Reduce your 5770 temps by 5 deg idle, & 10 deg load with stock cooler

[Mungri]

You will need:


- A decent precision screwdriver
- A reference ATI 5770
- A *THIN* layer of good quality thermal paste (MX-3 would be best)
- A pack of 8 VERY THIN low profile ramsinks, These Akasa ones (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d.html?a=B0012V4VME) will be the right size.
- TIM cleaner


I didnt take pictures of removing the cooler or applying the thermal paste, as this is easy to do.


The first step is to remove the ATI 5770 stock cooler and clean off the excessively thick layer of stock thermal crap :p


Secondly, you need to unscrew the GPU cooling block, and modify it with your 8 thin ramsinks exactly as shown in the pictures below (The ramsinks go on the top side furthest away from the fan):


The first 6 ramsinks:


http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/4503/p1857021109.jpg

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/851/p1858021109.jpg

http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/9356/p1906021109.jpg


And the last two fit on the outermost edge:


http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/5933/p1942021109.jpg


The ramsinks need to go on like this as further towards the fan side of the GPU block, there is a ridge along the bottom of the block so they wont fit any further down.


Finally, you need your good quality thermal paste like MX-3, and apply a very thin layer to the GPU and reapply the heatsink. I actually used leftover Asus thermal paste from my CPU cooler which I think looks like MX2, but MX3 will be a lot better.


Results:

Before the mod:

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/9553/5770stock75.png


And after:

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/4239/5770stock75modified.png

:up:


P.S. My idle / load temps were reduced by 4 / 9 degrees, but using MX-3 should get you better results.

[SonDa5]

Sweet simple mod.

I wonder if the thermal grease alone helped lower the temps as well. Looks like the ram sinks may imped air flow on that side of the stock heat sink fins.

[Theorw]

WOW MAN!!!Excellent work!!!Will try it in my card too!
Can i add my cooling additions to this card too???I did some cooling with the stock cooler on too!!!
It will make your work more complete!!SO???

[Theorw]

Sweet simple mod.

I wonder if the thermal grease alone helped lower the temps as well. Looks like the ram sinks may imped air flow on that side of the stock heat sink fins.

Nah i dont think they will restrict airflow cos the air they use is almost useless cos it only cools the exterior of the out fin ALONE and then gets exhausted out of the card so this way it will be of some more use!!!:up:

[SonDa5]

Nah i dont think they will restrict airflow cos the air they use is almost useless cos it only cools the exterior of the out fin ALONE and then gets exhausted out of the card so this way it will be of some more use!!!:up:


I hear ya. So by pinching the sides shut it is forcing all of the air to take the path right where most of the stock heat sink fins are located.

Very nice. I wonder if the fan will make more noise?

[Mungri]

There really isnt much space inside the shroud for anything else, unless you cut away the annoying plastic ridges inside it. The GPU block is also annoyingly small, they could have made it a little better.

I had a nightmare trying to improve the cooling with these cards. First I thought I would use my previous thermaltake S orbs as they are compatible with the pin layout, and even ordered some VRM heatsinks, only to find out that the S orb was too wide to fit on this card and was obstructed by the IO panel.

Next, I desperately ordered a pair of Arctic L2 Pros, then realised after they dispatched that they were too high to use in Crossfire mode :(

So now I have two packs of VRM heatsinks, and two L2 pro coolers to return, and I just sat there fumbling around with the removed stock cooler, thinking what I could possibly do to reduce the temps ... So I stuck some ramsinks onto the GPU block :)

The thermal paste will be doing most of the work here, but I have never seen temps reduced this much before from just a thermal past change, so the ram sinks seem to be helping. They are placed right below the top vent of the cards exhaust, so air is blowing through the fins on the ramsinks all the time, which may be improving their performance a little.

[tbone8ty]

what about cutting out the back I/O panel more?

[Mungri]

A second run after my graphics cards had been left to heat up some more, 76 degrees this time:


http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/3506/5770stock75modified2.png


Basically, you can see that the GPU is running a lot cooler, and took a very long time to increase from 57 to 76 degrees, whereas before it went up from 50 to 81 degres in no time.

Obviously this is because of the thermal paste change, gooooo Asus CPU paste :up:


what about cutting out the back I/O panel more?

Its the top DVI connector that is the obstruction, I dont want to be cutting that out :p

[Theorw]

Well as i think of it,teh mreo i think that it is the paste that does most of the job and not the sinks...That because the are in contact only with ONE FIN and what amount of heat would a FIN ALONE transfer???So they wont be helpinh that much but the TIM did most of the job!
U shoulda first put the sinks on and measure then put the TIM and compare;)

[Michowski]

Should of used tx-3. That stuff is amazing. I dropped my load temps by almost 10 degree's and idle is about a degree or 2.

