I live in a semi-tropical place (Brisbane, Australia) without air conditioning in my home office where my PC is.

I prefer quiet from my computer while I am working or playing games, and also cool, as it gets very warm here in the summer.

I've noticed that graphics cards seem to be the hottest parts of the system, hotter than Core 2 Duo cpus, and the gpu fan is small and whiny when it ramps up as the gpu temp rises.

Any suggests for recent but not bleeding edge graphics cards?

For example, the ASUS EN8600GT SILENT/HTDP/256M claims not only to be silent but to be 5 to 7% cooler. Any comment on this card? While Nvidia 8800 gpu cards are faster, they are also much more expensive than Nvidia 8600 graphics cards. I've seen a lot of controversy over the ASUS Silent, as to its large heat sink causing problems, requiring excellent fans in the pc case for good airflow, and some accusations that the Silent doesn't even work well in terms of cooling.

Any other especially quiet cards?

Also, as my computer is dual use, work and games, I would like the graphics card to be at very low power draw, low heat, low noise, when I am working (e.g., word processor).

Thanks.

Frank

You could get a HIS 2600xt IceQ 512mb or 256.
Those should be cool, and it should draw the air out of the case. Also you should put a couple of 80mm fans in your case.

Yes, in general a 2600XT card with passive cooling is a good choice. These cards get cooler than the nvidia cards cause they are 65nm.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I dual boot my computer, Windows XP and Linux (Ubuntu), and I've heard that ATI gpus do not have as good of Linux support as Nvidia does. (I know Nvidia has quality Linux drivers, does ATI?)

The HIS option is very interesting, but I noticed that HIS does not offer IceQ Nvidia cards. I noticed an MSI Nvidia 8600GTS with "heatpipe"; any comment on that?

Thanks.

Frank

Use Envy to install the ATI drivers. The 3D desktop may still be a little flaky, but the openGL for games and other apps work fine. In another 6 months or so, ATI stock drivers should be up to snuff. http://albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html

lol, Nvidia and quality drivers in the same sentance. Sorry, nothing against Nvidia (I own a 8800 series card), but they could still use a little work in the drivers dept.

As for a quiet machine / card, just make sure you buy quiet fans and don't put grills over them that restrict airflow and create noise. (Zalman and Scythe make fantastic quiet fans that you can use to replace noisy ones)

I run Ubuntu 7.10 on an ATI video setup (Mobility X1400) and FINALLY Ubuntu has good/decent ATI support. Compiz Fusion works great (100% stable so far) and the performance is fine. Although I'm sure I've griped about ATI and Linux in a dozen other posts, I think it's time I stop doing that now... Ubuntu did a good job and ATI is opening up their drivers... we've reached a turning point. Don't let Linux support scare you away from an ATI card.