[News] Swiftech to Launch Custom Water Block for AMD's RX 480

[StyM]

https://www.techpowerup.com/226842/s...or-amds-rx-480

Rouchon Industries Inc., dba Swiftech, is reportedly bringing to market a custom water block for AMD's RX 480. According to reddit user CBwardog, who spoke with a company representative, the water block is expected to come in an Acetal + Nickel package, bearing a price-tag of $99.95. No official announcement from Swiftech at this time, though it is expected that the water block will become available for sale to end-users worldwide through the usual channels in a mere three weeks.

[AliG]

I suppose I can see the business aspect of this for Swiftech, but I guess I don't understand why anyone would watercool a RX 480.

Think of it this way, the cost of an 8GB RX 480 and a full cover waterblock will be ~$340. A quick newegg search shows the GTX 1070 can be had for $380. Is it really not worth an extra $40 at that point to just get the 1070? I have to imagine even with the extra overclocking headroom, you won't come close to an overclocked 1070 in performance.

[zanzabar]

I suppose I can see the business aspect of this for Swiftech, but I guess I don't understand why anyone would watercool a RX 480.

Think of it this way, the cost of an 8GB RX 480 and a full cover waterblock will be ~$340. A quick newegg search shows the GTX 1070 can be had for $380. Is it really not worth an extra $40 at that point to just get the 1070? I have to imagine even with the extra overclocking headroom, you won't come close to an overclocked 1070 in performance.

if you wanted to stay amd the fury X with an AIO attached to it is around $350-375 as well when they hit clearance. that may have a POS coolermaster thing in it but it is set up to to take a gpu only block with minor shroud trimming.


a gpu only kit could be nice for the lower cost nature of the 480.

[kromosto]

I suppose I can see the business aspect of this for Swiftech, but I guess I don't understand why anyone would watercool a RX 480.

Think of it this way, the cost of an 8GB RX 480 and a full cover waterblock will be ~$340. A quick newegg search shows the GTX 1070 can be had for $380. Is it really not worth an extra $40 at that point to just get the 1070? I have to imagine even with the extra overclocking headroom, you won't come close to an overclocked 1070 in performance.

I was thinking the same and entered the thread to write exactly what you wrote. Thank you. You saved my time searching for prices .

[AliG]

I was thinking the same and entered the thread to write exactly what you wrote. Thank you. You saved my time searching for prices .

Yeah I guess I just don't understand why people watercool midrange cards. Rule of thumb is water is really only good for taking something at the top, which is limited by thermals (i.e. Tixan XP), above and beyond. Even if you already had the rest of the loop paid for, the cost of the block would return much greater dividends spent on better hardware.

I suppose you could consider the aesthestics/fan fare of watercooling, but again, if you're an enthusiast why go midrange?

[Sparky]

There are other reasons to water cool besides performance.

A BIG reason I watercooled my PC way back in 2007 was noise. I hated the noise of air coolers on a lot of video cards. Granted, I don't know the noise of a stock RX480 cooler.

Plus, watercooling can be fun

[StAndrew]

Watercooling has always been a luxury. Besides, I can see someone picking a much smaller RX 480 over GTX 1070 for a mini PC build.

[AliG]

There are other reasons to water cool besides performance.

A BIG reason I watercooled my PC way back in 2007 was noise. I hated the noise of air coolers on a lot of video cards. Granted, I don't know the noise of a stock RX480 cooler.

Plus, watercooling can be fun

I think the noise benefits used to more true 5 years ago. Ever since the development of massive heatsinks I really don't think you'll get signficantly quieter than a $70 air cooler.

I'll give you the fun aspect.

Watercooling has always been a luxury. Besides, I can see someone picking a much smaller RX 480 over GTX 1070 for a mini PC build.

I dunno, I feel like you'd then get a GTX 1060 in that case. I just can't see any sensible reason to watercool an RX 480 for performance reasons.

Plenty of good reasons to buy a 480, but I would never watercool it unless someone gave me the loop as a gift.

[StAndrew]

I dunno, I feel like you'd then get a GTX 1060 in that case. I just can't see any sensible reason to watercool an RX 480 for performance reasons.

Plenty of good reasons to buy a 480, but I would never watercool it unless someone gave me the loop as a gift.

True. However, there is always the fan boy factor

Besides, allegedly these are overclocking fiends if you power and cool them right.

http://wccftech.com/amd-rx-480-overclocked-air-water/

I would also posts Jaystwocent's youtube vid of this as well but I tend to take him with a large grain of salt

[Sparky]

Air cooling is a lot simpler maintenance... I've considered going back before, and my loop is filthy inside again I can tell as my CPU is hitting mid-upper 60s again and it shouldn't be (GPU seems happy in the 50s though). But, at the same time I'm not so sure I want to because there is that "cool" and crazy factor with it.

Dunno.

[tbone8ty]

The xfx Rx 480 runs really well temp wise and has decent OC headroom.

Wow fury x are xheap on Newegg now. $375 dang

[AliG]

The xfx Rx 480 runs really well temp wise and has decent OC headroom.

Perhaps, but in generality the RX 480 does not overclock as well as the Nvidia corresponding chips do. I don't mean that as a slam on the RX 480 (I have on record stated many times I think the 4GB varient is the best value card on the market today) - I just don't think this is a sensible card to watercool.

It's not financially worth it, and as Sparky pointed out air cooling is a lot less maintenance. Wait for Vega if you must watercool and love AMD.