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Factory watercooled cards - EVGA Hydro Copper

ChrisD.

ChrisD.

ChrisD.

Man of Honour
Joined
20 Sep 2006
Posts
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Would a card such as this EVGA Hydro Copper retain its value come sale time, compared to say buying a normal clocked 980, a waterblock and then doing all the work yourself?

Seems I could get a normal 980 and block for a little over £500, so the extra £120-130 or so seems quite a premium. However what it does do is make it a relatively easy time to plug and play, and I don't have to worry about the original screws, pads and cooler.

Any other advantages versus the DIY way? Is the silicone likely to be of better quality? Because I notice the clock speeds are the same as the Classy.
 
All that really helps with is Warranty as far as I can tell (and EVGA actively support adding a water block DIY styleeeee) and the obvious lazy us. I would always go my own route and save the cash but nothing wrong with buying the HC if you don't fancy messing about with a block again.
 
As far as I know, EVGA don't have a problem with the stock cooler being removed. Doesn't affect the warranty like some other card manufacturers. Like Gregster said, I think it's mainly done for looks, and less hassle.
 
Well I've ordered it anyway. I'd write a load of excuses to try and justify why, but it's all going to be man maths.

I'll punt the 290X's and see what the next gen AMD cards are like, and order another 980 or a new AMD card when that times comes.
 
The good thing is, EVGA binned Swiftech and went with EK, so at least it is a decent block now :D Surprised you did that, having already got a 290X but hey, if you have the cash, why not? :D
 
Gregster said:
The good thing is, EVGA binned Swiftech and went with EK, so at least it is a decent block now :D Surprised you did that, having already got a 290X but hey, if you have the cash, why not? :D
Click to expand...

Okay, here's why. Don't take this as an anti AMD post, as it's not. I like my 290X's, they are quick as a lot of the benchmarks on this forum suggest. Now there's always a but isn't there? :D

  • SWTOR, the main game I play has terrible performance, with or without Crossfire enabled. It seems this is an AMD issue.
Now, I appreciate that SWTOR isn't the most demanding of games, so here's some others that I play and the issues I've had:

  • BF4 with DX plays fine, but struggles in busy scenes. With Mantle I get sub 10fps at random times.
  • I have to lower the settings in Titanfall at 3440x1440 otherwise the performance is dire
  • Shadows of Mordor randomly crashes to desktop - post rebuild hasn't fixed it.
I am not for 1 second blaming AMD, but I want to personally eliminate AMD as a culprit. I've had my 290X's for a year which for me is a long time, and I fancied trying a 980 to see if some or all of the above issues go away. If they do, I'll order a second card.

As to why I got the Hydro Copper one? Well, I'm single, I have money to burn and I'm an idiot. But being serious for a moment, the thought or taking apart another GPU to fit my own block is not what I want to do, I want a sort of plug and play swap, and I'm happy to pay a premium for that and in return I should get a premium product.

TL;DR having games issues, want to try Nvidia again, I have too much money.
 
Fair and no reason not to if you have too much money now :D

Both have pluses and minuses as you well know but nothing worse than our favourites having issues and when we have some free time for gaming, we like to game and not try and fix the damned game :D
 
Hydro coppers are worth the investment imo, especially as (Greg mentioned) they've dropped swiftech in favour of ek.
 
I wish more companies would release cards with blocks fitted at factory - at better prices of course :)

50 quid over the price of third party coolers would work for me :)
 
eyetrip said:
I wish more companies would release cards with blocks fitted at factory - at better prices of course :)

50 quid over the price of third party coolers would work for me :)
Click to expand...

At least the hydro copper blocks are somewhat custom, not sure if they still do them, but powercolor had some pre-fitted WC cards, standard EK block and charging something like £80 more then OcUK do for their tech labs cards :p
 
Sat here impatiently waiting for my neighbour to get home who signed for my card.

Rig is in pieces, loop drained enough. Just need the card...
 
Is it coming today?
Is not that hard to fit waterblock on the card yourself,and the feling afterwards(priceless)
Nice to see temps drop on the gpu(stock cooler vs waterblock).
 
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