AGP Video?

[bevills1]

I need AGP video card and am considering the Sapphire Radeon 9000 Pro at http://cgi.ebay.com/SAPPHIRE-RADEON-9000-PRO-64MB-AGP-VGA-PC-CARD-10820_W0QQitemZ17034...3A7%7C294%3A50. The photo appears to show the fan is plugged into the AGP card itself, but I know some video cards plug into the mobo. Does anybody know whether the fan for this card plugs into the card or the mobo? I sent inquiry to 2 different eBay sellers 3 days ago and have received no reply. I can't use the card if it plugs into the mobo because the old Pentium 2 that needs it has no plug for video card fan.

[Almost Human]

The picture shows the proper configuration. The fan gets its power from the card which gets its power from the AGP slot.

[bevills1]

That's the way it appears, but I wanted to be sure the wire didn't just happen to be laying there when the photo was taken. Does anyone know how reliable such fans are, and would it be better to get a card that doesn't require a fan such as the ati radeon 7000 or nVidia geforce2 mx400? I doubt there'd be much performance difference especially considering it's for an old Pentium2.

[Almost Human]

I have never had a video card fan fail - 6 I believe. Personally I prefer fanless video cards as they are silent. The downside to fanless cards is that they tend to be clocked lower so as not to produce as much heat. If you do any amount of gaming, then a higher clocked card with a factory fan would be a better choice.

[bevills1]

I'm not into gaming, and all I need it to do is word processing, dsl internet, scanning, photo editing, etc. I suspect a lower clocked card is sufficient for my use, and I should have a quieter system with a fan less card.

[usta]

I also prefer fanless cards. Another solution is to make one yourself. Once, I've purchased a Nvidia Ti4200 card, got rid of the fan, wrapped it with Zalman passive cooling blocks (a hitpipe and 2 metal plates) and made a "sandwich" of it. Something like this: http://www.zalman.co.kr/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?idx=260.

[TimA-C]

You can get either fanless or very quiet cooling kits for a lot of graphics cards these days. Quietpc.com is a good place to start, but they can be a bit pricey, so it's worth checking around for cheaper stockists. Do make sure that the kit you go for is for your specific type of card and do be prepared for tense times when you come to remove the existing gpu cooler especially if the thermal gunk has set solid!