Watercooling MSI R9 390 Gaming 8GB

Oriaz · 2 Jan 2016 at 14:50

Hey folks,

Been reading up on watercooling the R9 390 8GB from MSI quite a bit, and I am looking for anyone who has actually managed to do this?

I currently have an MSI R9 290 in my system, using the EKWB EK-FC R9-290X - Acetal (Rev.2.0) waterblock which works perfectly. My Brother kindly got me the MSI R9 390 for Xmas, and he also got a universal EKWB Supremacy waterblock and a bunch of heatsinks to put on it. There is no full cover waterblock for the R9 390 (yet), so using a universal waterblock and heatsinks seems to be the only option right now.

However, I have read somewhere that some people have used the R9 290 full cover waterblock on the R9 390. Looking at the PCB layouts, they so seem quite similar, and both my 290 and 390 are made my MSI, so maybe it could actually work?

Has anyone actually done this? Is there a chance it could work, or am I barking up the wrong tree?

I will probably just fit the new 390 with the standard fans etc to see how it performs without the water-cooling first (I'll just leave the 290 waterblock hanging in the system somewhere rather than taking it all apart). Once I've done that, I'll see how I can add it into the loop again.

Hope that made some sense?
Cheers, Ori

mattyc123 · 2 Jan 2016 at 15:23

There are only 2 390' that the 290 block will fit (I have only looked at ek) I think there is one from power colour and one from xfx. I would make sure that the block fits before purchase.

Cheers
Matt

Oriaz · 2 Jan 2016 at 15:27

Ahh, that probably means that I am out of luck then. I already have the MSI R9 390 card, so I was just hoping that the waterblock on my existing MSI R9 290 might work.

If not, I do have a universal waterblock for the GPU and heatsinks for the VRAM, but I'd rather go with an all-in-one solution if it's available. EKWB have indicated that a full block is on the way at some point .. but who knows when!!

Cheers!

mattyc123 · 2 Jan 2016 at 18:57

I believe that the 290 and the 390 can be cross fired together so you could leave the top card as your 290 and the lower card as the 390. The water cooling will assist with keeping the top card tps in check.

P4Clock · 2 Jan 2016 at 19:24

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ek-water-blocks-ek-thermosphere-nickel-wc-556-ek.html

Uncle Petey · 2 Jan 2016 at 20:15

^ He already has a universal block

If your card is the MSI 390 gaming edition (V308-041R), then EK have a block coming soon according to cooling configurator.

Oriaz · 2 Jan 2016 at 20:20

Yep, mine is the V308-041R, just no idea how soon "coming soon" means. As you said, I do already have the EK-VGA Supremacy block which is the one that the configurator suggests for now.

I didn't realise the 290 and 390 can work together in Crossfire? I'll read up on that and see if it's worth it

Cheers!

pingu666 · 2 Jan 2016 at 20:20

you may just need to see if it fits, and if it makes contact in the right places

i had a slightly modified 3870 full cover on my 6950, was able to modify it to fit

which was handy, but luck also

Uncle Petey · 2 Jan 2016 at 20:25

Oriaz said:
Yep, mine is the V308-041R, just no idea how soon "coming soon" means. As you said, I do already have the EK-VGA Supremacy block which is the one that the configurator suggests for now.

I didn't realise the 290 and 390 can work together in Crossfire? I'll read up on that and see if it's worth it

Cheers!

Probably worth sending EK a message and asking for an ETA if EK Luc doesn't pop in here in the meantime.

Yeah, they'll crosssfire, though you'll be limited to 4GB vram.
I'd run the 390 as the primary card, what with it being a bit faster and having more vram if you need it.

Oriaz · 3 Jan 2016 at 17:11

I think I'll give all of this a shot tomorrow. I should have a bunch of EK hose waiting for me at work which will allow me to redo my system (it's due for a full flush-out) and I'll have plenty spare to 'experiment' with a potential crossfire setup etc.

It's a little worrying that the R9 390 seems to be running at 90+ degrees when playing right now, and that's just Warcraft for example. I know they run hot, and 90 apparently is nothing to worry about .. but the watercooled R9 290 never went over about 60-65. I was reluctant to start pulling the standard fans off a brand new card, but those temperatures make me less worried!!

I'll give EK a shout if I don't hear from them on here. As Mattyc123 mentioned above, the waterblock I have on the 290 is listed as supported by the XFX R9 390 card, but they don't mention the MSI version as being supported

Cheers!

