AMD Radeon 290X Kuhler mod: Taming Hawaii 'Pic heavy'.

AngryB · 28 Nov 2013 at 14:52

Really nice work. I am certainly interested in this, and the Kraken G10. I want to upgrade my H100 to a 280mm closed loop solution, so setting up something like this with my H100 would make it a pretty cost effective upgrade. I'd get considerably more overclocking potential from both CPU & GPU.

I am sure a bit of tweaking with airflow around the VRMs would really help the temps too.

kleimo · 2 Dec 2013 at 15:48

Just to confirm before i mount my 620 kuhler to 290x. There is no need to use any sort of copper adapter between the core and the block? I used to have one in 7970. Thanks advance!

Kanoe · 2 Dec 2013 at 16:01

Either of these might be the way to go for me unless a really good aftermarket air cooler that doesn't take up 4 slots comes along.

r7slayer · 2 Dec 2013 at 16:32

kleimo said:
Just to confirm before i mount my 620 kuhler to 290x. There is no need to use any sort of copper adapter between the core and the block? I used to have one in 7970. Thanks advance!

Yea you needed a "shim" for the 7970 to use any aftermarket coolers on them. You can put your mind at rest as you do not need a shim for 290/x cards.

Rasch · 2 Dec 2013 at 17:28

It's really easy to fit into the 290X and its amazengly works suberp.I got around 52C on the core at max with 7v adapters on a pair SP120,at full speed i have like 45-47.

SirCanealot · 2 Dec 2013 at 18:26

Re. VRM heatsinks, I swear I've seen somebody somewhere suggest sticking pennies on the VRMs and getting small peices of copper and attaching them onto the pennies. I have no idea how effective this was and if it'd work on HOT VRMs, but it might be worth a try.

But awesome mod! Enjoyed the GPU pr0n!

Edit: Apparently the current English penny is made out of copper-plated steel! So if you could find a good way of attaching them...

Orangey · 2 Dec 2013 at 18:42

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/thermal-conductivity-metals-d_858.html

Doesn't look good for steel.

old gamer · 2 Dec 2013 at 19:21

Boomstick any update on yours, last i read you were thinking about adding heatsinks to the memory, iread on another site nzxt claimed heatsinks wernt required on there g10

kleimo · 2 Dec 2013 at 20:12

r7slayer said:
Yea you needed a "shim" for the 7970 to use any aftermarket coolers on them. You can put your mind at rest as you do not need a shim for 290/x cards.

Thanks! Will install the kuhler to my 290x tomorrow.

CoolHotCold · 2 Dec 2013 at 20:28

Tonester0011 said:
^^
Only if bought from OCUK.
The others, only if you don't tell them and they dont have void stickers covering the screws

I asked this exact question in the support forums and they said any changes to the cooler would void the warranty.

MSI R9 290 has a "Warranty Void If Removed" sticker over it. It's going back to OC due to the coil whine, but I need something that'll play nice with a watercooling setup

kleimo · 3 Dec 2013 at 20:15

Installed the kuhler 620 and the temps and sound also dropped very nicely!

Here picture of my vrm cooler (yeah used old X1800XT cooler that was on my coolinbox):

drunkenmaster · 3 Dec 2013 at 20:39

CoolHotCold said:
I asked this exact question in the support forums and they said any changes to the cooler would void the warranty.

MSI R9 290 has a "Warranty Void If Removed" sticker over it. It's going back to OC due to the coil whine, but I need something that'll play nice with a watercooling setup

On MSI's support forums there is a thread that says precisely the opposite, that the stickers mean nothing and that you can remove the stock cooler without issue. They will just, if the stickers are damaged, check that you haven't slipped a screwdriver and done a bunch of damage.

It's one of the reasons I just ordered an MSI 290 over other brands, cost was another factor, sub £295, had to be done

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=174490.0

fowler002 · 3 Dec 2013 at 22:44

CoolHotCold said:
I asked this exact question in the support forums and they said any changes to the cooler would void the warranty.

MSI R9 290 has a "Warranty Void If Removed" sticker over it. It's going back to OC due to the coil whine, but I need something that'll play nice with a watercooling setup

Well gibbo on numerous occasions has said that MSI have an agreement with ocuk for the warrenty which covers the removal of the stock cooler, gibbo his said as long as you don't cause any damage while removing the stock cooler/fitting third party cooler(be it waterblock or air cooler) then if you have to return it under warranty you just replace the stock cooler. Have a look at the 290x threads in the latest news section, warning they are quite long and I'm not sure how far into it the stock cooler removal discussion starts.

MrMarvelous · 4 Dec 2013 at 01:20

That NZXT cooler looks the dog's dangleies! Would it be a waste getting it for my 7970?

SayWhat? · 7 Dec 2013 at 21:07

Boomstick777 said:
Idle VRM temps:

Full Load VRM Temps (Furmark stress test):

How did you get the VRM temperatures to display on GPU-Z? I'm can't see them on mine and I'm using the same version.

CEUOTC · 8 Dec 2013 at 00:37

SayWhat? said:
How did you get the VRM temperatures to display on GPU-Z? I'm can't see them on mine and I'm using the same version.

You need to scroll down the sensor page.

SayWhat? · 8 Dec 2013 at 12:22

CEUOTC said:
You need to scroll down the sensor page.

I have and I still don't see it. I'm getting the exact same thing that Boomstick mentioned in this post:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=25344553&postcount=23

Any ideas?

Boomstick777 · 8 Dec 2013 at 14:15

SayWhat? said:
I have and I still don't see it. I'm getting the exact same thing that Boomstick mentioned in this post:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=25344553&postcount=23

Any ideas?

Yep, the problem for me was using a 1440P monitor with a larger font. You have to set font to 100% for GPUZ to display all tabs. If you have 125% selected etc you will see less tabs. Very weird, I hope the GPUZ author fixes it.

Just to update, the card has been running flawlessly with this cooling mod, whisper quiet and nice and cool.

old gamer · 8 Dec 2013 at 15:41

Boomstick what heatsinks did you use, im eyeing up the nzxt g10 but not sure how much clearance there is for heatsinks

apg · 8 Dec 2013 at 16:30

fowler002 said:
Well gibbo on numerous occasions has said that MSI have an agreement with ocuk for the warrenty which covers the removal of the stock cooler, gibbo his said as long as you don't cause any damage while removing the stock cooler/fitting third party cooler(be it waterblock or air cooler) then if you have to return it under warranty you just replace the stock cooler. Have a look at the 290x threads in the latest news section, warning they are quite long and I'm not sure how far into it the stock cooler removal discussion starts.

is this 'agreement' just with msi? I have asus and gigabyte cards and would be interested if they have the same agreement with overclockers.