Stren's R9-290/290x Water Block Testing

[stren]

Your a trooper continuing with this. No way would I risk a second loss, let alone a third. Then again, I'm too cheap to even buy the first!!lol

Thanks Martin - I have universal blocks to test anyway, so it's not a complete waste of time

awesome testing bro, honestly i don't like the look of the AC block, results are great but i'd have to go on cost/aesthetics/performance..

Honestly these days there are lots of good and perfectly acceptable choices on offer. Life is better than ever for the water cooler I would say.

[stren]

Jakusonfire asked for internal pics - So I took some pics of the non plexi blocks. Bear in mind I did not clean these at all after testing:

Bitspower





Heatkiller:





Koolance:



Swiftech:









XSPC:

[stren]

So FWIW I tried the new modified backplate that alphacool sent. I had to stop my tests because the VRMs were quickly overheating.

I run furmark at 1150MHz core, 1375MHz vram, +100mV core, +100mV aux. HWINFO considers this to be ~320W of load. It's a lot but not unreasonable.

VRM1 hit 127C after a few minutes at which point it looked like the core had started to throttle and I was concerned enough to shut the test down. Ambients at ~30C, coolant normally gets to 40C. For reference the Aquacomputer block (best for vrm temps) ran 63-67C, while even the Swiftech block which I gave a poor review to because of VRM temps "only" hit 100-105C. (These are absolute temps, not deltas).

Predictably using 2-3mm thick thermal pads when everyone else uses 0.5-1mm thick thermal pads can cause issues.

In addition the modified backplate still needs more work - the second rib was still interfering with the ram slots. However I was able to get the backplate "safely" in the socket even though I was concerned about the stress it was putting on the board/socket.

I've notified alphacool of the issue and we'll see what happens.

But for now I'd heavily recommend staying away.

[madmaxx]

Thanks for all the work! Naked pics are welcomed

Wake me when there is something other than "microfin" channel or w/e it's referred to as.

[jogshy]

Good review.

Btw, you should always add which blocks support Koolance QD3/4 and Swiftech iLok quick disconnects ( with 19/13mm-3/4 OD tubing ). Very important information.

[stren]

Good review.

Btw, you should always add which blocks support Koolance QD3/4 and Swiftech iLok quick disconnects ( with 19/13mm-3/4 OD tubing ). Very important information.

I haven't measured but here are my thoughts: QD3 would fit on anything, QD4's would fit on everything but the couple of tightest maybe XSPC/watercool (I actually use QD4's in testing and offset one with a 30mm spacer in order to fit). The Swiftech lok-seal are really fat though and I suspect those would only fit on Swiftech and Koolance.

Again this is not measured though.



An update on Alphacool - Alphacool showed their data, and hardwaremaxx's data which show results on an overclocked card running furmark at about 60C over ambient. It's hardly award winning, but a lot better than what I saw. They are going to send a new unit with new pads as there is a chance that a retest will improve things :thumb:

[Jakusonfire]

Thanks for the internal pics Stren. Its very interesting.
Swiftech have really upped their game with their new blocks design wise. Its fascinating to see the two extremes of VRM cooling section water surface area between the chunky Bitspower and the tiny Heatkiller.

[stren]

Worth mentioning that on the new 980 blocks EK have gone with a jetplate style design like their universal thermosphere block and their cpu blocks. I'm hoping this should give a good performance increase but we'll have to test to really know

[M-XXXX]

Hello, long time no see.

I have bought myself used R9 290 for 190€ and I want to instal my universal EK water cooling on It. Everying is fine just one question: what is that and if I need to cool it?

[stren]

it's the voltage regulator for the memory. All the blocks cool it, but honestly it never gets hot even if you don't.

[stren]

Round 4 Results:



Not sure why Aquacomputer was so high on core temps this time - TIM spread looked good. I could retest it again, but at some point you have to move on with your life. The 980 is here afterall.

2nd Alphacool block looks much better then the previous one - great core temps, poor VRM temps. Still very restrictive and horrible compatability though - I checked my Rampage IV Gene and Rampage IV Extreme and it clashed with DIMMs on those motherboard as well as my previous Maximus VI Impact motherboard.

Next up - Ibercool 4 way universal GPU block + Arctic cooling VRM heatsink.

[stren]

Ibercool universal gpu block results + the arctic cooling VRM air cooler (designed to work in conjunction with the Accelero Xtreme) - the vrm cooler was run with out the Xtreme - I just needed something on the VRMS so they wouldn't melt. You need quite a hefty amount of airflow though, even positioning a AP15 fan right next to the VRM cool did not keep it cool enough so I resorted to a massively thick 5000rpm 140mm server fan to do the job and ran it at half speed. Still tons of air, still noisy, but not intolerable for noise or heat. The kink in the arctic graph is because I knocked the fan over and repositioned it. Take the arctic results with a grain of salt.

Full review on the ibercool soon!