Used gfx card is the Asus GTX275 (from last year)
About the cooling stuf some ppl wrote....both Nvidia and ATI release their products with decent cooling fans.
Both companies also release various tools for fan control. Just google and use those...
So its rly no nesecary to spent loads of extra money on cooling your videocard.
I
had a GTX275 for a few months, but the wafers separated due to nvidias less-than-perfect silicone packing thechnique, as the stock cooler was not able to keep it cold enough at 100% speed. Every time I came over 71 degrees celcius core-temp there would the warping of the layers and the card would disconnect, cool down, come online again for a few moments, then start warping again as it got over 71c. Having had a longer talk with the one of the teamleaders at the largest hardware importer/distributor in Norway, it seems that was quite a common problem.
I could have sorted the problem with adding an aftermarket watercoolingblock inline with the rest of my watercooling, and kept it well under 71c under 100% load, but I dont like running faulty hardware in my main rig and I got a good deal on a replacement GTX470. I would hardly consider the fan (reference design afaik) as "decent". It moves far too little air to keep the card cool (peaks at 100c at 100% fan speed and 100% load) while making far too much sound. While I dont have a dB meter available, I know that my mothers Miele 1200W vacuum cleaner makes less noise (tested the old fashioned way, put the two next to eachother and turned them both up..)
Not surprisingly, the GTX470 also died a few weeks ago (had it since release), and I have a replacement waiting for me at the post office. I'll probably watercool that one right away before it burns too.