Decent, low power, silent PCI graphics card?

  • Thread starter Thread starter cjm
  • Start date Start date
C

cjm

Hi all. I realise that I may be asking rather a lot, and indeed, some of the
features I require may clash with one another, but I thought I may as well
ask the people who would know - I have tried searching for this type of
information but to be honest I haven't gotten very far.

Basically, I would like a PCI graphics card to fit inside a Hoojum Cubit 3
case (http://www.hoojum.com/html/product_cubit3.htm), with the Insight P4
mini-itx motherboard. (http://www.insi.com.tw/new/mainboard.htm)
A make and model number would be very helpful indeed, but, like I've said,
searching hasn't yielded many results, and even those that I have found may
not be suitable.

The first requirement is that it must have low power consumption. The silent
PSU I currently have is a mere 110W, and the biggest that would fit into
this case is still only 150W. So far, the cards I have found have stated
that they need a 250W power supply. I presume that this is with an ATX
motherboard, 3.5" hard drive, optical drive etc etc ... eg. components that
are found in a desktop machine. Of course, my Cubit uses low power
components - laptop style hard drive and optical drive etc.. and therefore
does not need this 250W figure. However, despite this, I can not find a
graphics card which states how much power it requires in Watts. This would
be most useful as I could actually calculate whether my power supply could
handle everything at once.

Secondly, I would like it to be passively cooled with a heatsink as opposed
to having both a heatsink and a fan. This would tie in well with the first
requirement as it suggests that the card isnt dissipating enough heat to
warrant a fan, and would also mean that it would operate in total silence.

Thirdly, I need a card with TV-out functionality so that I can sit the Cubit
in the living-room and watch films on the widescreen.

And finally, I would like it to perform better than the AGP GeForce MX 420
that is currently in my desktop machine.

If anyone can suggest an appropriate card then at least I can start to track
down where to buy it from, which I think is better than my current method of
looking at online retailers and seeing if they even sell PCI graphics
cards!!

Many thanks,
Chris
 
cjm said:
Hi all. I realise that I may be asking rather a lot, and indeed, some of
the features I require may clash with one another, but I thought I may as
well ask the people who would know - I have tried searching for this type
of information but to be honest I haven't gotten very far.

Basically, I would like a PCI graphics card to fit inside a Hoojum Cubit 3
case (http://www.hoojum.com/html/product_cubit3.htm), with the Insight P4
mini-itx motherboard. (http://www.insi.com.tw/new/mainboard.htm)
A make and model number would be very helpful indeed, but, like I've said,
searching hasn't yielded many results, and even those that I have found
may not be suitable.

The first requirement is that it must have low power consumption. The
silent PSU I currently have is a mere 110W, and the biggest that would fit
into this case is still only 150W. So far, the cards I have found have
stated that they need a 250W power supply. I presume that this is with an
ATX motherboard, 3.5" hard drive, optical drive etc etc ... eg. components
that are found in a desktop machine. Of course, my Cubit uses low power
components - laptop style hard drive and optical drive etc.. and therefore
does not need this 250W figure. However, despite this, I can not find a
graphics card which states how much power it requires in Watts. This would
be most useful as I could actually calculate whether my power supply could
handle everything at once.

Secondly, I would like it to be passively cooled with a heatsink as
opposed to having both a heatsink and a fan. This would tie in well with
the first requirement as it suggests that the card isnt dissipating enough
heat to warrant a fan, and would also mean that it would operate in total
silence.

Thirdly, I need a card with TV-out functionality so that I can sit the
Cubit in the living-room and watch films on the widescreen.

And finally, I would like it to perform better than the AGP GeForce MX 420
that is currently in my desktop machine.

If anyone can suggest an appropriate card then at least I can start to
track down where to buy it from, which I think is better than my current
method of looking at online retailers and seeing if they even sell PCI
graphics cards!!
Click to expand...

I don't think you're going to find a low-power PCI video board with TV out
that is any better than what's built into your board. The only PCI boards
on the market with really decent performance are GeforceFX 5700s and they
aren't low-powered by your standard. One of the Radeon 9200 series boards
would probably be your best bet, but it's not going to be a huge
improvement over your MX 420.

If you're not firmly committed to the Cubit you might do better with one of
the Shuttles that use the ATI IGP chipsets--they have Radeon 9100 built in,
which is a pretty decent chip, almost up to Ti4200 performance, or a laptop
with a Mobility 9600.
 
cjm said:
Hi all. I realise that I may be asking rather a lot, and indeed, some of the
features I require may clash with one another, but I thought I may as well
ask the people who would know - I have tried searching for this type of
information but to be honest I haven't gotten very far.

Basically, I would like a PCI graphics card to fit inside a Hoojum Cubit 3
case (http://www.hoojum.com/html/product_cubit3.htm), with the Insight P4
mini-itx motherboard. (http://www.insi.com.tw/new/mainboard.htm)
A make and model number would be very helpful indeed, but, like I've said,
searching hasn't yielded many results, and even those that I have found may
not be suitable.

