ek thermosphere gpu only block

farmerboy-86 · 7 Aug 2015 at 20:26

So guys as title says I have brought a ek thermosphere block off Overclockers and wondering what needs heatsinks on and not as watercooling the gou is new to me!

I have a r9 390 msi card and they don't do a full block

I'm guessing the ram and vrm need heatsinks??

I have a air 540 case so good airflow I have also nodded my case and cut floor out and mounted 2 140 corsair af140 to aid gpu cooling.

Will the 2 140mm fans plus the heatsinks I have also ordered be enough to keep gpu at bay??

I am just bit worried don't want to kill gpu have been told gpu only blocks should be avoided at all costs, as it can shortsn gpu life is it a load of rubbish??

Also is overclocking a possibility with gpu only block and good cooling?

And to answer the question why go this route its because I want the whole system on water (looks I guess) as I'm doing a rigid tube build and cou only in this huge case looks daft lol

MrMD · 7 Aug 2015 at 20:52

if you have modded the HDD bays to mount intake fans you will should have no problems.I have a 540 and a thermosphere on my 970,i do the same thing,as long as their are heatsinks on the mems and VRMS the card will be fine

Edit:Also the thermosphere only comes with the moutning plates for Nvidia 700/900 series cards,you will have to order the 2xx/3xx series mounting kit from Ek to put the block on your card,its around £8 IIRC

farmerboy-86 · 7 Aug 2015 at 21:08

Cool thanks that's a weight off mind

I have the AMD mounting plate r600 a rival uk company stocks them (bad I know lol) so no wait time from ek direct happy days

So vrm and mem is all I need to worry about then

And still ok to overclock gpu??

On air I have 1125 core
1600 men

Just wondering if that's still ok??

MrMD · 7 Aug 2015 at 21:17

farmerboy-86 said:
Cool thanks that's a weight off mind

I have the AMD mounting plate r600 a rival uk company stocks them (bad I know lol) so no wait time from ek direct happy days

So vrm and mem is all I need to worry about then

And still ok to overclock gpu??

On air I have 1125 core
1600 men

Just wondering if that's still ok??

That will be fine providing you have the rad space to dissipate the heat

I have to ask why the an APU with a high end card? :confused:

farmerboy-86 · 7 Aug 2015 at 23:24

MrMD said:
That will be fine providing you have the rad space to dissipate the heat

I have to ask why the an APU with a high end card?

Why not (not being rude) the Intel chips have integrated gpu just like AMD

I had a 8350 it went pop my own fault pushing overclock lol

I was on tight budget for new build at the time and I'm a AMD man fx chip is a dead end road now days and AMD are focusing on apu chips and it performs great overclocked I don't see a bottleneck as such it games on ultra and only cost £100 what's not to like

What pushed me towards it was jayztwocents he did review on 7850k using discrete gpu for tight budget and the chip gamed on ultra and thought it cheaper than another 8350 give it a try

I get lower firestrike scores but in real world gaming situations I see now loss compared to my 8350 what more do I need

I could have gone i5 or something like that but why pay more than needed the apu are great chips and @ 1080p on ultra its all I need

I see no bottleneck on the gpu at all

I prefer AMD cheaper does what i want and see now need currently to go Intel chip

Hope that answers you question

Back on topic I have 240 mm rad in top for CPU and 360mm rad for gpu so should be fine for cooling

All water cooling was salvaged from my 8350 build

MrMD · 8 Aug 2015 at 00:15

farmerboy-86 said:
Why not (not being rude) the Intel chips have integrated gpu just like AMD

I had a 8350 it went pop my own fault pushing overclock lol

I was on tight budget for new build at the time and I'm a AMD man fx chip is a dead end road now days and AMD are focusing on apu chips and it performs great overclocked I don't see a bottleneck as such it games on ultra and only cost £100 what's not to like

What pushed me towards it was jayztwocents he did review on 7850k using discrete gpu for tight budget and the chip gamed on ultra and thought it cheaper than another 8350 give it a try

I get lower firestrike scores but in real world gaming situations I see now loss compared to my 8350 what more do I need

I could have gone i5 or something like that but why pay more than needed the apu are great chips and @ 1080p on ultra its all I need

I see no bottleneck on the gpu at all

I prefer AMD cheaper does what i want and see now need currently to go Intel chip
Fair enuff,i understand you reasoning. You have plenty of rad space for your proposed setup.

Back on topic I have 240 mm rad in top for CPU and 360mm rad for gpu so should be fine for cooling

All water cooling was salvaged from my 8350 build

I understand your reasoning,you have plenty of rad space,enjoy!

D1craig · 8 Aug 2015 at 08:26

I just stuck a mk26 on my gtx 970. I had to stick heat sinks on the chips. I assume these have made a huge improvement as my stable over clock is like 15-20% higher now. I also assume the GPU core was cooled adequately by the old (acx 2.0 cooler) cooler so the improvement must come from the vrm VRAM heat sinks.

So my point is - heat sinks on the little chips are more effective than stock anyway.

farmerboy-86 · 8 Aug 2015 at 09:30

http://i.imgur.com/kdV0h9i.jpg[/IMG[/SPOILER]

So guys in the image is 390 pcb as you can see ram chips are covered by the black plate should I remove this and add heatsinks or is the plate passive cooling the ram never used a gpu only block before and don't want to brick my card as you can imagine any help greatly appreciated

Roverno · 8 Aug 2015 at 10:42

Personally i would leave that heat dissipation plate in place. If it isnt sufficient then you wont brick your card straight away anyway so give it a try.

farmerboy-86 · 8 Aug 2015 at 14:31

This was my thinking too but a second opinion never hurts

The thermosphere fits with the plate on so will give it a try and see if not can add heat sinks at later date

I always thought vrm were more important to cool

I have nodded the standard heat sink cut in half and fitted back on to cool vrm so should be good will post temps and findings later

farmerboy-86 · 9 Aug 2015 at 12:32

So guys I have fitted the thermosphere to the r9 390 now fyi the are aright fit my xspc compression fitting touch gpu pcb.

So idle temp 29c house is cold

Max temp on firestrike 40c

Going off gpu-z

Vrm temp 1 36c
Vrm temp 2 47c

Going off my sensors on bitfenix recon fan controller

Temp sensor on ram is 57c max on dirt rally all maxed played on a loop

Temp sensor on vrm low 40c max on same loop on ultra

My worry is the ram chips temp is 57c to high for the ram on a gpu

The core is hitting 40c max just tad worried about ram vrm are cool I think at 40ish c