fanless graphic card for Mac Pro?

Hi!

I don't know that you have the problem now.

But you want a good vga, which is quiet, I recommend Asus 960 GT.

This card has 2 fans, but without big workoad it behave like a passive card. The fans are stay.

I hope, I can help.

The only real option is to use one of the original 7300 cards from the first generation Mac Pro systems. You can add a fanless heat-sink to a 2600, but in my experience it wont work well with only the system fans (mine over heated and shut off frequently in the summer).

FYI, the original 7300 GT cards look like this...

The 7300 GT is an NVidia card. The ATI 2600 series is higher end, but as you've seen it needs active cooling.

John Williams1 wrote:

...It's also possible that the machine is simply overheating as a result of adding a 4th hard drive last summer, up from the 3 I'd been using all these years. (A 2 TB Western Digital "green" drive selected specifically because it was supposed to sacrifice some performance in favor of cooler operation, btw)...

Have you considered using smcFanControl to speed up the fans beyond what Apple considers to be "cool enough"? And have you cleaned out the dust that inevitably builds up inside the Mac Pro? You might also check out "Check My Temp" on the App Store to find out what the temperatures in your Mac actually are.

I got my original Mac Pro 1,1 rather than the 8 core version to get the 7300 GT precisely because it didn't have a fan; I had an SGI monitor/digital video card combination for my PM 7500 and the fan on the video card froze, so the fanless 7300 GT was the only way to go. For my purposes, it did what it had to do without any fuss for many years.

I have several suggestions for you including some simple "Big and Dumb" fixes.

But first the disclaimers/assumptions/precautions:

• I asume your Mac is out of warrenty and you are ready to do it yourself.
• Check compatability of any suggested Mac harware fixes with your software (OS vesrion) and Hardware (version, and available space around the graphics slot & environs. Do this fist, write eventhing down, as you may have to check specs or provided it to tech service people (not Apple).
• Set a budget!

Simple, Big and Dumb Solutions

1. If possible, consider installing the tower outside the room (other side of the wall) or in a closet or cabinet, running cables to the display, keyboard and mouse. This is actually a cheap and practical solution because cable is cheap. If you need ROM drive in the room it can be a peripheral. It may reqire you to drill a hole through the wall to feed-through cables, once the cables are routed through plug the hole with foam cushion, that's how we pros do it.

2. Install the tower inside an enclosure that has been lined with acoustical damping foam (the "dimpled" type of open cell foam, available online from many sources and cheap). This can be affixed to the walls of an enclosue with contact cement or double sided adhesive tape. Then, to ensure adequate air cirulation, duct air to the enclosure from OUTSIDE the room. I work in a lab that must be clean, quiet and vibration free, yet needs lots of computing and instrument resources, so everything is either rackmount or inside an enclosure. It works.

High Tech Solutions

3. Fanless video cards are available, eg, the afore-mentioned 7300GT or it's sucessor 7900GTX (better).

4. Replace the fan and/or card, using a low velocity (large blade, streamined) fan such as Artic Silencer, e.g.:

http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/cooling/vga/275/nv-silencer-4-rev.-2.html?c=2182

Various similar cooling fans are available from the market, these would be quieter than the CPU fans.

5. Replace the fan and/or card with a passive cooling solution or liquid coil. To do so you probably have to upgrade to a more recent card to get a compatable solution. Some examples:

Example of passive solution:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fanless-graphics-card-scs3-hd6850,2990.html

Tom's Hardware are nice people, send email for help. Passive is not as crazy as it looks, but do you have the space?

Example of liquid solution:

http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/product_info.php?product_id=2005

In this case, obviously you put the pump outise the wall, so consider Solution 1 first. Liquid cooling sounds like expensive overkill for you, but if you aspire to be gamer on the side, go for it.

Or this INSANITY, for amusement only (but some good tech background)

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/vga-coolers.html

In this case, you would obviously mount your video addapter in it's own room on another floor.

Warning: solutions 4 or 5 may need space, keep that information handly.

Good luck! Seriously consider 1 and 2! Not elegant, but functional.

Get an ATI 5770. They are as close and good as your are going to get, bearing in mind you need 10.5.6+

Here ia another fanless link, these look like smaller formfactor cards.

http://www.acousticpc.com/silent_video_cards.html

I tried a heat pipe on a 1900 XT before and it over heated massively. They are dependent on a good air flow past the PCI card, which the Mac Pro does not have.

As for the 5770, don't think you can get an Apple version of that without active cooling.

Hence my caution about available space. RIP Mac Rackmount Servers (;"((

And hence my first 2 suggestions. If one doesn't need to have immediate access to the severs, remote installation or an enclosure are workable solutions and the first is a cheap solution.

On the other hand, this kind of got me wondering if there was something off the shelf simple because it's a pretty common problem. AMD/ATI still seems to have some passive cards in single and double width, e.g., HIS 6450 ...

http://www.hisdigital.com/un/product2-675.shtml

These are obvioulsy not high performance, but maybe workable if the equivelent of fast 2D graphics is acceptable.

Personally, I prefer rack-mount or stackable servers in my own working situation for that reason, in the first case you get expansion space and lots of options, in the second case, modular solutions. I'm actually interested in using Mac mini servers as a cheap portable allternative to notebooks or industrial rackmounts in lab instrument set-ups because they come with firewire and thunderbolt, which sould be a good once the other bits and pieces become available.

Because, honestly, I question if Apple will be manufacturing Mac Pros much longer, lots of rumors about that.

System fans @ 850 rpm is nearly silent.

No need to delve into PC flashing or injuectors.

Defective cards have had to be replaced.

Asking for passive in today's world... yes well there are some with copper cooling, I have ATI HIS series in my PC, though it allows better quiet gaming probably.

Hi!

I don't know your have the problem now.

But if you want quiet