[Theorw]

I did this for the vrms.It wight add to the stability of the card @ load but no way to measure any temps...The sinks all fit under the stock cooler!!!http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/7576/dsc01874qu.jpg (http://img21.imageshack.us/i/dsc01874qu.jpg/) http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/dsc01874qu.jpg/1/w1920.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img21/dsc01874qu.jpg/1/)
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/6741/dsc01875sc.jpg (http://img4.imageshack.us/i/dsc01875sc.jpg/) http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/dsc01875sc.jpg/1/w1920.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img4/dsc01875sc.jpg/1/)
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/4382/dsc01877o.jpg (http://img62.imageshack.us/i/dsc01877o.jpg/) http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/dsc01877o.jpg/1/w1920.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img62/dsc01877o.jpg/1/)

[Mungri]

Yea, i'll try sinking up the VRMs like that.

Correct about the ramsinks only connecting to one fin, I noticed that but thought it might do something. i'll try sinking everything up next time I have a tinker.

[Theorw]

Definitely sink up the MEM chips too!!!

[pvhk]

i put some thermalright heatsinks (i had in stock) on the vrm & zalman heatsinks on the memory modules too...:)

[Mungri]

I have 16 aluminium ramsinks and 20 copper ones, but need to give away two sets of 8 if my S orbs sell.

I have lots of stuff to post, 2 4870s, the cooling RMAs, and the S orbs once I find a buyer.

I just want to get these darn cards silent.

I didnt bother with ramsinks on the rear chips because the memory overclocks fine, but I find it wierd how the front chips have such extravagant cooling when the back ones dont need it.

[Theorw]

I have 16 aluminium ramsinks and 20 copper ones, but need to give away two sets of 8 if my S orbs sell.

I have lots of stuff to post, 2 4870s, the cooling RMAs, and the S orbs once I find a buyer.

I just want to get these darn cards silent.

I didnt bother with ramsinks on the rear chips because the memory overclocks fine, but I find it wierd how the front chips have such extravagant cooling when the back ones dont need it.

Of course they need cooling!Its just that ATI considers good airflow a standar nowdays so they didnt bother to cool those ram chips too cos theyd be cooled by the airflow.But in OC u MUST put a sink on them!!!

[b3ta]

Theorw,

What brand are the tiny heatsinks you used for the VRMs? They look like ones I got with my old Accelero S1 & S2 but I don't have any spare right now :(

[ryan92084]

i wonder how much of the temperature drop is from the added sinks and how much is from forcing more air through the fins of the main gpu sink (by blocking that space).

[Mungri]

I wouldnt think it is tht much, but even if it only sheds 1 or 2 degrees, that is still something.

With the Vapor X chamber, heat is equally distributed to all of the fins, so even sticking the heatsinks onto just one fin would allow it to draw out a little extra heat.

I were going to mod my second one, but I've gone and misplaced my Akasa thermal tape so will wait untill I find it so I can sink up those VRM modules :)

I need to buy more ramsinks too since I'm trying to sell a whole lot, so I'll wait untill my Sorbs sell then buy some fresh ransinks (Going to stick my copper sinks in with the Sorbs and keep the thinner aluminium ones).

The only annoying thing with the stock cooler is how stupidly tiny that GPU block is. Seriously there was enough space for one at least 33% larger :(.

My Arctic L2's arrived today, and I just held one over the cards to double check that it definately wont fit, then packed it back up and requested an RMA :(

Also, the copper base of the GPU block is horribly unpolished and uneven, its the tackiest thing i've ever seen lol.

[Theorw]

Theorw,

What brand are the tiny heatsinks you used for the VRMs? They look like ones I got with my old Accelero S1 & S2 but I don't have any spare right now :(

They are from my MUSASHI!!!;)

[Theorw]

I wouldnt think it is tht much, but even if it only sheds 1 or 2 degrees, that is still something.

With the Vapor X chamber, heat is equally distributed to all of the fins, so even sticking the heatsinks onto just one fin would allow it to draw out a little extra heat.

I were going to mod my second one, but I've gone and misplaced my Akasa thermal tape so will wait untill I find it so I can sink up those VRM modules :)

I need to buy more ramsinks too since I'm trying to sell a whole lot, so I'll wait untill my Sorbs sell then buy some fresh ransinks (Going to stick my copper sinks in with the Sorbs and keep the thinner aluminium ones).

