** R9 290X Watercooling Thread **

[JBod]

Thread title has stars and everything. So I worked hard this afternoon and watercooled my R9 290X. I have some initial results which I think are promising.

Firstly my setup, triple EK rad, XSPC bayres + pump, EK CPU block and EK GPU only block.... yes GPU only. I know a friend has already called me a loon for trying this. The loop goes rad -> cpu -> gpu -> bayres/pump.

Here is a picture with a water block:

I have added Alpenföhn heatsinks to everything that was cooled by the reference heatsink. No pictures of that yet - was too eager to test! Due to having a massive Xigmatek Elysium case there is a nice 200mm side fan blowing directly onto the card with plenty of other cool airflow from other various fans.

So quick test with initial results, I played some BF3 for a while and then dropped to window mode to take this screen shot:

Spoiler

Initial results are very promising! Next up is to get the ASUS bios on it and shove more volts up its backside.

It is a while since I have forayed into this area, what is the best tool to up the volts and clocks for a 290X?

 

[JBod]

Triple rad and core only block at stock clocks? That temp seems high IMO.

Which rad and fans, and what's the fan speed? Nice work though BTW, no messing about. Straight in, no kissin!

As almighty15 said it is doing the CPU as well. I can't remember which EK triple rad I bought it a year or two ago. Also I need to clean some dust off it I am using 3x Scythes I seem the recall.

 

[JBod]

Nah temps are fine considering it is cooling cpu as well. Very encouraging I would say. Only thing with that set-up is the VRM temps I would imagine will be a good 20-30c hotter than the core which might lead to stability issues if you push the overclock.

I presume you are intending to slap a full cover block on?

Yea, depending how it goes.

My loonacy of years past:

I did that 3 days after the release of the NVidia 6800 Ultra - home made shim yo... which I now realise is almost 10 years ago... I feel old.


Edit: 3DMark 11 Basic/default bench at 1100 core and 1250 mem showed zero artifacts all the way through so I am confident that at stock at least the heatsink'd chips are not overheating. GPU temp never went above 52c. In fact touching each of the heatsinks during the bench showed them nothing other than warm to the touch*

* Worth noting that many years ago I seared the finger print off my index finger by doing the same thing with a glowing red 486 DX 2 66 chip.

 

[JBod]

That's not encouraging at all for stock running with water cooling!

The 290x is a hot running core that's a bit inefficient, simple as that.

Mine is a mediocre water loop that has been running for about a year now. Holding 53c under full load on these GPUs pleases me, it leaves 40c headroom for added volts right?

 

[JBod]

He said in op he is cooling the memory and vrm's passively using the alpenfohn heatsinks. Not ideal, but will do an adequate job until a full cover block is strapped to it.

Actually there is a 200mm fan blowing on it as well from the case side. I just looped a bench for a bit and the heatsinks were not too hot to touch. I'd imagine the reference cooler is heating them up from the GPU core rather than cooling them down.

 

[JBod]

I know
I'm still waiting for the pics

Happy?

 

[JBod]

Nope, can't see dem VRM's

I *just* closed up the case... 1 sec...

Edit: here we are

 

[JBod]

Cheers
Btw, is GPU-Z buggering things up too much to show VRM temps properly right now? I'd be interested to see them if possible.

Only shows GPU temp, no VRM temps.

edit:

 

[JBod]

Oh, right... How about HWinfo?

ED: Cheers for the pics
I used those sinks on my last card too. They're not bad, but they got owned by the big VRM sink.
You using akasa tape with those?

Using the thermal adhesive that came with the heatsinks, HWInfo doesnt give it nor does AIDA64.

 

[JBod]

Good man! In that case, you really should've used the big boy

Bummer, I guess we have to wait for them to update...

You mean that big ass strip that came with it? I couldn't quite get it to go on well enough for me to be happy with it. The screw holes certainly didn't align.

 

[JBod]

Who needs screw holes when you have thermal adhesive?

I will say that getting that off is a fair bit more difficult than the little ones due to the shape though...

I might try again tomorrow in that case

 

[JBod]

I was asking what cpu he was using and if he had overclocked it out of curiosity as for all i know he is using something on stock. My following question should he answer would have been what his CPU temps were like. In my post i commented that i was trying to work out how many rads i need and never stated that i was confident it would be enough. I was asking because i don't know what i need and tbh was expecting some constructive advice not some useless comment.

Sorry had a busy morning, and people were enjoying arguing so much I didn't like to interrupt

I am running a 2500k @ 4.5Ghz stock volts. Idle temps are around 23c - 29c across the cores and 50c - 60c while gaming. A good long prime session takes the CPU up to 69c.

 

[JBod]

I am not water cooling to break benching world records, I just want things to run cooler and quieter with decent clocks.

I just did a mega Crysis2 session all afternoon and GPU temps didn't go above 53c on the GPU.

 

[JBod]

I found something that gives me VRM temps at last!

AIDA64 gives me at the highest point during a Firestrike bench a VRM1 temp of 63c and VRM2 temp of 43c.

Who needs full cover water blocks

Edit: Idle temps (right now) are 33c/34c.

 

[JBod]

Good stuff. What core temp/clock/fan speed?

GPU temp 50-52c, stock volts but at 1150Mhz GPU. 1250Mhz mem.

AIDA64 also gives a Watt power usage of the GPU and it topped out at about 180W - I plugged just my PC in a power socket meter today and it has recorded my Max total power draw during firestrike as 528W.

Fans are 3x Gentle Typhoons at 100% on a triple rad. Plus a 200mm Xigmatek case fan blowing onto the 290X.

 

[JBod]

My problem at the moment is i have a i7 3770k @ 4.8 and the 290x on one EX360. I should have my EX240 delivered tomorrow to add to the loop.

But that being said with one EX360, heaven custom preset (Check pic) stock 290x max temp 50 degrees.

Once i add a EX240 to the mix then I will go for it properly!

Idle at 38 degrees. I need to get something to get the room temp, my room is always roasting!

[IMGhttp://i.imgur.com/8UdOr5L.jpg[/IMG]

Are you able to get your vrm temps? Only app I seen able to do that is AIDA64.