Conumdrum said:
Try Thermalright, they make quality stuff.
They do indeed make great heatsinks, but their GPU heatsinks are kind of awkward compared to recent alternatives. Also the only GPU heatsink they've listed as compatible with the 5770 is the HR-03 Rev. A, which I would
not suggest the OP use as it will run louder and hotter than anything recent due to using a 92mm fan and having 4 heatpipes. The HR-03GT is bare minimum I'd suggest for Thermalright heatsinks on that particular card as it's a bit more powerful, but you'll lose ~2 slots on your board with it installed, and it's difficult to install with no experience.
To the OP:
The Accelero L2 is rated up to 100W so I'd go a bit bigger if possible personally.
This site's in German, but you can see in the images that the temperatures and dbA/noise level of the L2 is pretty close to the stock cooler, so it wouldn't be worth it in my opinion:
http://translate.google.com/transla...rctic_Cooling_Accelero_L2-Pro_auf_HD-5770.htm
The
AC Twin Turbo will fit on a 5770 but you'll have to modify the cooler a bit/remove the fan shroud:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=56355&highlight=
The AC Accelero Xtreme Plus is the best cooler for graphics cards that you can buy right now. They're extremely quiet and they're rated up to 250W, so it's no-contest (and this is from an otherwise all-Thermalright, all the time guy),
but I don't think they're listed as compatible with your card unfortunately.
The Scythe Setsugen-2 is listed as compatible with a reference 5770 so it should fit your card. It's kind of large, but it should work much better than the stock cooler:
http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...oduct_info&cPath=54_196_689&products_id=29867
Some of the Zalman heatsinks should fit, but I'm not sure about their compatibility (and I'd never recommend Zalman but that's just a personal preference). The Gelid "Icy Visions" heatsink might work, but it's got a weird mounting setup, bad Chingrish instructions, and the only people I've read recommending it have been obvious shills, so I'd steer clear. Also from checking reviews performance seems to be sub-par for the size of the cooler.
Accelero and Scythe both have great performance GPU heatsinks, so for your card I'd go with the Scythe cooler listed above as it comes with nearly everything you'll need (although I'd suggest getting Sekisui tape instead of the stock stuff [see comments below]).
The biggest issue to watch out for with an aftermarket GPU cooler is cooling the RAM & all VRM chips. This is critical. Basically anything that the stock cooler has thermal pads for
needs a heatsink or the card
will nuke itself.
You can use thermal adhesive for these heatsinks but you will void your warranty with them so keep that in mind. If you want to use thermal tape, I recommend ditching the stuff they send you as it's generally unreliable garbage 3M tape. Grab some
Sekisui thermal tape off of eBay and use an eraser & 91% rubbing alcohol to clean off the RAM/VRM chips before applying heatsinks. If you have ArcticClean that will work as well, but if not you'll need to use the pencil eraser to make sure the heatsinks will adhere to the chips properly. Additionally I like to use a hair dryer after application to heat up the chips and help the tape bond properly. Again, thermal tape is difficult to work with but if you use the correct stuff (Sekisui) with proper application steps for the RAM/VRM sinks you should be fine. Thermal adhesive is much easier, but if you screw up you cannot remove it, and your warranty is gone forever even if it works properly (not sure if XFX offers lifetime warranty on that card but it's something to consider).
If your card has a backplate you can reattach it with zipties to prevent the PCB from sagging without the stock cooler installed.
Edit: This post got alot bigger than I'd initially planned.
