Watercooling MSI R9 390 Gaming 8GB

P4Clock · 14 Jan 2016 at 17:11

Oriaz said:
Look at the picture above . I already added a fan blowing directly onto the card and things have got better now (around 80/85 degrees now instead of 110+).

If anything, it makes it more worth the time and R&D costs as many more people can afford to own the R9 390 compared to things like the 980ti, Titan or even Nano. More people owning it = more potential customers to sell waterblocks to .

Cheers

yes i didnt see the photo with the fan, if you getting high temps with that set up i would think better sinks or a new way of mounting them. the thermal adhesive pads are not always the best for very hot parts you should try some thermal glue it has less resistance.

i understand what your saying about the water block but this is not always the case. they had plans to make 280x blocks for all card but in the end only made a few types.

If the can find an 8gb R9 290x water block it is known to fit some model 390x's

as for the budget card bit. in my eyes the 390 range budget.
ever time ppl as for a spec but say am on a low budget, they get pointed at the 390's because there £200 cards

Oriaz · 14 Jan 2016 at 17:50

I'm pretty satisfied with the temperatures now I think. It was only really WoW that was pushing them so high, but now they settle around the 80 degree mark with that. Everything else sits around 60. The GPU itself never really goes above 40, so no issues at all there.

I think it's the XFX 390 cards that will work with the 290 waterblocks right now. But it was on the first page of this thread that EK themselves (EK Luc) confirmed that the dedicated 390 block should be available around mid-Feb, so my McGyver setup should only be a temporary solution.

If you put the 390 up against the cost of something like a Titan, 980 or FuryX then I guess you could consider it a card for someone on a budget. But for me, if someone says a "budget" card, I would think of the R9 370, R9 380 and the GeForce 950 & 960 cards. The R9 390 and Nvidia 970 pricetags average around the £240-£260 range (some cheaper, some more) .. but that's probably a bit beyond "budget" range for a lot of people.

Cheers

TonyTurbo78 · 14 Jan 2016 at 19:48

P4Clock said:
as for the budget card bit. in my eyes the 390 range budget.
ever time ppl as for a spec but say am on a low budget, they get pointed at the 390's because there £200 cards

People get pointed to 390/390x because they are possibly the best bang for buck cards out there, not because they are budget. Insane performance at that price point and 8gb vram is futureproofed for higher resolutions as well, everything about those cards is win win.

Bossman · 16 Jan 2016 at 08:29

P4Clock said:
as for the budget card bit. in my eyes the 390 range budget.
ever time ppl as for a spec but say am on a low budget, they get pointed at the 390's because there £200 cards

I've got £200 waiting here if you can sell me a 390 for that price.

Teuton · 16 Jan 2016 at 11:08

The reason I went for a 970 over 390 is pretty much because only the XFX 390 had a full waterblock for it (290X block from EK) and I heard some pretty bad things about the coil whine on that card.

I have a freesync monitor now and would love to get a new AMD card but without a full block solution I don't see it happening soon.

Dave2150 · 17 Jan 2016 at 12:56

Teuton said:
The reason I went for a 970 over 390 is pretty much because only the XFX 390 had a full waterblock for it (290X block from EK) and I heard some pretty bad things about the coil whine on that card.

I have a freesync monitor now and would love to get a new AMD card but without a full block solution I don't see it happening soon.

Full blocks are coming soon for the MSI 390

Confirmed by EK in this thread.

Oriaz · 9 Feb 2016 at 12:42

Just wanted to check-in to see if there are any ETA updates on this from the EKWB (or anyone else's) side? Are we still expecting something mid-Feb (i.e. very soon

)?

I'm checking daily just in case!!

Cheers!

Orch · 9 Feb 2016 at 13:03

Oriaz said:
Just wanted to check-in to see if there are any ETA updates on this from the EKWB (or anyone else's) side? Are we still expecting something mid-Feb (i.e. very soon )?

I'm checking daily just in case!!

Cheers!

Not just me checking the EKEB configurator about 5 times a week then

EK Luc · 9 Feb 2016 at 13:07

The ETA is still correct. It should be available really soon!

Oriaz · 9 Feb 2016 at 14:13

Yay!! Exciting

The heatsinks I have on my VRAM keep falling off into the fan that I have suspended below them, and pinging across the inside of my case! The sooner I can get rid of those, the better

Thanks for the update!!

