[mythtv-users] NewEgg Cheap Nvidia GT220 Cards

[Brian Wood]

On Thursday 03 December 2009 10:08:22 am John Drescher wrote:
> > I have a fanless 9500 card.
> >
> > After renting a forklift to help the UPS driver deliver the crate, I did
> > manage to get the card into a case, blocking the PCI slot next to it.
> > Modern mobos generally do not have PCI slots to throw away as 
heatsink
> > spacers.
> >
> > Rather then worry about "fanless", I'd try to find a quiet, reliable fan,
> > if it's needed for cooling.
> >
> > Generally a "fanless" card requires good airflow through the case to 
cool
> > the heatsink, which simply transfers the fan to someplace other than on
> > the card.
> >
> > There are quiet fans available, which anyone with normal hearing
> > shouldn't be bothered with.
> >
> > Of course, having lived in Manhattan for many years, I am somewhat
> > immune to noise. I often wonder where some of the people complaining
> > about fan noise live, in an anechoic chamber? My watch makes more 
noise
> > than some fans I have heard.
> 
> My biggest problem with these fans is that at some point in 2 to 5
> years the fan will die causing you to have to either replace the card
> or try to hack a replacement since there seems to be no standard fan.
> 
> And also you may not know the fan died quickly enough. At my
> department at work this is the #1 cause of GPU and motherboard deaths
> over the last 5 years.

I agree, I am sick and tired of multi-hundred and multi-thousand dollar 
machines going down because the maker tried to save a few pennies on a 
fan.

A recent unnamed device I bought had a fan failure after less than 20 hours 
of operation.

Good quality ball-bearing fans can be had, though they are relatively 
expensive. If I can, I usually replace the factory-supplied fans in units I 
buy.

This is true not just in the computer world, fan failure was the #1 cause of 
failures when I worked in the TV business, and units that came with some 
sort of monitoring system were rare (NEC was a notable exception).

Newark Electronics sells some good quality fans from Comair/Rotron, they 
are worth the price IMHO.