Reference R9 290x refurb + Kraken G10

[B-Riz]

I may be a little crazy, but I picked up a refurbished 290x reference to use with a Kraken G10 bracket; for OC goodness. I have a Corsair H50 to use with it.

Edit: I do not have an H50, is an H60. Luckily, I also had an Antec 620 (which is compatible).

I am going to shoot for the Max OC I can get. (running a 1080p @ 144Hz Asus LCD)

I just did not see myself plunking down for a Fury in the next 6 - 8 months, and the price for both was too good to pass up, seeing as how I could sell later on anyway.

Card is $239.99 + tax and shipping from the Micro Center web store.
http://www.microcenter.com/product/447873/Radeon_R9_290X_(Refurbished)_4GB_GDDR5_Graphics_Card

Kraken G10 (blue) was $19.99 from the NZXT web store on clearance (sold out now).
https://store.nzxt.com/collections/cpu-gpu-coolers

Will post OC results when everything arrives and gets installed, etc.

Anyone else at 1080p holding on to the 290 / 290x for a while?

 

[railven]

Before you go forward, make sure you have the right H50. You need version 2

Under specs:
https://www.nzxt.com/product/detail/138-kraken-g10-gpu-bracket.html#

Corsair : H105, H110, H90, H75, H55 , H50 (CW-9060006-WW only)

I was going to attempt something similar since I had a spare H50 wasting shelf space. Unfortunately my H50 wasn't compatible. :/

 

[B-Riz]

Before you go forward, make sure you have the right H50. You need version 2

Under specs:
https://www.nzxt.com/product/detail/138-kraken-g10-gpu-bracket.html#


I was going to attempt something similar since I had a spare H50 wasting shelf space. Unfortunately my H50 wasn't compatible. :/

Thanks for the info.

Will check and report back, this adventure may have gotten more ridiculous. :|

 

[railven]

Thanks for the info.

Will check and report back, this adventure may have gotten more ridiculous. :|

Yeah, no kidding. I was super excited when I got my Kraken G10. I went off misprinted info on the Microcenter website (and I don't recall if the Box specifically said that).

The pump size is different so if you know what yours looks like can solve it now:

Old H50 with fat pump (not compatible):

Revised H50 with slim pump (compatible)

EDIT: better image, woof I didn't realize how much smaller it was.

 

[Headfoot]

290/290x is the perfect card for 1080p 144hz imo. Very inexpensive and very performant at that resolution. Its cheap enough it doesn't make sense to drop to anything lower, but it performs well enough that increasing budget to get anything higher is seriously diminishing returns.

 

[B-Riz]

Yeah, no kidding. I was super excited when I got my Kraken G10. I went off misprinted info on the Microcenter website (and I don't recall if the Box specifically said that).

The pump size is different so if you know what yours looks like can solve it now:

Old H50 with fat pump (not compatible):

Revised H50 with slim pump (compatible)

EDIT: better image, woof I didn't realize how much smaller it was.

Geez, I did not think to check what was compatible, shame on me.

I have an H60 and an old H40 (was CPU cooler before Nepton 140XL).

But, luckily, there is an Antec Kuhler 620 to use, so I do not have to drop anymore $$$ on this.

 

[Face2Face]

If you plan on overclocking much, I would suggest purchasing this VRM heatsink kit as well. Running VRM #1 and #2 naked while overvolting/Overclocking will yield some high VRM temps, which could lead to instability and lower efficiency.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835426042

 

[Silverforce11]

I did buy a Kraken G10 eventually but I still prefer my ghetto water cool method. Look at my sig. It's dirt cheap and just as effective.

 

[n0x1ous]

If you're worried about VRM temps get the Corsair HG10 A1 bracket

 

[Pneumothorax]

If you're worried about VRM temps get the Corsair HG10 A1 bracket

I use both the Corsair HG10 and the Kraken G10 + Gelid VRM heatsinks on my 290x's and the VRM temp on both machines is only off by 1-3 degrees. Both are vastly superior to running the VRM's 'nekkid'

 

[KingFatty]

Yeah those $240 refurb R9 290x reference cards (Diamond brand) at Microcenter definitely caught my eye when I was in the store.

Any idea why the Diamond reference 290x cards were refurbed to such an extent that Microcenter has so many of them to resell? Was it just too noisy with the reference cooler, or did they break or have some other issue that led to mass returns of that card?

So with the Corsair HG10, do you harvest the fan from the stock cooler and mount it to the bracket?