Dave2150 · 9 Feb 2016 at 18:07

Oriaz said:
This is 90-93 degrees with the stock cooler on .. you mean MSI applied to much thermal paste themselves?

I've just put the R9 290 back in, and the R9 390 is now sitting on my desk ready to be taken apart . Let's see how it goes

Yep, my MSI 390X had way too much paste.

I had 90+ DC out of the box, after I applied my own MX2 I now have 78-80DC maximum, for hours on end.

It's still too loud for my taste though, considering watercooling it once the full cover block is released, or waiting for a hopefully quieter Polaris card.

Uncle Petey · 9 Feb 2016 at 18:23

MSI love to dollop it on.
I remember stripping a 7970 ages ago and being shocked at how much of it had oozed out of the sides.
Didn't seem like very good stuff either tbh, as it was hard and crumbly.

Orch · 10 Feb 2016 at 10:56

Dave2150 said:
considering watercooling it once the full cover block is released, or waiting for a hopefully quieter Polaris card.

This is my conundrum as well. Have only just upgraded to the 390x, but wondering whether to plan my route as 1) going crossfire once the new range comes out and the exsiting prices drop, but that will require both going under water to keep the temps down, or 2) Keep this on air for a while then upgrade once the prices on the new range comes down.

Leaning towards option 1 at the moment, just because I'm keen to give a custom loop a try.

Squeeze · 11 Feb 2016 at 02:32

you guys do know you can get full cover blocks already for this card.

i have the sapphire nitro card and have a full block they do the msi one too.

there not ek but they do a great job.

Brizzles · 11 Feb 2016 at 03:28

From another forum :

2/10/16 at 7:49am
EK_tiborrr
Hardware Rep

The block is going out tomorrow, it's already assembled and in stock. MSRP is 122,95 EUR (incl. VAT) / 139,99 USD respectively.

pingu666 · 11 Feb 2016 at 03:49

another option ive thought about for my dads was replacing the fans with 25mm thick ones, geil do a gfx card plug to pwm adapter i think, not sure what size would fit and mounting etc, maybe the titan bracket would work?

Dave2150 · 11 Feb 2016 at 04:31

Orch said:
This is my conundrum as well. Have only just upgraded to the 390x, but wondering whether to plan my route as 1) going crossfire once the new range comes out and the exsiting prices drop, but that will require both going under water to keep the temps down, or 2) Keep this on air for a while then upgrade once the prices on the new range comes down.

Leaning towards option 1 at the moment, just because I'm keen to give a custom loop a try.

Personally I'd avoid 390X crossfire. Way too much heat and power use. A custom loop would tame them for sure, though with the full cover block costing £120+, we're talking £240 just for the blocks. Not worth it when a £400-500? Polaris card will destroy them and be quieter etc.

Plus not liking all the crossfire issues I'm reading about, I want to stay single GPU.

Orch · 11 Feb 2016 at 10:30

Squeeze said:
you guys do know you can get full cover blocks already for this card.

i have the sapphire nitro card and have a full block they do the msi one too.

there not ek but they do a great job.

Who does them?

Orch · 11 Feb 2016 at 10:31

Dave2150 said:
Personally I'd avoid 390X crossfire. Way too much heat and power use. A custom loop would tame them for sure, though with the full cover block costing £120+, we're talking £240 just for the blocks. Not worth it when a £400-500? Polaris card will destroy them and be quieter etc.

Plus not liking all the crossfire issues I'm reading about, I want to stay single GPU.

Hmm. You might be right tbh. If the next range is as much a jump in performance as everyone is hoping, it might be worth holding out.

Oriaz · 11 Feb 2016 at 12:06

Squeeze said:
you guys do know you can get full cover blocks already for this card.

i have the sapphire nitro card and have a full block they do the msi one too.

there not ek but they do a great job.

Who are the "they" you are talking about here? I haven't found any reference to anyone who's already made a full-cover block for the MSI R9 390, only EK and Alphacool who have them listed as "in production". Some R9 290 blocks will fit on certain R9 390 cards (XFX one for example), but there's nothing for the MSI.

2/10/16 at 7:49am
EK_tiborrr
Hardware Rep

The block is going out tomorrow, it's already assembled and in stock. MSRP is 122,95 EUR (incl. VAT) / 139,99 USD respectively.

This is exciting though! I'm checking like every hour to see if the site has updated ..... another heatsink fell off my McGyver setup last night

Cheers