Hi,
 
is there a way to reduce the minimum fan speed of the EVGA GT 430 below 65%?
I don't need this speed while normal usage of the computer and with 65% it is still too load for me.
 
Stefan

Minimum is subjective, different for you and me.  For safe operation I suppose minimum would be such that the cooler was still able to keep the GPU temperatures below the threashold maximum temperature way out at 100 Celcius, which isn't a good place to be all the time as if affects lifespan.  You'll have to discover for yourself what RPM percentage is best for what you do.  It could be 10% or 45%.  I usually set it to the highest for the noise I can tolerate for everyday usage.

1. How many wires look like they go into the motor of the fan?  Typically there are two for power, one for RPM sensing and one for RPM changing -- meaning your fan needs four wires to have the ability to manually change the RPM, otherwise there is a built-in system changing RPM as needed.
2. Have you downloaded EVGA's Precision software to see if you could change the RPMs yourself by moving the sliders?  If so, what happened?

I would love to start at 30% or 40% and test whatever works best, but it seems I cannot go below 65%.
 
I have installed the Precision tool and on the start page, the minimum is 65%. I can go up to nearly 100% and the fan reacts on that change. Then I want to the configuration dialog, created a curve on the "Fan" tab that strts at 40%, the temperature is about 30 degrees celsius and it that way below when I configured it to go with higher percentage. I checked the "Enable software automatic fan control". I also tried to enable and disable "Auto" on the start screen. But it never goes below 65%, it looks like this is a hardcoded minimum of this card. If that's true, I cannot use it and have to return it.
 
Any ideas how to reduce the fan speed below 65%?

I also own a GT 430 and I believe that 65% is the minimum fan speed.  In EVGA Precision automatic fan control there is a doted line at 65% signifying that 65% is the minimum. 
 
In my case the fan is barely audible at 65%, although my case fan is not the most quiet it the world.

in a silent htpc the card still very audible. is there a way to slow down the fan even below 65% e.g. by software or by a adapted bios. can evga provide such means?

Could try MSI Afterburner instead of Precision. Dunno if that helps, but it's worth a try

minimum fan speed always remains at 65% even with afterburner.

Then it must be a BIOS thing where the BIOS keeps the minimum @ 65%. Some people may have edited the BIOS but I wouldn't unless EVGA says so (GTX 460 Free Performance Boost) in case you brick your card.

I have to agree with the minimum fan speed being way too high on this card. I just bought it and my htpc is 10 times louder than it was with the built in vid card. The card runs quite cool at 65% fan power, this thing can run muuuch slower without problems!
 
Anything can be done??

I'm also encountering this issue, with Linux. However, when I boot to console mode, the fan speed is acceptably slow and relatively quiet. When I start the X server, the NVidia driver is loaded (kmod-nvidia-260.19.29), and the fan speed immediately speeds up to 65%. I tried manually setting the fan speed with nvidia-settings (and Coolbits=4, etc.), and I could adjust the fan speed to any value between 65 and 100%, but whenever I tried setting it below 65%, it just stayed at 65%. The temperature of the GPU was only 36 C during all this, which I would think isn't high enough to warrant a 65% fan speed. When I quit X-windows the speed still stays at 65%.
 
So, I don't know if this is an EVGA issue or an NVidia issue, but it would be good to get this resolved since I, too, am using the GT 430 in an HTPC, and the 65% seems unnecessarily  high (for me at least), especially when the GPU is just displaying a plain-text old fashioned terminal window and isn't even playing any video.
 
As a side note, I'm using this card's VDPAU capabilities to take the load off the CPU while decoding/playing video, and it does a great job, bringing the CPU usage down to almost nothing. So I really would like to keep it in my system as the main video engine, if the permanent 65% minimum issue could be resolved.
 

My MSI 430 minimum speed is 50%. It seems like the company can set different speeds. I don't understand why 65% is the minimum for a card meant to go in HTPC's. EVGA could probably release an updated BIOS like they did for their other cards enabling fan speeds down to 30%.

I have the Asus ENGT430.  Same problem here, very annoyed with the minimum fan speed of 60%!  My HTPC sounds like a vacuum cleaner :(   .
 
I've tried Asus Smartdoctor, nTune, Afterburner and the EVGA software and all have the 60% threshold. Never would've purchased a 430 if i'd known about this limitation. It seems we need a bios hack! 
 
Nibitor 5.9 doesn't support the 430, but i've read somewhere that 6.0 will.  That release can't be soon enough, i need to get the fanspeed down to 30%!
 
 

i got it down to 30% the following way:
 
-use nvflash to read bios into .rom file
-edit .rom file with nibitor 6.0 and change fan speed
-write bios with nvflash
 
done in 5 minutes :)
 
much better now!
 
 
 

Vanderamusic I took you advice though it took me more than 5 minuter to do.  (first time I ever changed a bios)

A word of caution thought, my fan stalls out around 35% and will not start back up unto almost 50%.  I have mine set at 52% now and its a lot quieter than 65%

For my setup there is no noticeable change in temperature between 65% and 52%. 

Sorry to bring up such an old thread, but can someone give me more info about using NVFlash and Nibitor to reduce the speed of the fan?
 
I used GPU-Z to download a .Bin of my Bios and then opened it with Nibitor.  In Nibitor I was only able to change the minimum and maximum fan speeds, nothing else.  If I change the min to 55% and max to 100% what speed will the fan run at say 35C?
 
I think I can figure out NVFlash, but if anyone has a good detailed description on how to use it, I would appreciate it.

Its been a long time since I have changed a bios and can't exactly remember how to do it. I gave my GT 430 to my parents and got a GTX 460.  If you still need help with NVFlash by this weekend I think I have note somewhere that I can dig up. 

For fan control I would use EVGA Percision or a similar program and set a custom profile. 

Precision X won't let me turn it down below 65%

If I remember correctly once you mod the bios, you can turn down below 65%. 

I think I remember the general steps of changing the bios, you might want to do a little research too.
 
I used "HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool" to make a DOS start up disk (flash drive). 
After you edit the Bios with Nibitor save it as a .rom file and put it on your DOS flash drive.
Boot off of the flash drive
type nvflash newbios.rom where newbios is what you named your .rom file
restart your computer and you will now be able to adjust your fan to its new minimum