Also, doesn't the Corsair HG10 bracket make contact with the VRMs, so why do you also need the Gelid VRM heatsinks?

About what is the additional cost of this GPU conversion setup, getting the bracket, the water cooler system, and the VRM heatsinks?

Might have to pick up the 290x at the store after work today before they are all out of stock...

 

[B-Riz]

Yeah those $240 refurb R9 290x reference cards (Diamond brand) at Microcenter definitely caught my eye when I was in the store.

Any idea why the Diamond reference 290x cards were refurbed to such an extent that Microcenter has so many of them to resell? Was it just too noisy with the reference cooler, or did they break or have some other issue that led to mass returns of that card?

So with the Corsair HG10, do you harvest the fan from the stock cooler and mount it to the bracket?

Also, doesn't the Corsair HG10 bracket make contact with the VRMs, so why do you also need the Gelid VRM heatsinks?

About what is the additional cost of this GPU conversion setup, getting the bracket, the water cooler system, and the VRM heatsinks?

Might have to pick up the 290x at the store after work today before they are all out of stock...

Edit: KingFatty, on cost: I lucked out and the G10 was $14.99 on clearance and $4.99 shipping, reg. $29.99 plus shipping. I had the Antec 620 sitting unused, I am not sure about the Corsair bracket; the Newegg reviews of it talked about the bracket bending cards and ruining them.

I am also curious as to them having so many 290x refurbs they sell on the web, usually they restrict stuff to in store only.

I got the card on Tuesday, physically looks ok, putting in the 'puter tonight.

Only complaint is no backplate, as my Asus 290 has one, and I really think a card this long (nVidia or AMD) needs it.

I do need to get some VRM heatsinks, I have some odd ball stick-ons, but nothing like the GELID stuff.

Silverforce11, I finally looked at your custom cooling post, that is a neat setup. I will grab some GELID VRM coolers soon (or something similar).

It looks like the G10 bracket has fallen into the shipping abyss, FedEx has it in the system, but nothing about getting to me this week. :|

Maybe I will have it in July?

But I am going to try the ref. 290x as is, turn the voltage down though, just as I have with the Asus 290.

 

[B-Riz]

I use both the Corsair HG10 and the Kraken G10 + Gelid VRM heatsinks on my 290x's and the VRM temp on both machines is only off by 1-3 degrees. Both are vastly superior to running the VRM's 'nekkid'

Cool beans.

Did the Corsair bracket flex your cards at all?

Newegg reviews are mixed on it.

 

[B-Riz]

Random thought, after reading all the latest news / reviews, I really want to try stupid high OC on a GTX 980, but only if they are closer to $400, preferably sub $400...

Dang it techno-lust.

 

[B-Riz]

If you plan on overclocking much, I would suggest purchasing this VRM heatsink kit as well. Running VRM #1 and #2 naked while overvolting/Overclocking will yield some high VRM temps, which could lead to instability and lower efficiency.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835426042

Awesome link, thank you so much!

 

[Rvenger]

I think AMD sells the cards to Diamond cheap to liquidate. All the "AMD" branded refurbs on newegg I bought in the past had Diamond software and instructions in the package.

Diamond mostly sells reference and they apparently don't even assemble the cards according to a conversation I had with an RMA on a 7970 in the past.

 

[B-Riz]

I think AMD sells the cards to Diamond cheap to liquidate. All the "AMD" branded refurbs on newegg I bought in the past had Diamond software and instructions in the package.

Diamond mostly sells reference and they apparently don't even assemble the cards according to a conversation I had with an RMA on a 7970 in the past.

Thanks for the info.

I have a Diamond Riva 128 (I think it works?), should I try to compare.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/11

 

[Makaveli]

I use both the Corsair HG10 and the Kraken G10 + Gelid VRM heatsinks on my 290x's and the VRM temp on both machines is only off by 1-3 degrees. Both are vastly superior to running the VRM's 'nekkid'

If you have a card with a solid heat plate you can get by without buying more parts too cool the VRM but that depends on what brand gpu so its a case by case basis.

I didn't need any additional cooling for the VRM's on my card with a G10+H55

 

[railven]

So, I made a huge mistake today. B-Riz check out this piece:

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/hydro-series-hg10-a1-gpu-liquid-cooling-bracket

It is the equivalent of the Kraken but straight from Corsair and claims to work with any Corsair water cooler. Ignore that price because I just bought two from my Microcenter for $40 each.

