Radeon 6850 for an i3 System?

[nocturnal1974]

Hello,

I built a much needed PC a few months ago ( was using a P4 3.0Ghz Compaq PC circa 2003 ) . Specification is : Core i3 530 Arctic Freezer Cooler, Gigabyte H55M-UD2H, 4GB DDR3 Mushkin Silverline RAM, 1TB Samsung HDD, OCZ 400W StealthXtreme PSU, LG 1080p monitor.

I'm really happy with it, I was finally able to play Half-Life 2, Portal etc. years after they were released, these games I was able to play quite smoothly at 1920 x 1080 resolution. I thought the i3 with the integrated GPU did a great job i.e. playing these at high resolutions with no dedicated graphics card...

However it obviously doesn't run COD4 / COD Black Ops / Resident Evil 5 etc. very well at high resolutions and now its time to buy a graphics card for it. I think i'll get the Gigabyte Radeon 6850 for it, one of the reasons being it has twin cooling fans. My thinking being 2 fans running lower RPM's mean quieter than 1 fan.

I'm not a fan of PC noise at all, the setup I have is quite quiet although the OCZ PSU fan makes the most noise.

Does anyone have any experience of using the Gigabyte or another graphics card with twin fans regarding noise levels? Is this card a good match for the i3? I know its a good card and should play almost anything in 1920 x 1080.

I seen a passive 6850 by Powercolor but I haven't seen these for sale anywhere yet.

Should the Gigabyte be quiet enough? I'm not worried about OCing anything as it will be fast enough, especially that I'm upgrading from an integrated GPU.

 

[danceforfreedom]

Yeah that would be no problems mate. I got the twin fan msi twin frozr, its quiet enough, only spins up to a noticeable volume after lots of gaming, but still not noticeable over the games. Don't think its any quieter than the single fan/stock coolers however, same revs just blowing on all length of the card, maybe a little louder than single fan cards, just keeps the card a lot cooler.

Will be a good choice for the system you have there. 400w isn't that powerful of a PSU but the 6850 are low power consumer's and only require 1 6pin connector!

But if you were thinking of getting the particular card for the noise factor alone I wouldn't pay a premium for it as I doubt it will any quieter than a single fan setup, will probably get the same revs + sound just more solid as theirs two of em. I would go for this...

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-020-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1866

or if I thought (and I don't know) If your PSU was up for it I would definately go for this 5850...

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-103-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411

A proper bargain and a more powerful card than the 6850!

 

[dave_beast]

Or save yourself a bit of money and get the 5850 twin frozR for £125 (pre order for 24th)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-103-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411

 

[danceforfreedom]

I advised that up there ^ But I don't know if his PSU would be up for the job! I bought one and it says 500w recommended although I think you could get away with it with a 400w OCZ.

 

[nocturnal1974]

it'll have to be the 6850 as the 400W ocz only has 1 6pin power connector, I won't be OCing it ( I think! ) so I was reading that you can adjust the fan speed with the catalyst drivers, just as long as I could get the card pretty silent when just surfing etc. as usually when I play games, I have my Goldring NS1000 active noise cancellation headphones on!

that 5850 is a good bargain though and if my PSU supported it I may have been tempted

although I like the fact that the newer technologies are using less electricity, the i3 build I have apparently only draws about 100W, the first computer I've owned that doesn't blow out warmish air

I'll not be ordering anything until the snow has cleared up anyway to avoid waiting 2 weeks for any parcel to arrive