Looking for a quiet Radeon 4670 card

[trale]

I'm trying to cut down on the noise of my rig. I'm not a serious gamer, so I don't need the highest end card out there, but the Radeon 4670 series cards have a good performance/price ratio for me.

Now my main criteria is noise. I actually did find a passively cooled 4670 card - the Sapphire HD 4670 Ultimate 512MB:
http://www.*****/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/15276-sapphire-hd-4670-ultimate-512mb-passive-video-card-review.html

This would be perfect, except this card is no where to be found in the U.S. I would need to pay a premium to get this delivered from the UK.

So what's the next best option I have? I suppose a general trait I'd be looking for is a card with a fairly big fan, and also what would be really nice if the card has a 3-pin or 2-pin fan connector that I can manually unplug so I can plug it into my fan controller, then I get to have complete control over the fan speed.

Any suggestions?

 

[jyjjy]

You can use software such as rivatuner to control a video cards fan speed.

 

[jay2tall]

This one is easy. Just get the HIS 4670. I've used this in a build before and tested with COD4 for an hour. It was very quiet. The PSU fan was much louder. At idle you can't hear it unless you stick your ear to it. I stay clear of passive cooling unless its a very low power card that you won't be using for gaming. There can just be some heat issues if you don't have good case airflow.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161287&cm_re=4670-_-14-161-287-_-Product

 

[trale]

Aw man, that would be good, except for one thing: it uses up 2 slot covers! My rig already has something (my fan controller knobs) installed on the adjacent slot cover.

Mind you I have the adjacent PCI slot open, so it's okay if a card has a fan that protrudes to the next slot, but it cannot take up the actual cover itself.

This one is easy. Just get the HIS 4670. I've used this in a build before and tested with COD4 for an hour. It was very quiet. The PSU fan was much louder. At idle you can't hear it unless you stick your ear to it. I stay clear of passive cooling unless its a very low power card that you won't be using for gaming. There can just be some heat issues if you don't have good case airflow.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161287&cm_re=4670-_-14-161-287-_-Product

 

[ubernoobie]

mod the fan knobs to your external 5.25 bay , you can probably fit 2 fan controller pci brackets there

 

[jaguarskx]

You could consider a passively cooled 9600GT. I got one in my HTPC. Under load it does use more power though, 60w compared to 49w for the HD 4670.

Here's one from Asus selling for $75 after rebate.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121324&cm_re=9600gt-_-14-121-324-_-Product