X1950 Pro FANLESS - Is it worth it?

I saw this appear in newegg today...it looks good from here and I would be tempted to buy it without any reviews to read.

POWERCOLOR X1950 PRO SCS3 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP

My computer has more than enough air flow, and I really like the VIVO, HDTV, and HDCP features of this fanless card.

What do you think?

Nah, not worth it for that price. You can get a 1950xt, a much more powerful card, for $10 less.

Newegg lists 'open-box' x1950xt for $170, then put a Thermalright hr-03 on it for the same price.

I have an x1900xt with a thermalright hr-03 on it, it is silent, and cooler than stock.

The fan on a Radeon X1950XT doesn't even start to spin up until the core hits 70C which would only be during intense stress, eg gaming. If you need the graphical horsepower then do what I did and get the X1950XT and put a Thermalright HR-03 on it. The nice thing is with the HR-03 you can choose which 92mm fan you want on it so it's only as loud as you choose. I had an older Panaflo sitting around so I tossed it on and got drops in temperatures up to 20C while gaming with a perfectly quiet, constant sound.

Edit: You should have enough space, I'll post a few pictures of it sitting in my case in a minute.

Edit2: The first picture shows clearance from the stock heatsink, even with a fan on top I still have about 6/10's of an inch of clearance. Also the northbridge heatsink's bottom edge is about where the top edge of the HR-03 is although it would clear it if it was a bit closer anyways.



The second picture shows a closer view of of the clearance. As you can see, my RAM is untouched even with the HR-03 hanging over the bottom end of both sticks. The slot closest to the processor is a bit tighter due to the heatpipe curving around right over it but there is still plenty of room.



Another thing to be aware of is the difficulty in mounting it this way. The base and heatpipes attached will barely clear the shorter ramsinks included to cover the chips on the top edge of the card.

Well it would fit but you couldn't use a fan with the clips provided. You can always mount it with it hanging down below the card though, in this postition it will probably take 3 slots, 4 with a fan (I'm just guessing here, I've never used it mounted that way), so if you don't have any other cards below it you could place it that way.

Just curious, but most of the motherboards i'm looking up say they have 2 x 16x pice slots, but only the first one is 16x and the second one is 4x....what motherboards are you using with this card/fan setup?