1. #1
    Brewmaster Majesticii's Avatar
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    Which VGA Brand has the best quality fans?

    Hey,

    Currently i have 2 MSI 460hawks, but i'm planning to replace them because most of the fans are broken (bearings are shit). And replacing the fans is way too expensive for these cards (in terms of value). I was going to but a new card anyway (gtx670), so now i got a reason to do it.

    Anyway, since both cards have this issue i'm pretty convinced the fans bearings are just crap by design (chinese "Long-Life"), and to prove my point i just youtubed Direct CU II fan noise/MSI Twinfrozr Fan noise and got shitload of hits. I don't want to have this same issue, since i want to enjoy this card for a while this time, so this time i'm paying more attention to this. However... most brands seem to use these Evercool/Powerlogic fans. Only the heatsinks are different. Anyone who can tell me which brand doesn't use these horrible chinese fans, and instead uses quality fans. I don't mind paying a few euro's extra, if it saves me from buying a 40euro replacement fan later on.

    Already ruled out:
    ASUS DCII
    MSI TwinFrozr

    Sincerely,

    Maj.

    PS: Also thought about buying the cheapest model i could find, and just buying a arctic. But then you'd have limited OC ability, and lots of coil whine due to cheap PCB components. So...yeah.
    Last edited by Majesticii; 2012-10-01 at 04:36 PM.

  2. #2
    I'm really liking my Gigabyte card's cooler. Hardly audible, and great cooling performance. Overclocks like a beast too.

  3. #3
    Brewmaster Majesticii's Avatar
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    Yeah i'm more interested in durability. My TwinFrozr fans were awesome too, until the bearings started making noise.

  4. #4
    So then choice becomes EVGA, Gigabyte, Galaxy, PNY, Zotac, Gainward, or Palit. There may be a few more [HIS?] but I can't think of them at the moment and I don't know which ones don't use the fan brand you mentioned.

    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...w,3217-16.html They suggest the gigabyte for all around performance.

    My personal preference is actually the Twin Frozr 4 version you've already ruled out. The thing is, your mileage will always vary. People are always more willing to go online and complain about something breaking but then you need to compare it to total number sold. Hope this helps at least slightly.

  5. #5
    Windforce cooler is amazing, quiet as fuck.
    Probably running on a Pentium 4

  6. #6
    Brewmaster Majesticii's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Taotaisei View Post
    So then choice becomes EVGA, Gigabyte, Galaxy, PNY, Zotac, Gainward, or Palit. There may be a few more [HIS?] but I can't think of them at the moment and I don't know which ones don't use the fan brand you mentioned.

    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...w,3217-16.html They suggest the gigabyte for all around performance.

    My personal preference is actually the Twin Frozr 4 version you've already ruled out. The thing is, your mileage will always vary. People are always more willing to go online and complain about something breaking but then you need to compare it to total number sold. Hope this helps at least slightly.
    It does help, and i know people are more like to complain, then notify how things are ok. But i've already RMA'ed one for this reason. And aquired 2 additional cards with the same fans, and all show the same signs. It's beyond coincidence.
    Problem is, every brand is really elusive about the fans they used. It's all "Super Quiet PWM fans". I'm thinking they're all cutting the same corners. /sigh

  7. #7
    Pit Lord Ghâzh's Avatar
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    Bear in mind that 600 series cards are much more quiet by design compared to 400 series. If your 460 didn't make much noise in the begin until bearings went out, 600 series makes no sound at all in the begin and probably very little if the bearings start wearing out.

    I personally haven't heard about anyone ruling cards out due to "low quality" fans (until now). Not something I would personally worry about. Then again if you wanna do it "your way", pick gigabyte windforce. It should be as quiet as twin frozr's and DCII's and perform similarly.

    Or watercool it.

  8. #8
    Not sure if its any help, but i'm also considering on buying a gtx 670, and i decided to look into it. (googled best gtx 670.)

    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...view,3217.html

    Extra reading never hurts, and on that page, the sound on asus one was really quiet.

  9. #9
    I think my card cools itself passively until 50 odd degrees (which it hardly ever reaches. At least, it seems very silent.

  10. #10
    Gigabyte,MSI have some pretty decent coolers.
    Playing since 2007.

