Quiet 5770 cooling in Antec Fusion Remote Case

[windblazer3]

I'm looking at building a new HTPC in the Antec Fusion Remote Case, as I discussed in detail on the PSU forums, looking for the right PSU for this build. You can look at my proposed build over there (sorry for the lack of a link, but I'm new to these forums).

And I'd really like to use a HD 5770 card, as I believe it will provide me with the amount of power I'd like while not going completely overboard in terms of price, TDP, noise, heat, electricity use, etc. I've seen similar questions on the forums revolving around passively cooled options, and while I think I can fit the GIGABYTE passively cooled card in my case, I'd rather not mess with the Power Cooler 5750 option, or wait for the Sapphire HD 5670 Ultimate card (as we don't really even know when that card will hit the streets).

As such, I've been looking carefully at three distinct cooling options for my GPU.

1) The Sapphire Vapor-X HD 5770. From what I've read, I could manually set the fan speed to ~20-25% of maximum fan speed when I'm doing normal HTPC stuff, and bump it up to the auto-scaling PWM business, which has a minimum of 40% of maximum fan speed when I want to game, etc.

2) Use an Artic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev 2 aftermarket cooler

3) Use an Artic Cooling Accelero L2 Pro aftermarket cooler

4) Use a Zalman VF950-LED aftermarket cooler

5) Other?

I want to keep my graphics card at stable, reasonably low, temperatures. I'm not really planning to overclock, at least in the immediate future, and I'd like to keep the noise under ~20 dB when idling (In other words, noise is a concern).

Thanks for any advice, and thanks to SPCR for all the great reviews/information!!!

[kater]

S1 would be great, but I'm not sure you can fit it inside Fusion. I've seen ppl bending it w/o damaging the pipes, tho. Just don't cut'em and you'll be fine

L2 might prove just the same as a stock cooler as it is a stock cooler on many today's cards.

To be on the safe side I'd go with the Vapor, making sure in advance how much you can tweak its fan. Radeon's are easy to play with with bios editors so that's a nice option.

Also, see this forum for info on 5770 - plenty of topics on it, fitting coolers etc.

[Parappaman]

#1 will be cheaper and compatible with your case's space, all while being extremely quiet.

[faugusztin]

1) good idea, maybe you could go the safe route and order it together with L2 Pro - if it will be noisy then you will replace the cooler on spot
2) not going to fit in Fusion, i'm not sure even if it fits in Fusion Max !
3) L2 is a ok solution for this card - see http://www.hardwareoverclock.com/Arctic ... D-5770.htm
4,5) no experiences.

[Steep]

I built an HTPC several years ago with a passive graphics card (so I have some experience with passive cards), and I recently built a new system with a 5700 series vapor-x card.

I used the Catalyst control drivers to set the fan speed to 20%. In this new system, my 2.5 inch hard drive (top recommended drive for silence by this website) makes more noise than the fan on the GPU. I don't know why anyone would bother with dealing with an aftermarket GPU heatsink (cost + hassle) for a new card when you can get one, stock, that is so very quiet.

[Kaleid]

AC S1 rev B doesn't seem to work with most 5770's.

I use Thermalright HR 03 rev A and it works well enough with a 120mm 500rpm fan. Full load temp is 65C.