14 DAY TRIAL // I guess this is what happens when you (Gigabyte) have invested into a major business deal with one of your biggest rivals on the market (ASUS), only to find yourself the owner of a company that resulted in the joint venture (Gigabyte United) and with not so many funds to keep it on track.
This is why you must use any given advantage to promote your own products, and such is the case now, where Gigabyte is touting their new passive cooling system, the Silent-Pipe 3, which is set on top of the hottest product on the market right now, the NVIDIA GeForce 8600GTS. Silent-Pipe technology has reached its third generation, and who better to test and showcase the cooling system on then a card that eats up 71W.
The concept of Silent-Pipe 3 is to use the ?natural convection inside the chassis to disperse heat?. Believe it or not they have chosen as a source of inspiration the principle of turbulence in fluid dynamics, and came up with the Inner Turbulence Fluid Mechanics Design. It uses short and long layered fins with ?trapezoid punches? that transform air flow inside the heat sink, ?increasing the heat exchange ratio and enhancing overall thermal performance.?
To further increase the appeal of their products, Gigabyte has bundled the 8600GTS card with ?an RTS from Chris Taylor?, if you haven't already figured it out, it's the game Supreme Commander. Now as a personal intake on the Silent-Pipe technology, even if it does cool down, the video card enough to be considered within normal temperature limits, and the main advantage is the ?no-noise? routine, passive cooled cards, Gigabyte or other, have the nasty habit of running extremely hot (80+ degrees Celsius) while in 3D applications. That is why, no matter what type of passive cooled card you choose, it's always recommended you place a 120mm fan at the front of the case and let it blow towards the video card, the air flow created being enough to reduce some of the heat, and 120mm fans usually run at a low speed, so they produce a minimum amount of noise. But on the other hand, if you want to have a low cost heater for the winter, just buy a six-pack.