Cooling Crossfire R9 290's

aceytrixx

aceytrixx

aceytrixx

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so this is what my pc currently looks like


now the cost of doing a full loop is too much for the moment since thats about £500? or more? So I thought about the NZXT Kraken G10 coolers with the NZXT Kraken X40's on them and the CPU which comes to about £290 here. However is there enough space to fit 2 of those and how about Vram cooling as ive read they done do that very well? Also I only have an 850watt PSU so I assume thats going to need to be upgraded to add all those AIO coolers?
 
Hadn't considered that actually. However right now I always have one card out of my system since the top gets to over 90 with two in. It's either find a solution or sell a card at this point.
 
I would personally recommend this http://www.arctic.ac/eu_en/accelero-hybrid.html

I got one given that was on a 290 (non X), They are very flexible and the temperature drop on my 6970 black edition was fantastic. I went from 95c to 58c :).

Edit: Also check the fans because MSI had major issues with faulty fans. Both my 280x had faulty fans and many others did also.
 
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That cooler looks better actually. That could be a plan. I'm still concerned about space as it looks quite large

I doubt my fans are faulty when I'm just using one I get highs of 57 degrees it's only when there are two.
 
My 6970 is 270mm long 100mm width but the cooler is 240mm long and same width (100mm).

I have read this is a 2 slot cooler and the thickness is around 45-50mm from top PCB to lowest point.

The tubing is around 400mm.
 
I'll measure the depth of my current cards and the space I have between them but if that's going to fit then I may have to go down that road. Warranty be damned sadly
 
I had the same problem in my 540. And yes, £500 ish to have

2 x GPU blocks rev 2 for that PCB
240 top and 360 front
Fans
Pump+Res combo
CPU block
Tubing
Fittings

The problem is that you need epic airflow in that case to extract the heat that's being dumped into the case by those fans. You need blower fans

Mine before
Temps on top card hit 95 and throttled back even at 100% fans

IMG_20140422_123955.jpg


Mine after
Temps less than 70 always at 100% fans

IMG_20140528_115725.jpg
 
Yeah figured that's how much that would be. Honestly if I have to spend that much to keep them cool I'd rather look at selling them and switching to different cards. Which would have been easier had the other half not thrown out the boxes for them by accident.
 
Yeah 2nd hand is an option but I'm just not sure I want to do a loop at all really. I did consider using a matx board and a pci extender to place it just below the actual board but then the card doesn't have the support of the motherboard to stay in place.
 
Yeah so any of the aio systems won't work according to my measurements. Looks like it's either a loop or down to 1 card. If only the 295x2 was a better price
 
If I were you I'd save up a little more money and buy an alphacool watercooling kit. Honestly all you'd have to buy after the kit is 2 water locks and 4 more fittings. The d5/480mm 60mm thick kit is going for roughly £250 plus your cpu will benefit from the lowered temps too.
 
You can't beat a full water setup imo

If it was me i'd get two water blocks, a pump/res combo and a 360 radiator for the front.

I've used barbs to keep the costs down although you could switch to compression fittings if you wished. I have however chosen a SR1 radiator but you could go with EKs £45 offering.

Remember to add your fluid too.

YOUR BASKET
2 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC R9-290(X) - Acetal Rev.2.0 £79.99 (£159.98)
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-DCP 4.0 PWM X-RES (incl. pump) £74.99
1 x Hardware Labs Black ICE Radiator SR1 360 £69.98
2 x XSPC 7/16" ID [16/11mm] High Flex Hose - Clear [1m Length] £2.99 (£5.98)
6 x EK 12mm (1/2") G1/4 High-Flow Barb Fitting £2.96 (£17.76)
Total : £338.32 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
Yeah the big downside is obviously more cost in blocks everytime you upgrade. I've also gone back into looking at one of the z77 workstation boards that I got recommended in the 290 thread at about £250 which would allow me to space them out better. Seems to be the cheapest solution overall.
 
Just 1. It's about 45mm space between the two cards.

Edit: sorry no appears to be 2 pci slots between the 2 pci-e according to the pictures but regardless it was 45mm when I measured it.
 
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Well I decided to do something similar, I had a h55 from an old build so I purchased another and made my own bracket out of my gigabyte r290x The temperature drop is amazing to be honest. My cards running Heaven would always throttle and now they both don't go above 60 now,
I added some fans from the gigabytes stock cooler to my bracket, to control the vram temp, but it still goes to around 99 so I will be adding some heatsinks.
I can now game with out the sound of a jumbo jet landing, and for £40 and my own time it was well worth it. You can see my handy work below it looks rough but does the job.
20140701_144101.jpg
 
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JamesM said:
You can't beat a full water setup imo

If it was me i'd get two water blocks, a pump/res combo and a 360 radiator for the front.

I've used barbs to keep the costs down although you could switch to compression fittings if you wished. I have however chosen a SR1 radiator but you could go with EKs £45 offering.

Remember to add your fluid too.

YOUR BASKET
2 x ek water blocks ek-fc r9-290(x) - acetal rev.2.0 £79.99 (£159.98)
1 x ek water blocks ek-dcp 4.0 pwm x-res (incl. pump) £74.99
1 x hardware labs black ice radiator sr1 360 £69.98
2 x xspc 7/16" id [16/11mm] high flex hose - clear [1m length] £2.99 (£5.98)
6 x ek 12mm (1/2") g1/4 high-flow barb fitting £2.96 (£17.76)
total : £338.32 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Click to expand...

so i'm still trying to sort out the way forward with this. currently i have my other card in the bottom slot running considerably slower. i was looking at getting a board with more pci-e slots but that's a dead end upgrade and even then the cards will be one slot closer than i have them now which leads me back to water cooling. i looked at the above and came up with this idea



Now will my 850w power everything if I take out my h100 and replace it with another radiator and cpu block? I assume not in which case I'll have to order a larger psu aswell and leave the h100 for the time being.
 
your 850w will power everything just fine lol
also just make sure the ek block will fit the msi card (i can't remember if the msi card is reference or not)
also 1x 360mm standard thickness rad may not suffice
 
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