MSI R9 290 Gaming vs Asus R9 290 DCII

[Guest]

Hey, gonna buy a new card and generally Asus makes the best card, however in case of R9 290 I'm leaning towards MSI's because I've heard that Asus' 290 uses cooler designed for GTX 780 so I't doesn't work so well. I will do OC with the card and I'll try to unlock them into 290X, another thing I want to do is watercooling, here it seems that MSI is a winner too because it has reference PCB design and watercooling won't void warranty. However I think that for watercooling I'll use new Alphacool's system ( http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/alphacool-gpu-cooler-customization-service,news-47860.html ) which will fit non refernece PCB cards too (is sending them card for a free waterblock a good idea? I'm greedy you know )
Which card should I get? Thanks for help in advance

 

[saggers123]

yes, go for the MSI model.

 

[1kca]

I've seen the same thing about Asus using a 780 cooler for the 290 and it not lining up properly.

I'd say go for the MSI. I have one and can't say I've had any problems with it. Very quiet inside my case (Fractal R4 with windowed side panel) and normally, if I'm hearing anything in the case, it's the two annoying 7200RPM HDDs

 

[bishop168]

....I'll try to unlock them into 290X.....

You try to unlock............are you sure?