Sapphire's Ultimate Radeon 9800 Pro graphics card uses a heat pipe instead
of one or more fans.
Is this a good thing, or just a gadget that is bad for your system in the
long run. What is the cooling performance compared to regular cooling?
Passive cooling is a perfectly acceptible solution so long as it
fulfills your needs... It will keep the core cool enough for quieter
and stable operation provided you have fair airflow in the chassis,
and the card should last a fair amount of time, long enoough till it
doesn't seem very fast or valuable any more, providing they've done
their homework in the design AND your case is ventilated enough.
If either of these situations isn't realized, the card may start
failing when it's cold, a most puzzling situation that a system is
less stable until it heats up (or higher ambient temps) because the
capacitors' function more efficiently at higher temps, though they
also age a LOT faster at higher temps... generally lifespan is
reduced in half with each 10C rise in temp, IIRC. For more
clarification on this you can visit a few of the major capacitor
manufacturer's websites, the spec sheets detail longevity.
In other words, the card won't last as long but might be obsolete by
the time it dies. In any case I suggest that you keep the case's PCI
slot bracket cover off on the slot directly under the card, which may
quite significantly increase airflow in that region.
Dave