And that is where I made my mistake. Haha. For whatever reason I walked out with 2x refurb R9 290X @ $240 each and 2x Corsair HG10A @ $40 a piece.

After taxes grand total of $600. In my excitement to tinker with stuff I failed to realized and OC'ed GTX 980 Ti would probably be nipping at the heals of this CFX setup and still use half the power. HAHA.

So, I'll be returning everything (not before I get my bench on with CFX 290X) and will just be ordering a stock 980 Ti and one of these (barring confirmation from Corsair it works with the 980 Ti ref, which it should since it lists 980 and Titan X ref as supported):

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/hydro-series-hg10-n980-gpu-liquid-cooling-bracket

 

[B-Riz]

So, I made a huge mistake today. B-Riz check out this piece:

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/hydro-series-hg10-a1-gpu-liquid-cooling-bracket

It is the equivalent of the Kraken but straight from Corsair and claims to work with any Corsair water cooler. Ignore that price because I just bought two from my Microcenter for $40 each.

And that is where I made my mistake. Haha. For whatever reason I walked out with 2x refurb R9 290X @ $240 each and 2x Corsair HG10A @ $40 a piece.

After taxes grand total of $600. In my excitement to tinker with stuff I failed to realized and OC'ed GTX 980 Ti would probably be nipping at the heals of this CFX setup and still use half the power. HAHA.

So, I'll be returning everything (not before I get my bench on with CFX 290X) and will just be ordering a stock 980 Ti and one of these (barring confirmation from Corsair it works with the 980 Ti ref, which it should since it lists 980 and Titan X ref as supported):

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/hydro-series-hg10-n980-gpu-liquid-cooling-bracket

LOL, in the quest for moar FPS, the dollars must be shuffled! And products tested!

Have fun, let us know.

 

[omek]

But I am going to try the ref. 290x as is, turn the voltage down though, just as I have with the Asus 290.

A travesty!! How far are you able to downvolt?

 

[B-Riz]

A travesty!! How far are you able to downvolt?

Just the slider to the left in CCC, -50%? Who knows how much it helped, I will have to put MSI Afterburner on to really tweak it.

All, I ran the ref. 290x yesterday with "The Evil Within" in the morning then a ~30 min BF4 CTE new map game in the evening.

Mother of god, compared to my Asus 290, I could not wait to get this out of the box.

I tried both quiet mode and uber mode on the bios switch; fiddling in CCC was meh.

I still cannot believe these were released just on reference in the beginning. I am hella glad I waited for a nice 290 to become cheap enough.

I am happy to report I received the Kraken G10 bracket yesterday, but, now I need to wait for the GELID VRM heatsinks to get here, cannot run those nekkid, lol.

If, for some reason the CLC cooled 290x is meh, I will throw the whole thing on FS/FT and pick up a 390x; when Fury Nano drops to hopefully push prices down for Red and Green.

 

[railven]

Been busy. I ran the first card without realizing in Quiet mode (fan wasn't an issue, no louder than my dinky GTX 680 would get) but temps, holy cow 90C+ almost within minutes. Started to throttle the card in Firestrike.

Let it finish and got 10060. Cranked the fan to 100% and it finished at 10090 so I guess it wasn't too bad but my god is that fan loud.

Put each card to max clocks I could get, both did 1175/1625 easily. Firestrike for each card was 11695 and 11555.

Now to CFX them. I will not put the Corsair HG10 on them. I'm just going to return them. After some reading and soul searching, I don't want to keep either card and risking a warranty screw up or return screw up is not in the cards haha.

Overall, AMD is insane for releasing these cards with this cooler. Woof!

 

[railven]

Card idle temps: 58C/48C with stock cooler on with Uber switch on.

My Firestrike was 18058, PSU read 857W at the wall. Woof. These guys can suck it down.

First thing I noticed when I switched to CFX mode - microstutter on the desktop. Kind of weird, I don't remember this on CFX 7970s.

Anyways, twas fun/nice having Radeons again. Back into their boxes they go.

 

[B-Riz]

Card idle temps: 58C/48C with stock cooler on with Uber switch on.

My Firestrike was 18058, PSU read 857W at the wall. Woof. These guys can suck it down.

First thing I noticed when I switched to CFX mode - microstutter on the desktop. Kind of weird, I don't remember this on CFX 7970s.

Anyways, twas fun/nice having Radeons again. Back into their boxes they go.

Thanks for the update.

You going 980 Ti or waiting to see what Fury Nano brings? If it pushes prices, etc?