I've found a review for the XFX Radeon HD 5770 1GB Single Slot Review.

It has a non standard PCB layout, with the GPU placed closer to the front, which I believe could make it a good contender for Arctic Cooling S1.

Please note that I don't know this for sure, you have to find out if it really works for yourself. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if there are other cards with this design, either XFX or some other brand.

Oh, I missed the obvious..
The DVI connector is probably not in the way for a S1 since it's a single slot card!

Actually, the GPU is placed so that an S1 or Musashi or other long coolers will overhang the card and may possibly interfere with whatever is in front of the case (most probably HDD cage).
The GPU seems to be placed just like in Asus CuCore cards, or like in Galaxy custom PCB models.

Hi,

If you're not afraid to mod it, you can cut the alu fins near the caloduct (with an heavy scissors)

Sub, you got it all the other way around

We're talking about a card that actually does NOT require this kind of modding. The XFX single slot 5770 has its GPU with lots of room to spare between it and the I/O bracket. Perhaps the OP should have said "back" instead of "front" when referring to this particular design, but it's all a matter of perspective.

Anyhoo, I also did this kind of mod when I had S1 on 4770. Fitted like a glove Fortunately, Setsugen did not need that. (trade Setsugen with my bro so that he could use it on his card, instead of the for-him-incompatible Setsugen). I left out some fins tho.

Hmm, I don't see how the back of the card could be the part that points toward the front of the case, makes no sense to me.

The back of a card is the end where you'll find the connectors.

So did anyone try to mod a 5770 (this one or another) ? The only problem is that everyone seems to be selling this as a "dual package". I don't want crossfire.

You can already do this with at least two non-reference HD5770's on the market:

MSI Hawk: SPCR forum thread
Asus CuCore: My Rig

The MSI needs some modification to the Accelero - what about the ASUS?

Asus's GPU is located a little to the PCI-E end of the card (towards front of the case), so no mods will be needed. Just make sure that the overhanging Accelero will not interfere with the HDD cage or whatever you happen to have in there.

I don't see much point in doing a 5770 mod with the MSI Hawk being so quiet and the 5750 fanless cards if you don't want a fan.

Those two mods are relevant to pretty much all video cards that the S1 can be installed on.

That plastic shroud that's right against the PCI-e slot usually needs to be removed anyway, since it tends to bump up against motherboard components. And I've never used those plastic risers. Just take due care when installing the heatsink not to overtighten it.

I have a spare Accelero S1 rev 2. I see the MSI has two fans (not sure on the size - 70mm??).

I could stick a Accelero S1 + 120mm fan and use my existing fan controller. Must be quieter.. surely?

ASUS or MSI is the question

Edit: The ASUS has a VGA port so presumably you can't tripple monitor for this (I want 2 x Monitors connected and 1 x HDMI connected for TV)

Just get the better value one

Getting the more expensive Hawk with its fancy cooler and replacing it with AC S1 is probably not the best option out there.

Bot the same price more or less!!! Can you not tripple monitor with the ASUS (due to the VGA port)?

Any idea what the power consumption (idle/load) is against my 3870 XT?

Unless someone can recommend a silent 5830??

Just how quiet is quiet?

Did you have to mod the S1 in anyway like the MSI? silentplummet had to shave the four plastic standoffs on his MSI S1 install.

Yes, like I mentioned in my post above.

1) Remove the plastic shroud closest to the motherboard to allow clearance for motherboard components
2) Avoid using the plastic standoffs altogether. Same issue when using the Accelero S1 on any video card. Just be careful when installing it.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/ ... WK/29.html says it is ,drumroll,

~24 or 25 dBA in a non SPCR environment (likely would measure quieter if MikeC were to put it in his chamber)

For example the 5850 at SPCR http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1014-page5.html tested at 18dBA here at SPCR but 29dBA at techpowerup.

So if you had the MSI hawk in the chamber at SPCR it would likely test under 20dBA and that is very very quiet for a gaming video card.

To add to the fun the stock fans DON'T speed up under load so it stays that quiet even while gaming.

I read in a review the HAWK has very high idle wattage (as the mem clock doesn't reduce at idle). Was this ever fixed in a BIOS/driver?

Very recently I've found that some SPCR forumers have proved such assumption wrong.

Regards,
Luca

That may be a problem with open bench testing or sample variance but



I get the impression from that phrasing that the card uses PWM on the stock fans.


look at your reference again



As in frostedflakes bought the MSI Hawk 5770 then modified it. He isn't using the same setup as reviewed or provided stock with the card. And the fan he is using is not PWM.

That's kind of confusing if the fan on the video card is fixed at 7v how is it ramping up?



Apparently if you don't mod anything the fans don't ramp up as aggressively. If you go in with RBE, MSI Afterburner, or physically swap fans you may see different behavior.

