Again, from experience, the noisy fan thing may also be irrelevant. The word to use here is "maintenance". Try dismantling and cleaning the fan and heat exchanger, and especially cleaning/lubricating the fan spindle with CRC, or something that doesn't offend electrics - that can make a world of difference. Make it just like a new fan.
-IainB
This is the 2nd fan on this GPU after the first one completely failed.
It was noisy, like it is now, so I took it apart and lubricated it with WD-40. It was nice and quiet for a while, but it wasn't long (as in a month or two) before the noise started up again. Eventually (months later) it ground to a halt and when I took it apart again I saw what appeared to be ruined ball-bearings.
You saying "something that doesn't offend electrics" caused me to do some research. I see now that WD-40 is bad for electronics and may have been what caused it to go from just noisy to completely broken. Oops!
Anyway, I contacted the manufacturer after the original fan failed and got a replacement from them (because it seems to be non-standard and I couldn't find a generic/replacement fan online anywhere). Once again it was nice and quiet for a while. But after only about 5 months it started making some noise again, which came and went for awhile. That was nearly 2 years ago and now the noise is pretty consistently there. I haven't attempted lubricating it since I figured it was just a faulty design (and saw other similar complaints in reviews for the product). But now that I know it was probably me who ruined the last one, I may
spend a few bucks to get some proper lubrication for it and attempt it once more.
It sure would be nice to have a quiet GPU again.
Well, quiet is a relative term, since by default it comes with two speed settings: Loud, and louder! (But I use SpeedFan to reduce the fan speed to make it quieter when it doesn't need to be running so fast.)