Recommend a video card

I need a new video card.
Could someone please recommend a card that's no less than 256 and does not
have a fan on it.
I use my computer in a recording studio and need for it to be as quiet as
possible.

Thanks

J

"Randy" wrote in message
...
I need a new video card.
Could someone please recommend a card that's no less than 256 and does not
have a fan on it.
I use my computer in a recording studio and need for it to be as quiet as
possible.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814187036

One of literally dozens that are fanless productivity cards.This one will do
some minor 3D duties as well.

Thanks a lot for your help.
I will look into this card and probably buy it once I read more about it.

Thanks

R




http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814187036

One of literally dozens that are fanless productivity cards.This one will
do some minor 3D duties as well.

Randy wrote:
I need a new video card.
Could someone please recommend a card that's no less than 256 and does not
have a fan on it.
I use my computer in a recording studio and need for it to be as quiet as
possible.

Thanks

J

The OS or OSes you use, can matter in the selection of a card.
If you have WinXP, I would not expect a problem. If the computer
has older OSes, you should be more careful in the selection.
I had that problem here, with my Win2K machine.

Paul

On Sat, 03 Jan 2009 10:20:20 -0600, Randy wrote:

I need a new video card.
Could someone please recommend a card that's no less than 256 and does
not have a fan on it.
I use my computer in a recording studio and need for it to be as quiet
as possible.

Larger diameter fans are *much* more quiet. I replaced the stock 30mm fan
on one of my cards with a Zalman VF900. I run it at 100% speed all the
time and I can't even hear it.

That's a good point.
This is a Win XP Pro machine.
Does that change things?
I'm about ready to buy the card Augustus recommended.

R


The OS or OSes you use, can matter in the selection of a card.
If you have WinXP, I would not expect a problem. If the computer
has older OSes, you should be more careful in the selection.
I had that problem here, with my Win2K machine.

Paul

Randy wrote:
That's a good point.
This is a Win XP Pro machine.
Does that change things?
I'm about ready to buy the card Augustus recommended.

R

You can check the driver download page, to see whether WinXP
is supported. For example, this driver supports 9400GT and
WinXP.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_180.48_whql.html

Are you absolutely certain you have a PCI Express video
card slot ? I didn't see any info about the computer make
and model, or perhaps mention of the motherboard make and
model. There are at least three kinds of slots, PCI Express
being the most recent, AGP being for a previous generation,
and for some of the lower end pre-built computers from
HP/Dell/Gateway, there might only be the older PCI slots.
You have to match the slot, to be able to insert the card.

This page helps people fitting AGP cards.

http://www.playtool.com/pages/agpcompat/agp.html

To select a good passively cooled card, the power consumption
of the card is important. But we'll get to that when you
identify the slot.

Paul


The OS or OSes you use, can matter in the selection of a card.
If you have WinXP, I would not expect a problem. If the computer
has older OSes, you should be more careful in the selection.
I had that problem here, with my Win2K machine.

Paul

This is the moterboad I have:
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1...&mo delmenu=1

It's ASUS P5K Deluxe.


Would this video card work?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814187036

It's the one Augustus recommended.

Win XP Pro.

Thanks

R

OK, at last my computer turned on after several tries and I saw that this is
the video card I currently have:

http://reviews.cnet.com/graphics-car...-32574815.html

Could you please recommend a replacement for this card?

I would like it to fit directly whithout having to replace the motherboard.
It also needs to be fanless.

Would this one still work?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814187036

Thanks for all your help

R

Randy wrote:
OK, at last my computer turned on after several tries and I saw that this is
the video card I currently have:

http://reviews.cnet.com/graphics-car...-32574815.html

Could you please recommend a replacement for this card?

I would like it to fit directly whithout having to replace the motherboard.
It also needs to be fanless.

Would this one still work?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814187036

Thanks for all your help

R


According to this, the 8400 GS draws 25W (presumably when using the 3D
features, less otherwise).

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/q...12756_div.HTML

You could get another 8400 GS, or this site gives power numbers for
video cards as well. The ATI HD 4550 is rated for 25W as well.

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards....=578&card2=584

You can look through the video cards, and spot one with good reviews
and select one that way.

In this bunch
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...Subcategory=48

the MSI HD4350 seemed to have OK reviews.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127390

There is a second bunch of older cards here.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...Subcategory=48

Look through the reviews and see whether the comments mention
the card running hot or not.

There are a lot of cards that can work, as you haven't stated
any demanding performance requirements. You want a product
that the reviews are not finding a lot of DOA out of the box,
something that the drivers work OK and so on. Otherwise,
anything that is fanless, has a x16 slot connector, has the
video connectors you need on it, is going to work. I'd prefer to
pick something with a low power dissipation going in, because
that increases the odds it'll run cool.

If there is some level of performance requirement (gaming,
movie playback acceleration), then there may be reasons to
select something with a slightly higher power level. The
reviews may give you some idea, if you have a particular
performance aspect in mind.

You should try to uninstall the old video card driver, before
adding in the new one, if you can.

Paul