I've just finished fitting a Prolimatech MK-26, with Akasa Apache 140mm fans, on my 290 and the results are great, but there's been a few headaches.

I did a few tests before I got stuck in. I found my MSI 290 had Hynix memory and the stock temperatures are as follows:

GPU idle - 36c
VRM 1 idle - 21c
VRM 2 idle - 28c

GPU load - 94c
VRM 1 idle - 60c
VRM 2 idle - 81c

The results after fitting the MK-26 are:

GPU idle - 30c
VRM 1 idle - 19c
VRM 2 idle - 22c

GPU load - 54c
VRM 1 load - 57c
VRM 2 load - 39c

First off, the glue that comes with the Alpenföhn heatsinks is horrible. DO NOT use it. It drys quickly and becomes really brittle, the sinks kept coming off as the glue cracked. I tried using both small and generous amounts of the glue and had the same results. I used Akasa thermal tape in the end.

There was quite a big headache with regards to how sensitive the PCB was. It was obviously sagging quite a lot, so I supported it so that it was a straight line, it wouldn't work like that. I'd black screen, crash and would have to wait 10 - 15 mins to use it again. I discovered the best thing to do was support most of the weight but let it sag a little.

I also tried the fans on both ways, drawing air away from the heatsink and blowing air onto the heatsink. Drawing air away had the GPU load at 80c, blowing air onto it is as above. Far more effective.

Here's some before and after shots, compared to a 7970.

benjii said:

There was quite a big headache with regards to how sensitive the PCB was. It was obviously sagging quite a lot, so I supported it so that it was a straight line, it wouldn't work like that. I'd black screen, crash and would have to wait 10 - 15 mins to use it again. I discovered the best thing to do was support most of the weight but let it sag a little.

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Great work dude the temps look very good would you mind expanding a little on how you supported the beast ? Also how did you find putting on the VRM chip coolers everything ok apart from the glue problems ?

Thanks in advance dude and nice work might have to get one of these they look very tempting.

Donpaolo said:

Great work dude the temps look very good would you mind expanding a little on how you supported the beast ? Also how did you find putting on the VRM chip coolers everything ok apart from the glue problems ?

Thanks in advance dude and nice work might have to get one of these they look very tempting.

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I used cable ties to attach it to my case. Fitting the heatsinks on was straight forward. However, I suggest you just rest the heatsink on the GPU to see what sort of clearance there is as some of the chips required half height heatsinks. I believe there's a guide on here somewhere which mentions something similar.

benjii said:

I used cable ties to attach it to my case. Fitting the heatsinks on was straight forward. However, I suggest you just rest the heatsink on the GPU to see what sort of clearance there is as some of the chips required half height heatsinks. I believe there's a guide on here somewhere which mentions something similar.

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cheers for the info dude

You should whip the iceqx2 cooler off that 7970 and fit that to the 290, I can't remember which site it was but one of the review sites commented they tried a 7970 iceqx2 cooler on their 290 and it performed really well, I will try to find the link.

Nice, personally I'm still hoping that a proper full cover solution comes out some time soon.

Hulahoops said:

Nice, personally I'm still hoping that a proper full cover solution comes out some time soon.

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It seems January is the best guess.

Benji,could you pls run 1 720p bench in Furmak?That pretty much shows the max vrm temps that you will ever see in pretty much all games.Im curious about the alpehfohn vrm heatsink and how it holds up.Thanks

They must have changed the formula for the thermal glue because both batches I've had have dried like rubber sealant, not brittle or crackable at all.

Uncle Petey said:

They must have changed the formula for the thermal glue because both batches I've had have dried like rubber sealant, not brittle or crackable at all.

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That's how I was imagining it. However, with this stuff I could crumble it between my fingers.