Watercooling MSI R9 390 Gaming 8GB

new boy said:
you need some kind of mounting pressure to get worthwhile cooling from heatsinks right?
Click to expand...

Not strictly true.
I had great results using adhesive thermal paste on VRM heatsinks with a 7970 and using just adhesive thermal pads weren't bad.

ED; As seen here, though it was a big old heatsink and had good airflow.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, I was pretty chuffed with it at the time.
I only ended up going to water because I wanted something to do - not because I needed to or anything :D :o
 
Uncle Petey said:
Yeah, I was pretty chuffed with it at the time.
I only ended up going to water because I wanted something to do - not because I needed to or anything :D :o
Click to expand...

I'm going custom water right now purely because I got the upgrade itch, and whilst its a lot of money, at least 80% of it will cary over the future builds, so less of a waste than buying silicon tbh.
 
Thanks TonyTurbo .. your first solution was the one that I am looking at doing. My Brother bought me all of the components I need for Christmas, but I am not too sure where he got the information from. He got me:

1 x EK-VGA Supremacy water block
1 x Pack of 10 x Copper heat sinks
1 x Pack of 8 x VRAM heat sinks

As you can see in the picture.

20160109_135538_zpss77wlwdf.jpg


As far as I can see, and the same as you said, I would actually need 16 of the VRAM heat sinks to do this properly. Unless, as New Boy says, it's really not that much of deal to not cool the VRAM. It would only be temporary for a month or so until the full cover is released.

My biggest problem is that I am living in Madrid right now. It's cold-ish at the moment, but if the card is running at 90+ with cooler ambient temperatures, then it's going to go nuts in Summer! I am much more used to 60-65 degrees on the old 290, and if I can get anywhere near your 38 degrees, then that would be amazing!

I also see that Alphacool have a block for the MSI card here but it looks like that is still "In Production" and not available yet either. I'd much rather stick with EKWB anyway as that's what my whole system is made with.

Cheers!! Ori
 
Sorry, just to add one more point. The underside of the MSI R9 standard cooler looks like this:

MSI%20contacts_zpsyjhnamxk.png


So from this it doesn't look like the VRAM is actively cooled, in that it doesn't seem to have any thermal pads/paste which give it direct contact with the cooler itself?

Right now, with World of Warcraft running + web browser, the card is at 91 degrees, with VRAM #1 at 53 degrees, and VRAM #2 at 42 degrees! Can't hurt to try the custom option :P

Cheers
 
Last edited:
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 :D
 
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 :D
Click to expand...

Yes msi put too much on, there was a thread about this is the gpu section not long ago, changing paste brought there temps down.
 
Yah, you're right. Just took the standard fans off and there was quite a lot on there.

I've gone ahead and fitted the EK-Supremacy already though. Just attaching individual heatsinks to the VRAM right now (although as usual the thermal pads just seem to suck at actually sticking) .. so watch this space. Hopefully I can report back soon.

In the meantime, my 290 with the full EK block is back in, and it's running at about 50 degrees in-game, where the 390 was at 93!!

Cheers
 
TonyTurbo78 said:
Haha to funny, was quite a stressful build wasn't it.

To be honest, I'd love full covers for them, just not sure I can be bothered with the extra money and time to redo everything now I've got everything done, it took a lot of effort.
Click to expand...

Yes it was!

I don't know if I would go with fullcovers here too. Just because I simply love your loop :D
 
Oriaz said:
Yah, you're right. Just took the standard fans off and there was quite a lot on there.

I've gone ahead and fitted the EK-Supremacy already though. Just attaching individual heatsinks to the VRAM right now (although as usual the thermal pads just seem to suck at actually sticking) .. so watch this space. Hopefully I can report back soon.

In the meantime, my 290 with the full EK block is back in, and it's running at about 50 degrees in-game, where the 390 was at 93!!

Cheers
Click to expand...

If you want them to stick, use this stuff.
It's pretty decent.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £5.73
(includes shipping: £2.74)
​


​
 
Thanks Uncle Petey, I actually had some of that lying around which I used for some of the older heatsinks I had that didn't have their original thermal pads.

So ... TonyTurbo, do I take the ghetto crown from you, because this is what I ended up with!!

R9%20390%20dodgy%20install_zpsmzrkhjwg.jpg


As I mentioned, I only intended this to be a temporary solution until the full block is released. However, early signs are very positive. Where I was getting 90-93 degrees before after 10 mins of WoW playtime, I now got up to a maximum of 43 degrees so far ... so really happy with that. Sitting on the Windows desktop browsing the web is about 25-30 degrees as you can see here:

R9%20390%20WC%201_zpso4ykeihu.png


However, there is one big problem. The VRAM temps look okay in the image above (less than I had with the standard cooler). But after about 10 mins in-game the "VRM Temperature 1" starts to rocket. The image below was just under 10 mins of WoW running .. but I saw it go well over 100 before (then I shut the system down):

R9%20390%20WC%202_zpsy8t23z9w.png


Turns out I didn't need to shut the system down because as soon as I closed WoW, the VRM temp 1 dropped back down to about 39 degrees after a few mins.

Does anyone know which particular part of the PCB counts as "VRM Temperature 1"? If you look at my first image above, those 3 copper heatsinks on the far left actually fell off after I put the card back in the system, so I am guessing that's the problem? They are the only parts that had some sort of heat transfer material on them when I removed the standard cooler, which now have nothing.

As I said, it's totally fine in Windows etc, but the temps only go nuts when I start playing a game. "VRM Temperature 2" also remains fine at around 46 degrees.

Cheers!!
 
Start a game again, use a overlay to show your vrm's temps once reached 75c, hold a fan pointing air at the vrms, 1 at a time do the ones in the right side 1st to see which is which as temps will drop.

Then you could cable tie the fan under it.
 
On the right side of your picture, the VRMs are those little flat silver things to the right of where you've put the copper sinks. That's why your temps are mental :)

xURGjEk.jpg


ED: and VRM 2 is where you've put the the single copper heatsink on the upper left.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom