Is it safe to unplug my PCI graphics card fan?

[fatvince]

I don't do any graphic intensive stuff.. and the fan is pretty noisy, would it be safe to unplug the fan while just doing normal browsing etc? Thanks!

[Adub]

This is never a "good" idea, however, I have heard it done before. Another idea is to get an aftermarket heatsink that was specifically made for fanless operation.

What kind of graphics card do you have, exactly? Is the fan stock or aftermarket?

[mr soft]

You could also look for a program to slow that fan down a little, make sure you check your temps as your rpm´s go down.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

I don't do any graphic intensive stuff.. and the fan is pretty noisy, would it be safe to unplug the fan while just doing normal browsing etc? Thanks!

I'd rather replace the fan with a silent one or get a passive cooler. Completely disabling the fan may not be the best idea ;)

Even if it seems to run "stable" for quite some time, the heat may increase slowly and finally cause serious problems. Also additional heat won't increase your GPU's lifetime!

And be aware that you'll loose all your guarantee! So if something goes wrong, it's your problem :eek:

[fatvince]

Its a no-name Gforce 6800, the fan is surrounded by a metallic casing. I'll see if I can get it off to maybe replace it as you guys suggested. Thanks!

[Astrophizz]

A PCI Geforce 6800? Do you mean PCI-E? I'd say you certainly can't just take the fan off of one of those.

[burfadel]

unplug the standard fan and attach (although it will look dodgy) a quiet fan on top of it. was the fan noisy from purchase or just from wear, or is it the metal casing thats vibrating?

[mitsubishi]

hmmm.... well,

I needed a machine for TV and as a backup machine while I was replacing components, tuning up overclocks, testing some OS's etc on my main machine.

So I threw together a box with a 6800GT with an arctic silencer fan, which expels the air out of the back. However I forgot to remove the slot cover from the back of the case. I think it lasted less than 2 weeks, on between 1 - 8 hours a day, never using 3D.

So make of that what you will. I would say, make sure the heatsink is a nice big copper one, preferably actually touching the RAM, which will be most at danger. Make sure there is a good flow of air from the case fans, across the heatsink, vram and volt regulators. You can make your card a lot less heat generating by underclocking and/or undervolting. Undervolting in particular can make the components run cooler, but you may need to underclock to get stability at lower voltage.

[swaaye]

Yeah a 6800 will probably cook if you try to run a stock cooler fanless.

Get an Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 r2. http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=2_&mID=105. This and its little bro the Accelero S2 are rather cheap and work fantastic. They are kinda big though so you might want to check out the dimensions.

[CWR03]

You can find passive-cooling graphics cards that have no fan and cost around $30 US. They won't be able to run games, but for desktop and videos it should be no problem.