The only annoying thing with the stock cooler is how stupidly tiny that GPU block is. Seriously there was enough space for one at least 33% larger :(.

My Arctic L2's arrived today, and I just held one over the cards to double check that it definately wont fit, then packed it back up and requested an RMA :(

Also, the copper base of the GPU block is horribly unpolished and uneven, its the tackiest thing i've ever seen lol.

Does it really have VAPOR CHAMBER???
I wondering about it too cos i thought of this too while i took it apart the other day!!!

[Mungri]

Does it really have VAPOR CHAMBER???
I wondering about it too cos i thought of this too while i took it apart the other day!!!

Yup.

The base of the 5770 reference cooler is a 'flattened heatsink' will cooling fluid inside to distribute the heat to all the fins. Otherwise it would be heating up like crazy lol.

today during gaming, I noticed that the modified card in my first slot was only 2 or 3 degrees higher then the one in the second slot, usually it creeps up to around 10 degrees higher, so it is working good :).

[Mungri]

Ok, so this is the second card with just Asus thermal paste and no ramsinks on its second test after after already heating it up:

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/7820/5770stock75modified3.png

On the first run from boot it went up to 74 degrees, the second test went up to 78, so the ramsinks are making a difference, but I removed them off the first card for now.

On the second card I couldnt fit the GPU block back into the shroud with the heatsinks on exactly as I did them on the first, so I took them all off and will just leave them like this now.

I just found myself a pairof Zerotherm GX820 Overclocker editions at £25 each, plus two packs of green Zerotherm heatsinks :).

Cost me quite a bit, but I can sell of all my copper ones that I currently have to get some of it back.

[Mungri]

Bah! The zerotherms werent in stock and the order got auto cancelled.

But I also found the Zalman VF950 that should fit :).

[Splave]

cool what was ambient pre and post mod?

[Mungri]

My Zalmans finally arrived :)

http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/7180/p1520021109.jpg

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/1958/p151001151109.jpg

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/7159/p152401151109.jpg

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/3613/p1525151109.jpg

http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/4015/p152501151109.jpg

They are currently plugged directly into the motherboard, so are running in quiet mode (1400 RPM). The temperatures at 1000 Mhz and 100% load were acceptable, but higher then before (91 degrees as opposed to 88 with the stock fan on 75%), but they are completely silent.

I tried using Zalman paste, I will install the fan speed controllers later to be able to use them up to 2500 RPM, and swap the paste to the Asus stuff after which I'm sure they will be a lot better and equal to the stock fan at 100%.

[Theorw]

Excellent!!!I am really jealous of your coolers!!!
How do u manage to game @90???
Mine hangs @85+....
Do the VRM sinks get any hot???

[Mungri]

They are actually better than the 4870s were, they would head up to 110 degrees with the oem version of this cooler, and with the thermaltakes.

I'll install the fan controllers tomorrow for the 2500 RPM increase.

I havnt been able to measure the VRM temps yet as GPU-Z doesnt detect them for me, but I have those tube shaped copper heatsinks which are meant to be the best in terms of surface area, and a fan next to them so Im sure they will be fine.

[Mungri]

I just discovered I hadnt placed enough thermal paste onto my Zalman coolers. This is the result with extra paste applied:

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/6678/5770zalman1000.png

This was after my PC had been on all day and my room was rather warm, so thats a good result :up:

[Kenjiwing]

Can you do anything like this for the 5870?

[Mungri]

If I had one I could :p.

For the 5870, the VF1000 is the recommended aftermarket cooler.

But the 5870 stock cooler is a really good 4 heatpipe one, even when overclocked, the temps dont go as high as the 5770 does, at least from what I have seen so far from others.

[Riska]

I have a quistion the the first cooler mod how do you get the ramsinks to fit inside the plastic cover because my cooler fits the cover with 1-2mm clearence on bottom side and it touches all the way the top side??

[Mungri]

I have a quistion the the first cooler mod how do you get the ramsinks to fit inside the plastic cover because my cooler fits the cover with 1-2mm clearence on bottom side and it touches all the way the top side??

The plastic shroud might be shaped differently, I had a lot of clearance on the top side of the shroud.

[tbone8ty]

I did this for the vrms.It wight add to the stability of the card @ load but no way to measure any temps...The sinks all fit under the stock cooler!!!http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/7576/dsc01874qu.jpg (http://img21.imageshack.us/i/dsc01874qu.jpg/)

how high are those ram sinks?

i was looking at these enzotech copper ram-sinks...says there 9mm.

would those fit under the cooling shroud?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835708009