EK Luc · 3 Jan 2016 at 20:57

No ETA yet but with the return from the Holidays, things will restart at full speed so I might have an ETA soon for you.

Oriaz · 3 Jan 2016 at 21:09

Awesome, thanks EK Luc!

I do have an EK-VGA Supremacy + a bunch of heatsinks, so the question was more about whether it's worth going through the "hassle" of fitting that if the full block will be released a few days later. Or if I'll get a good few months usage out of that before the full block is released

Cheers!

EK Luc · 6 Jan 2016 at 21:52

Around Mid-February is the ETA for the block

Oriaz · 8 Jan 2016 at 11:16

Excellent, thanks very much for that. Might give the universal block a try in the meantime seeing as I already have it .. just to see

.

I don't like seeing a card at 90 degrees, even if everyone says it's normal

TonyTurbo78 · 8 Jan 2016 at 12:36

EK Luc said:
Around Mid-February is the ETA for the block

And now you launch the MSI full covers, after the hastle I had with my cards regarding the position of the Thermosphere blocks and piping my loop in a very indifferent way

Remember

Now the question is, do I buy the full covers and redo everything or just leave it as it is lol. Think I'll leave it as it is, it's kinda unique haha.

EK Luc · 8 Jan 2016 at 14:51

TonyTurbo78 said:
And now you launch the MSI full covers, after the hastle I had with my cards regarding the position of the Thermosphere blocks and piping my loop in a very indifferent way

Remember

Now the question is, do I buy the full covers and redo everything or just leave it as it is lol. Think I'll leave it as it is, it's kinda unique haha.

I swear that the day they announced me that we would do the block after all, you're the first person I thinked about.

Oriaz · 8 Jan 2016 at 15:38

Ha, well ... it does look very nice!

So (TonyTurbo), did you do what I am looking at doing with fitting a universal EKWB Supremacy on the GPU, and then adding heatsinks to the VRAM?

If so, do you know how many heatsinks you need, and exactly where they need to go? I have the Supremacy waterblock and a bunch of heatsinks, but I am not 100% sure where they all need to go?

It looks like there are about 16 sections of VRAM that I'd need to add heatsinks too around the main GPU, but I am not sure where else would need them?

Cheers!

TonyTurbo78 · 8 Jan 2016 at 19:45

EK Luc said:
I swear that the day they announced me that we would do the block after all, you're the first person I thinked about.

Haha to funny, was quite a stressful build wasn't it.

To be honest, I'd love full covers for them, just not sure I can be bothered with the extra money and time to redo everything now I've got everything done, it took a lot of effort.

TonyTurbo78 · 8 Jan 2016 at 20:16

Oriaz said:
Ha, well ... it does look very nice!

So (TonyTurbo), did you do what I am looking at doing with fitting a universal EKWB Supremacy on the GPU, and then adding heatsinks to the VRAM?

If so, do you know how many heatsinks you need, and exactly where they need to go? I have the Supremacy waterblock and a bunch of heatsinks, but I am not 100% sure where they all need to go?

It looks like there are about 16 sections of VRAM that I'd need to add heatsinks too around the main GPU, but I am not sure where else would need them?

Cheers!

this is how I did it at first, yes 16 individual passive heatsinks that I stuck on the vram, and as you can see cut up some extra and placed them over the vrm's.

Although it worked just fine this way (1st pic of the 3) I just wanted a more rigid way of doing things. So worked out a ghetto mod on both the MSI coolers, as you can see from pics (2nd and 3rd pics), I cut the cooler in half, utilised the black mounting plate and the original half of the heatsink which all bolted nicely together which completely covered every vrm and important bit of the GPU. Totally voided the cards but hey ho, gotta do what you gotta do sometimes, really happy how it turned out, cards are super super cool max I get is around 38c full load for hours and vrm's dont even pass 50c.

new boy · 8 Jan 2016 at 20:23

you know that VRAM, doesn't really need cooling, and that you need some kind of mounting pressure to get worthwhile cooling from heatsinks right?

EDIT - reading this back, its written in a rather abrupt tone I didn't mean lol.

I was more trying to state that my understanding is that VRAM is pretty much fine naked, and nothing much is to be gained by cooling them, and without mounting pressure, the heatsinks stuck onto the VRAM are unlikely to be adding much to the cooling of them anyway?