Watercooling R9 290x Crossfire

wabak · 27 Dec 2015 at 14:09

If it's unsuccessful in what I'm trying to achieve then I'll definitely be returning what I can for a refund and or selling second hand.

I also picked up the NZXT H440 today as a lot of these setups seem to be running with that case, and it does look incredible. I know it's not the best for airflow but I think it'll be a better fit than the 300r for this set up, although I could be completely wrong haha.

I guess I was just itching to upgrade something, it's been a while!

Threepwood · 27 Dec 2015 at 14:36

Well, do listen to sneakysnail about those VRMs. You can't leave them naked, esp as it is those temps you were worried about.

Air flow is crap in that case, esp with dual gpus, so do keep an eye on the VRM temps... it will be nice to see the results and compare to your original data set.

wabak · 27 Dec 2015 at 15:10

Threepwood said:
Well, do listen to sneakysnail about those VRMs. You can't leave them naked, esp as it is those temps you were worried about.

Air flow is crap in that case, esp with dual gpus, so do keep an eye on the VRM temps... it will be nice to see the results and compare to your original data set.

Looking into the VRMs now.

Everywhere seems to recommend http://www.gelidsolutions.com/products/index.php?lid=1&cid=13&id=108 - but I can't find them in stock in the UK at all.

Any other alternatives?

Threepwood · 28 Dec 2015 at 12:43

You could hack up the old coolers and use the VRM heatsinks from them.

pete910 · 28 Dec 2015 at 13:02

Do the full block on the 290's as it does the vrms too would be me my advice. If your going to WC it do it right once.

Overlag · 28 Dec 2015 at 13:28

pete910 said:
Do the full block on the 290's as it does the vrms too would be me my advice. If your going to WC it do it right once.

too late

wabak · 28 Dec 2015 at 13:53

Overlag said:
too late

It may still be successful! Maybe not as much as a custom loop, but I've still got hope haha.

Threepwood said:
You could hack up the old coolers and use the VRM heatsinks from them.

This would remove any possible resale value of the R9 290s, so I'd like to avoid this.

Will see how the VRMs go with the G10 fan, and if they are still too hot (which I imagine they will be), I'll order the kit from online I think, get it shipped from america.

wabak · 31 Dec 2015 at 21:08

Well, that install was pretty fun.

Moving everything over to the H440 was pretty straight forward. The radiators and G10s were different, but this was mostly me being retarded.

Initial testing was poor, very high GPU temps, after investigating I noticed I had the radiators mounted outwards, with the fans in-wards... switched these, no change. Turns out I didn't tighten the X41 enough to the GPU as I was worried about the dye cracking... once tightened, what a difference. I did go back and un-tighten the MSI r9 290 a little, as it had a crazy bend on it.

I also had the radiator fans plugged into the H440 fan hub, which meant they were at 100%, so extremely loud... just connected these to the X41 cable provided and they are very quiet now, almost silent, I can't control the fan RPM for some reason, but I have both pumps running at 100% regardless.

After a Heaven Benchmark run at 4k all Ultra in Crossfire, with a small overclock on the R9 290 to bring it up the the 290x speeds.

GPU temps didn't exceed 60c under full load, where as before these would be up around 90 - 95 with 100% fan speed, sounding like a jumbo jet.

VRM temps on both cards didn't exceed 83c! Which is still fairly hot, but some way off the 114c I've registered before, and this is on default fan speed.

So far, extremely happy. Will most likely attach VRM heatsinks once they come in stock over here, for even better results.

I guess the only real issue is the in ability to control the X41 radiator fans... CAM software is picking up both Krakens, but showing 0 rpm although they are spinning... any issue what could be causing this? I have connected one Kraken to a molex 3pin adapter and the other to a sys fan header, would I need to connect the radiator fans to a sys fan header slot?

Thanks for all the help so far.

new boy · 31 Dec 2015 at 21:37

Glad it worked out!

Plug the fans from the radiators onto the card headers on the fans, use afterburner or whatever to control fans

EDIT - Just thought about it some more and realised its more complicated than that cos u got the kraken fans too lol.

How does it work it work exactly? What is plugged into what currently?

BluD · 31 Dec 2015 at 21:57

Looks good dude, i was worried ya was gonna be wasting loads of money water cooling old cards if it didnt work too well. Sounds like youve got room for some more overclocking now

pete910 · 1 Jan 2016 at 15:47

Pics! or it didn't happen

P4Clock · 1 Jan 2016 at 16:09

the temps you have got are very good for bench testing. Play some games and see what temps you get.

pete910 said:
Pics! or it didn't happen

+1

wabak · 2 Jan 2016 at 02:43

Hey all,

The issue was I was running both pumps off 5v, instead of 12v. When I switched to 12v, I am now able to control the fans and the pump using CAM.

3 hours of GTA V at 4k - VRMs didn't exceed 85c, and GPU temp didn't exceed 63c, this was on the top card, bottom one was around 10c cooler on average. It's very quiet too.

Really happy with this so far.

Didn't take many pics, but heres some:

http://imgur.com/a/g6O0v

No real pictures of the completed build (inside wise), as I've just been testing thus far and my cable management is pretty horrendous, but not completely bothered about that. Will try get some better pictures up in the future.