X1950Pro + (almost) Passive cooling = Nirvana

I'm planning on getting the Sapphire X1950Pro, but I've already installed one for a friend and compared to my 5900XT, it's like.... a hurricane!

So... I'm investigating the possibility of getting a passive cooler for it, which I will augment with a 120mm high CFM fan to reduce noise.

However, when Googling for GPU passive coolers and info about them, 90% of the results are for online shops selling them... Argh! (What on earth is becoming of Google, lately? Unless you search for something almost totally abstract, the first 3 pages of results are for online stores!)

Anyone know of any good resources, or actual info, about passive GPU coolers? I've found a couple from Zalman, but can't find any reviews on them...

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Hmmm.... Odd... I suppose the card I installed could have been faulty in some way.... perhaps the fan was stuck on high all the time? I never heard it change speed once.

Wait, which Sapphire X1950Pro did you install? There's one with the stock heatsink, which is loud. And there's a version with a nice Zalman heatsink w/RAM sinks. Here is the newegg comparison.

The Zalman version is supposed to be really quiet. I believe it is the Zalman VF900. I would get this version for $20 more. If you were to buy the Zalman heatsink separately, it would be $50, plus you would have to install it yourself and that would void your warranty.

I installed the one with the stock heatsink... Wow, that thing's loud!

However, the one that comes with the Zalman cooler is exactly what I've been looking for, and I've just found it on a few hardware sites here in Denmark. Perfect

http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/

go to that site and scroll down, it shows it to you

oh by the way, I have the one with the stock fan and during a whole days worth of using the pc I only heard it on full throttle when i started the pc, and that lasts about 1 second then it slows down to its normal speed.

For all i know, I could be the one with the faulty fan . Plus i cant find any software that will let me change the fan settings....its like this card wont let me change any speed. what progs usually show fan speeds? Cause i cant even see the fan speed.

But since its staying at 55 even after full load I think im just gonna wait and see what happens.

k checked it.

its running at 40% during most of the day including while im gaming. Then when i run 3dmark06 for a couple of loops then it goes upto 60%. I put it on 100% to see how loud it got...and lol...yes...its definitely loud , but i dont mind it.....yet ( i might get another cooler if i ever decide to overclock).