Hey guys, So I have decided to change the cooler on my R9 290 next week. I have been looking around and the Accelero exteme IV seems the best one for air but the price is a bit high. I have modded cards quite a few times and am considering the Icy Vision 2 Gelid for it. I am a little confused though, some write ups say you have to buy extra bits for the modding and others don't. I am thinking the Icy vision 2 cooler would go straight on without anything else but can someone confirm this?
I have fit the Icy vision 2 cooler on a pair of GTX 460's in the past and results where fantastic. I have also fit accelero coolers on a number of other cards but seems only the accelero IV will fit. I will post pictures before and after it's done ofcourse, but can someone confirm if I need those extra bits please.

The Accelero Extreme IV does not come with ram and vrm heatsinks it relies on a massive backplate heatsink and the fans to cool them. On mine I added Alphafoen ram and vrm heatsinks but this kit is really hard to find. You also have clearance problems on the bottom ram chip if your 290 has it and the top 3/4 too. Not sure what the Icy comes with but worth bearing in mind. I had to use low heatsinks on the top ram chips and grind/cut the bottom one to aid with clearance. The results were worth it though very low temps.

Quality mate, thanks for the advice. I haven't decided on the cooler 100 percent yet, will wait till payday and see if I can get it past the mrs ! haha.

The accelero is a lovely looking, quiet, quality cooler. However i can't help but think that third fan is almost completely wasted.

I've got NZXT Kraken G10's and Corsair H55's on both my 290X's and they work wonders, but they are more costly mind. Good choice if your overclocking.

Although the AC4 also very good for its money

A pic of my personal rig:

^ Nice.

How are vrm temps?

Apart from the Kraken, I just used bits lying around



920 Khuler/Kraken on the 290X DCuII, reference 290X sits on a modded AC Xtreme 5870 to accomodate the Alpenfohn BEAST vrm heatsink, I have an Xtreme IV back plate too but it's lying redundant just now and bottom gpu doesn't get too hot-mid 70's at worst.

Out of the two, the AIO can keep the top gpu lower than the bottom one which is no mean feat in 290X CrossFire.

In single gpu mode, AC Xtreme does a grand job on the 290's, hottest mine got gaming was 65c in summer(vrm modded/backplate), most of the heat was kept in the case with case fans set low-it wasn't dumping all the heat out so not to cook the legs off you when gaming.

Only problem with the Xtremes are the price keeps creeping up, the original 5870 one was £36 and it's meatier than the newer ones, but I suppose you can use them again and again and again-5870>6950/70>7950/70>290X.

If you can source a second hand AC Xtreme 3, it fits too btw, I'll even stick my neck out and say a AC Twin Turbo III could do the job too as long as you just stick to gaming-providing you get heatsinks for the vram/vrms providing you have good case/airflow and your not a crazy bencher.


My 3rd fan is doing a job matt, the Xtreme 5870 sits further over.

AMDMatt said:

^ Nice.

How are vrm temps?

Click to expand...

They hit about 80 if I stress the cards at 1200MHz

How much heat do both rads pump out in the summer bloodkill?

If you mean a British summer, than pretty much the same as in winter xD

But seriously, I've not had any issues with them, both will hit ~75C under full load at 1200MHz during summer, second card maybe get 2-3C hotter due to the position of its radiator.

I just fitted a Kraken G10 + H55 to my ASUS DCII TOP R9 280X and I'm amazed at the performance.

It cost me £30 for a H55 and £25 for a G10. I imported an adapter to use the fan header on the PCB to control the fans (£7), and I spent another £10 on aluminum heatsinks to cover the memory and any other exposed chips. Finally, I bought an EK Backplate for the Asus PCB. This was probably overkill, but it looks really good and provides a little additional passive cooling to the VRM's and the GPU.

http://i.imgur.com/i6YNpbc.jpg

The positioning of the H55 rad on the bottom of the case isn't ideal and I need to do a fair bit of tidying up, but it looks good and runs nearly silently. Under load, the VRM temps were pushing 80/90 on the old Asus cooler, with this setup they barely touch 60.

Idle temps on the GPU dropped by 20 degrees and under load they have dropped by 20-30.

http://i.imgur.com/fTIjq1c.jpg

I haven't had time to mess with the overclock, I am waiting for the PWM cable to arrive from the US so I can make sure everything is controlled by the card before I really see how far I can push it