About the fans, I guess there's a misunderstanding: as far as I know, those quoted YLs should be the Lian-Li front and rear case fans, and not the MSI ones (furthermore I mean that the YLs won't fit on the card).

About the BIOS, I can't say anything further: I've understood that he undervolted the GPU, but I don't know how just a "simple" undervolting by the Afterburner utility may affect the cooler behaviour.

However, as my post is now definitely off topic, I end it now.

Regards,
Luca

Absolutely dead quiet.

I've just finished assembling a whole system, as follows:

• Silverstone Fortress FT02B case -- this AMAZING case has 3 x 18" fans at the bottom (sucking air in), and one 12" fan at the top (pushing air out). It is a positive pressure case, meaning more air gets sucked in than gets pushed out, so you get very little dust in the case as the only air going in is passing through the filters in front of the 18" fans. The 18" fans at their low setting are very very quiet. On high, you can just hear them but it is not an unpleasant sound at all. I have mine on low. The 12" fan at the top is the "loudest" component of my entire system and it is perfectly fine; virtually inaudible, although if I lived in a very quiet house in the countryside I might be tempted to replace it with a known silent fan.
• Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4 motherboard
• Core i7 875K
• Gelid Tranquillo CPU cooler (oh so nice, so unbelievably quiet, and does such a good job of keeping the processor cool)
• Crucial 1333 4 x 2 GB
• Seasonic X-650 hybrid power supply (I have yet to see the power supply fan running, even while running benchmarks). Again, another absolutely lovely piece of kit. The packaging is top notch, and the power supply itself is of almost unbelievable quality construction. I felt privileged just to be holding it when I unboxed it, which is pretty ridiculous for a power supply, but that's how good it felt.
• MSI 5770 Hawk. Yet another fabulous piece of equipment. Super high quality construction, and the twin fans are oh so silent! When the PC powers on, the fans spin up to their maximum revs for less than a second (just a quick burst, sort of a calibration thing), and then settle down to absolute silence. And it doesn't ramp up under stress either (I ran Furmark for 10 minutes just to test -- max temp was 68 C).
• Crucial 128GB C300 SSD. For whoever is doubting whether to get one of these or not: GET IT. The reason I caved was because when I originally bought the parts, I didn't buy a hard drive as I had an 80GB SATA floating around, and that was all I needed (all my storage is on a network server). But I was very disappointed at how slow the computer booted and felt in general. Once the SSD went in, oh my, this computer just flies, almost hard to believe sometimes. Word and Excel 2010 start INSTANTLY, I'm not exaggerating.

The loudest part of the PC is the power supply relay when I turn the computer on: it makes a not very loud click. If it weren't for that (and the blue power LED) you'd think something was wrong as there just isn't any aural feedback that the computer is now on.

So for anyone out there thinking of putting together their own rig, I can promise you won't be disappointed if you use the above components.


--John

OT
Please John, don't take offense, but also don't bet on it: quietness is a subjective standpoint.

/OT

Regards,
Luca

Hahaha don't I know it! I spent an entire week just researching the video card. It is amazing how inconsistent sites are when reviewing noise levels. What convinced me to get the 5770 Hawk was HT4U dot net (it's all in German, but I used Google Translate) who have an absolute glowing review, and basically it is the quietest card they've ever reviewed (apart from passive cards, obviously). Their attention to detail and the consistency of their reviews convinced me they were serious about quiet peripherals.

Actually I was thinking of the SS FT-02: I know very well its brother, the Raven RV-02 (which is even somewhat quieter).

So, if you say that: «The 12" fan at the top is the "loudest" component of my entire system and it is perfectly fine; virtually inaudible» - now I'm certain that my level of desired noise is much lower than your (obviously it doesn't mean at all that your system is somewhat noisy, on the contrary, it seems a very well balanced config).

Regards,
Luca

I'd say it's closer than you think. I live in an apartment in a noisy neighbourhood, so there is rarely absolute quiet. But if I did live somewhere quieter, I would probably replace that fan.

I thought the Raven had the same fan configuration as the Fortress FT02?

I completely understand your point about relativity, as this has been very frustrating when researching my parts list: how do I know for sure whether something is really quiet or not? As it turns out I'm extremely happy with what I got. =)

A general comment, and please I don't mean this personally, is that there are vanishingly diminished returns, and the whole reason I made my original post explaining what components I'd purchased, was in the hope that others would read it and believe me and buy the same or similar parts. It's obviously impossible for someone to trust my recommendations blindly, as they don't know me or my reputation, but I hope that people will see I've bought best of breed components, and add my experiences to their list of pros and cons when researching their own parts.

In fact, I'd like to say a huge thank you to SPCR for all this, because it has been a wonderful resource all these years, and every time I build a PC (not very often) I always do tonnes of research here. So thanks!!!

OT
Your Fortress


My Raven


/OT

Regards,
Luca