  11. #11
    Brewmaster Majesticii's Avatar
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    Thanks for the help so far guys, but i think many are missing my point. It's not the rated dB's, or overall quietness i'm concerned about. I'm more concerned about the buildquality of the fan. Type of bearings, balance etc. Like a Enermax Apollish or BeQuiet silentwing will triumph over a regular sleeve bearing cooler.
    However i'm not really convinced ANY gpu manufacturer puts higher quality fans on their heatsink. Cause it seems noone cares about this, and they all gotta compete in a market where there is little profit.
    I guess now that i look at it this way, i'm probably not going to find what i'm looking for. I guess i'll just have to buy something and hope for the best. Though i'd still really much like for someone to magicly appear and tell me a brand that sells cards with premium fans ^^

  12. #12
    I am Murloc! Xuvial's Avatar
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    GTX670 DCII is the quietest 670, period. All reviews and most consumer feedback says so, I can only assume the ones you saw on Youtube was either defective or the guy was just showing what 100% fan speed sounds like. It's MSI that makes the loud coolers, not Asus.

    The DCII also comes with a sexy backplate, unlike Gigabyte's 670 which is goddamn BLUE *shudder*.

    But as far as performance/noise gose, Gigabyte Windforce series and Asus DCII series are the best you'll find.
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  13. #13
    I recommend you to go for the Asus DCII gtx 670 TOP version. Why Top version? Those gpu's are tested specially to reach higher clock speeds, they just picked the best gpu chips out for the top versions. It's very easy to overclock them, doesn't require a lot of knowledge.

    Remind, in benchmarks the MSI's card fan profiles are running always like 10-20% faster than Asus's cards. That's the reason why they run a few degrees cooler and make more noise.

    I'll never go MSI anymore.

  14. #14
    Brewmaster Majesticii's Avatar
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    To clarify what i mean by shoddy bearings i'll post this youtube video i found:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aHS7W7pnIA

    He fixxed it by dipping it in oil, but that doesn't work for me.

    Though, i think it's just that i'm being overcautious about this. Just found out that ASUS DC II does not use the same fans as the TwinFrozr. Only MSI uses those PowerLogic fans.

    Quote from a random review site:
    The DirectCU II cooler from ASUS is not only efficient but also quiet, as it has already proved in our earlier tests. Unfortunately, we can’t say the same about the cooler of the MSI R7970 Lightning. The latter is louder than the reference AMD Radeon HD 7970 and is in fact the loudest among the four tested cards. MSI programmers should have written lower fan speed limits into the card’s BIOS to make it quieter. The supplier of 100mm fans for the Twin Frozr IV might also be changed because Power Logic fans have never been perfect in terms of noisiness.
    I guess the guy from the video just got a faulty one, or has a dusty computer.

    Quote Originally Posted by Faithh View Post
    I recommend you to go for the Asus DCII gtx 670 TOP version. Why Top version? Those gpu's are tested specially to reach higher clock speeds, they just picked the best gpu chips out for the top versions. It's very easy to overclock them, doesn't require a lot of knowledge.
    I don't believe ASUS cherrypicks GPU's for their "TOP" line. It's just a normal DCII that's been tested stable under an OC profile. You can just have as much luck with a normal one. Plus those TOP versions are hard to get (and therefore expensive).
    Last edited by Majesticii; 2012-10-01 at 08:42 PM.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Majesticii View Post
    Thanks for the help so far guys, but i think many are missing my point. It's not the rated dB's, or overall quietness i'm concerned about. I'm more concerned about the buildquality of the fan. Type of bearings, balance etc. Like a Enermax Apollish or BeQuiet silentwing will triumph over a regular sleeve bearing cooler.
    However i'm not really convinced ANY gpu manufacturer puts higher quality fans on their heatsink. Cause it seems noone cares about this, and they all gotta compete in a market where there is little profit.
    I guess now that i look at it this way, i'm probably not going to find what i'm looking for. I guess i'll just have to buy something and hope for the best. Though i'd still really much like for someone to magicly appear and tell me a brand that sells cards with premium fans ^^
    I would gander to say you're correct. The fans are all going to be about the same build quality. However, I would definitely put other brands over another, because of different fan speeds required for cooling. You'll definitely get more life out of a card that doesn't require you to run the fans at max all the time. I'll go ahead and recommend Gigabyte for the superior windforce cooling design and general build quality. My Gigabyte is an extremely cool card, and very high overclocker.

  16. #16
    Brewmaster Majesticii's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Shiromar View Post
    You'll definitely get more life out of a card that doesn't require you to run the fans at max all the time.
    I think this is the main issue indeed. That MSI card ran @ 65-70% fanspeed for 2 years. And add to that: those PowerLogic fans are really bad.
    Though my case is completely black/green with a window. That blue PCB will poke me in the eye :P Think ill take a shot at the ASUS.

    Thanks for the help thusfar guys.

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