The first requirement is that it must have low power consumption. The silent
PSU I currently have is a mere 110W, and the biggest that would fit into
this case is still only 150W. So far, the cards I have found have stated
that they need a 250W power supply. I presume that this is with an ATX
motherboard, 3.5" hard drive, optical drive etc etc ... eg. components that
are found in a desktop machine. Of course, my Cubit uses low power
components - laptop style hard drive and optical drive etc.. and therefore
does not need this 250W figure. However, despite this, I can not find a
graphics card which states how much power it requires in Watts. This would
be most useful as I could actually calculate whether my power supply could
handle everything at once.

Secondly, I would like it to be passively cooled with a heatsink as opposed
to having both a heatsink and a fan. This would tie in well with the first
requirement as it suggests that the card isnt dissipating enough heat to
warrant a fan, and would also mean that it would operate in total silence.

Thirdly, I need a card with TV-out functionality so that I can sit the Cubit
in the living-room and watch films on the widescreen.

And finally, I would like it to perform better than the AGP GeForce MX 420
that is currently in my desktop machine.

If anyone can suggest an appropriate card then at least I can start to track
down where to buy it from, which I think is better than my current method of
looking at online retailers and seeing if they even sell PCI graphics
cards!!
Click to expand...


http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/kl.asp?bn=10415

ss.
 
Even passively cooled video cards worked under the principal that the other
fans in the case (primarily the PSU) moved enough air to cool down the video
card, if you are just going to have stagnant air in there you probably won't
be able to do much before it overheats unless you do water cooling or
something. Doesn't really matter how big of a heatsink you have, if the
heat cannot dissipate quickly enough from your case it's gonna blow! ;)

I saw a website somewhere where a guy had taken some sort of special oil and
mounted his equipment into a liquid proof case then poured in the oil
(devoid of moisture!!) to keep everything cool! (and silent)
 
cjm said:
Hi all. I realise that I may be asking rather a lot, and indeed, some of the
features I require may clash with one another, but I thought I may as well
ask the people who would know - I have tried searching for this type of
information but to be honest I haven't gotten very far.

Basically, I would like a PCI graphics card to fit inside a Hoojum Cubit 3
case (http://www.hoojum.com/html/product_cubit3.htm), with the Insight P4
mini-itx motherboard. (http://www.insi.com.tw/new/mainboard.htm)
A make and model number would be very helpful indeed, but, like I've said,
searching hasn't yielded many results, and even those that I have found may
not be suitable.

The first requirement is that it must have low power consumption. The silent
PSU I currently have is a mere 110W, and the biggest that would fit into
this case is still only 150W. So far, the cards I have found have stated
that they need a 250W power supply. I presume that this is with an ATX
motherboard, 3.5" hard drive, optical drive etc etc ... eg. components that
are found in a desktop machine. Of course, my Cubit uses low power
components - laptop style hard drive and optical drive etc.. and therefore
does not need this 250W figure. However, despite this, I can not find a
graphics card which states how much power it requires in Watts. This would
be most useful as I could actually calculate whether my power supply could
handle everything at once.

Secondly, I would like it to be passively cooled with a heatsink as opposed
to having both a heatsink and a fan. This would tie in well with the first
requirement as it suggests that the card isnt dissipating enough heat to
warrant a fan, and would also mean that it would operate in total silence.

Thirdly, I need a card with TV-out functionality so that I can sit the Cubit
in the living-room and watch films on the widescreen.

And finally, I would like it to perform better than the AGP GeForce MX 420
that is currently in my desktop machine.

If anyone can suggest an appropriate card then at least I can start to track
down where to buy it from, which I think is better than my current method of
looking at online retailers and seeing if they even sell PCI graphics
cards!!

Many thanks,
Chris
Click to expand...

Thanks to those who replied.

I think my best bet will be a Radeon 9200 - I have emailed a couple of
manufacturers to try and find out how much power their cards use, although
various sources on the net seem to think that an AGP card will use between
30 and 50 Watts. If a PCI card is the same then I may run into some
problems.

I am changing my plans slightly now - I am going to try to measure the power
usage of the PSU under the heaviest operating conditions I can and then, if
the consumption is close enough to 110W, I can scrap the original supply and
go for 150W instead. This would then give me 40W to play with for the
graphics card, which surely would be enough.

As for cooling, there will still be one 80mm fan in the case, although how I
can improve airflow around the GPU & its heatsink is beyond me at the
minute. The following pic might help explain why:

www.hoojum.com/jpgs/assemble-25.jpg

(my graphics card would be in place of the NIC on the right-hand side)
 
The guy must have been seeing If it would work on an ancient Motherboard
(all those ISA slots)
I hope the oil (looked liked Cooking oil), doesnt go rancid.
 
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