Which GTX 970 to buy for living room HTPC

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
K

Kellhus

Reputable
Oct 14, 2014
9
0
4,510
I've bought the following new HTPC to be connected to a Samsung 55 UHD TV in the living room.

- Silverstone Grandia GD09 case
- i5 4590
- Seasonic Platinum Fanless 520w PSU
- 16gb ram
- 128gb SSD (OS)
- 256gb SSD
- MSI H97 Gaming 3
- Noctua NH-L12
- 2x 120mm Nexus Real Silent fans (intake) + 2x 80mm Antec Tricool fans (exhaust)
- Iiyama Prolite 144hz screen (to be used when I'm not using the TV / neckbeard games ;))

I'd like to keep the system pretty silent, which is why I've picked the least amount of moving parts I can get away with. The GPU is really giving me a headache though. Price/Performance wise the GTX970 is a no-brainer, especially with it's decent TDP, but unfortunately the Asus Strix version seems to be to big with it's 14cm width (13cm limit caused by case).

Which one would you guys recommend? Or should I wait for a month or so to see if new versions will come out?
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
smackers_12

smackers_12

Honorable
Jul 4, 2013
1,445
0
11,960
As its a small case i would get one with a blower cooler, evga and zotac make them. They dont look that nice but you wont see it in that case. A blower cooler would be the best because they dont dump all their heat into the case.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
K

Kellhus

Reputable
Oct 14, 2014
9
0
4,510
I thought about that as well, but I'm not really font of the increased noise blower coolers make in general. Also, the case is not *that* small, I would compare it to a mid tower, size wise. My plan was to place two 120mm Nexus Real Silent fans for air intake and two Antec TriCool 88mm fans at the back for the air exhaust.

Would this be sufficient to get rid of most of the heat a active GPU cooler would generate?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
smackers_12

smackers_12

Honorable
Jul 4, 2013
1,445
0
11,960


970's run pretty cool so a blower cooler might not be that loud. If you have clearance issues you might have an issue as the MSI and asus cards are pretty tall and the gigabyte card is long. You could probably dump a decent amount of heat with those fans but in a smallish space its still going to get hot with the cooler dumping most of its air into the case. A blower cooler is probably the way to go but if you really don't want one the acx 2.0 card from evga is a smallish custom cooled card (Not the acx 1.0, it has issues on the 970).
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
smackers_12

smackers_12

Honorable
Jul 4, 2013
1,445
0
11,960
Whats more of a concern is that the way the cooling is set up in that case the fans will bring cool air in straight to the video card and then it will be blocked if you have a really tall card. You might need to make one of those fans on the back (side in this case) an intake and chuck a filter on it because if the airflow is blocked to the cpu cooler it could get warm. See how it goes with two exhausts but it may not work too well
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
K

Kellhus

Reputable
Oct 14, 2014
9
0
4,510
Thanks for thinking along. Valid points about blocking the airflow with a large GPU like the Gigabyte G1. So the G1 is too long, the Strix too wide and the MSI/EVGA are questionable quality-wise.

I might be forced to choose one of them though. Going to build the PC tonight before ordering the GPU, just to make sure if the Strix/MSI are really going to be a problem, width wise. The height of the case is 17cm, so I really can't see how a 14cm GPU width is going to be a problem. Can't imagine that the motherboard has to be installed with ~2cm of free space below.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
smackers_12

smackers_12

Honorable
Jul 4, 2013
1,445
0
11,960


MSI and evga dont have quality issues in fact the MSI card is one of the best options but i think its taller than the ASUS. evga has one problem with one specific card that effects performance but doesn't wreck the card. There will be space under the motherboard but probably not 2cm, factor in the thickness of the materiel and the standoffs and you will be close to 14cm. Build it first then see. It will be fine with the integrated gpu until you decide
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
K

Kellhus

Reputable
Oct 14, 2014
9
0
4,510
Currently building the PC, not sure yet if the Strix will fit width-wise, but I now definitely know that a Gigabyte G1 will block the entire length of the case, blocking the airflow totally.

It's starting to look like the EVGA with ACX 2.0 (and vbios update for passive cooling < 60 degrees celcius) is the way to go because of it's relatively short length.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

Cookiemole

Reputable
Nov 29, 2014
1
0
4,510


Any updates on whether the Strix fits? I have a Grandia GD08, which is a very similar case. I'd like to get either the MSI Gaming or Strix 970.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom