[CaptainHaplo]

Ok - I am considering looking at another video card. I have used both Nvidia and ATI cards, though my last 3 cards have been ATI based. Therein lies the problem - all 3 have exhibited the same problem after a while - heatsink fan failure. Right now my 1650 pro is locking up - and I have already replaced the fan on it once. Did the same think with my last card - ended up replacing the cooling fan on that one as well. I know its not an issue of dust mainly because I keep my box clean, but also because none of the other fans in the box have had a problem.

At this point I am either going to go with a liquid cooling system, or swapping to an Nvidia card (I never had problems with them staying cool). If I go with an Nvidia card, whats the best bang for the buck in the 100-200 $ price range? Or should I go liquid cooling now (and thus making my 1650 last awhile longer) and then move that to a future rig when I build my next box?

If I go water cooling (which is where I am really leaning), the only thing I have seen fairly reasonably priced is a ThermalTake system. Anyone have a liquid cooled rig? Inputs welcome here. I figure this would be the way to go since, long term, I can move it to whatever hw I go to in the future provided I clean the copper sinks good and get a good match on the next cpu/gpu/bridge chip when I move. Any issues here that I should know about?
Thanks in advance!