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I've been building PCs for my own amusement, mostly gaming and surfing since ... well my first proper 3d card was a 3dfx Voodoo II. Most of these I've been pretty happy with, the only expections have been a few "super cooled" cards, generally sporting large fans or copper pipes that I thought would be nice because they would be super quiet - generally my wife is asleep when I'm using these things and quietness is a good thing for me. So as I listen to my latest, an EVGA GFX 780 with an ACX cooler whirring away I now think I realise my mistake. The highly cooled cards aren't made for quiet PC use, they're made for the sort of folks who want to get that little bit extra cooling so that they can overclock their card and get an extra 2 FPS out of the latest shooter without lightly toasting their GPU - I used to be one of those people. Now I often just want to surf quietly and this sort of thing just drives me mad as the idle speed is way to high. So, anyone else have the same experience? Or would you disagree? Any interesting insights? If I'm right - anyone in the same situation looking for a quiet card for normal PC use as well as gaming - I recommend you get a reference card and stay away from extreme cooling or you're going to have a bad time .