Best Heatsink / Fan Solution For Powercolor AX5770?

WhosTheBosch · Post by **WhosTheBosch** » Sat Jan 02, 2010 1:55 am

I bought this and am wondering what heatsink / fan I should buy for it?

Powercolor AX5770 1GBD5-PPG

I want a really quiet build and in the past the manufacturers cooling solutions have worked but haven't been quiet. Just wondering if anyone has any experience with 5770 cooling solutions? I haven't really been able to see any that work 100% with the 5770.

Ramses · Post by **Ramses** » Thu Jan 07, 2010 12:17 pm

I also bought this and have been running it for a few days. The default cooler is an Arctic Cooling L2 Pro with customized plastic fan shroud. At stock 40% speed the fan is annoying in my very quiet environment. Using Catalyst Control Center to lower it to 30% makes it more bearable while gaming. I've since lowered it to 20% (lowest possible in CCC) and it becomes low enough to not annoy me all day long, but I haven't tried gaming on it at those levels yet; hopefully shouldn't be an issue as 30% fan speed got me temps around 60-70C (case 35C) while the GPU can withstand around 100C if I remember well.

trueg · Post by **trueg** » Fri Jan 08, 2010 12:37 pm

Ramses, how noisy are we talking?

I purchased a Powercolor AX5770 1GBD5-DH on boxing day ( http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6814131326 ). It also appears to use an OEM Arctic Cooling L2 Pro (though smaller). I assumed because of the AC cooling system it would be quiet. At idle I can not hear it, but once it has even a slight load (1080P video), it starts to make this annoying low frequency buzz/hum/whine.

I have requested an RMA from Newegg and was going to replace it with the card you mention (AX5770 1GBD5-PPG). It appears to have a slightly different cooling design (perhaps it's just the shroud that is different) so I was hoping it would not have the annoying buzz/hum/whine that I had with the first one.

The first card has a $10 mail-in-rebate, the second card does not. If the second card is no better, perhaps I would be better off keeping the rebate and picking up an actual Arctic Cooling L2 Pro, which is supposed to be very quiet (it is also much larger).

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Fri Jan 08, 2010 12:49 pm

Welcome to SPCR!

Have you checked out the SPCR reviewed GPU heatsinks?

Ramses · Post by **Ramses** » Sat Jan 09, 2010 11:14 am

trueg wrote:Ramses, how noisy are we talking?

Hey trueg,

Sorry to hear bout the noise issue on the longer pcb model. I would try stopping the fan for a few seconds with my finger, see if all the noise is fan-related or if there's a coil whine somewhere that adds to it.

At 40%, my PowerColor 5770 was loud enough to disturb my thinking when everything else is quiet! However I've tried it (the PowerColor Play! AX5770 1GBD5-PPG) for a few hours at 20% with Left 4 Dead and Call of Juarez and it peaked at 76C. Pretty good and while my result in unscientific the noise it generates now feels below what other components currently make (2 slipstreams 120mm @ 300-400RPMs, Arctic Cooling F9 PWM 92mm on Minja @ 450RPMs, Nexus 430W, WD 2TB Green, general airflow noise inside Antec SLK3700AMB with cut grills). I'll try to quiet down things individually next week.

I do however have noticeable coil whine on the menu screen of Call of Juarez. Sounds like ...a cicada with a head cold. Might come from PSU, I don't know yet. No coil whine under other circumstances so far.

trueg · Post by **trueg** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 11:37 am

No, it was fan noise. The noise stopped once the fan stopped.

Newegg should be getting my old card tomorrow. Hopefully they will offer me a different model since they no longer offer the one I purchased.

A friend of mine is building a HTPC and purchased an Accelero L2 Pro for his Low Power NVidia 9800 that he just purchased and is incredibly loud. I look forward to seeing how it performs.

If I end up getting a AX5770 1GBD5-PPG and if it is too loud for my HTPC, I will probably grab an L2 Pro as well.