it will be great to see powercolour put a cooler like this on a next gen chip
 
Ultra quiet rigs are really appealing, but I have to say that I am more interested in squeezing out every ounce of potential from my system. Undervolting/clocking are too counter-intuitive for me to seriously consider. My (outdated) rig has 5 case fans making it a noticeable member of the room, but it also runs within 8-10 degrees of ambient under load. Heat is more of an enemy than is noise, just get adjustable fans and control your noise that way.
 
These situations demonstrate the limits of pure passive cooling on a mid-range card.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say that. It's seems more like a limitation of the passive heatsink used by Powercolor and perhaps it's also a consequence of several other choices made to keep costs down.

- voltage regulator and circuitry not cooled at all (some would argue it's not required)
- in addition it uses a cost effective chip that won't allow changing the voltages via i2c
- aluminum heat pipes instead of copper and they could have spaced the fins (blades) more closely for a bigger radiant surface and maybe they could have made the card a bit longer by rotating the 6pin connector 90 degrees.

and I could go on.


The Accelero v1 rev 2 seems to cool my 4850 just fine with plenty of headroom (though I agree it barely hits 100 watts compared to 130-120 watts on the 6850).

They could have also connected the heatsink somehow to the metal plate, therefore connecting everything to the metal case - but this is a bit risky as the whole case is ground for the system and I'm not sure this is safe for a heatsink. Some CPU heatsinks do connect straight to a metal backplate that often is connected to the case so I don't know....
 
CBurke... why not have a silent PC? If that's what someone wants, who are you to tell them that it's pointless?

I, for one, love to play games on my 2500k/6850 system but also like listening to music and studying with my computer on. fan noise is a pain in the butt when trying to study or listening to some quiet music.
 
noise generated by some high end video cards now a days are just ridiculous.
without a good way to cut heat generation down, in the future maybe water cooling will become a standard.
 

The problem with your logic here is that if you are not gaming most GPU's can be very quiet. With MSI afterburner you could set you fan speed to be at 10% wile the card is not in use. At 10% fan speed in most cases you will not here the GPU fan wile you may still here the CPU fan. Also your specific situation is probably not that common. Wile I can see having a wailing fan in your bedroom wile your trying to sleep most people will not have to deal with that problem. Also why not do the download will your at work or school? That should take up the six or so hours just fine without you having to be in the room. And then the next point is you yourself say your a light gamer. So someone who is more than a light gamer might find the need for much more than a 6850 and with the increased temps who knows how stable this thing is long term. Will we see these cards burning up a year from now as people forget to clean them or the daily high temps take there toll, who knows ?
 
CBurke... why not have a silent PC? If that's what someone wants, who are you to tell them that it's pointless?

I, for one, love to play games on my 2500k/6850 system but also like listening to music and studying with my computer on. fan noise is a pain in the butt when trying to study or listening to some quiet music.
Click to expand...
Why would your GPU be blasting away when your doing homework or listing to music? If someone wants a silent pc thats cool. But having a GPU with no fan that is getting very hot might not be the best solution. At some point if you want a real gaming rig you will have to deal with at least some noise. Wile doing homework you can have the fan speed set very very low on your GPU as its not in use, at those low speed I will bet that you will hear the CPU fan way before you hear the GPU fan.
 
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