PowerColor's Liquid Cooled R9 290X LCS Spotted

[N.Broekhuijsen]

PowerColor has decided not to slap a big air cooler onto its R9 290X, but rather a shiny water block.

PowerColor's Liquid Cooled R9 290X LCS Spotted : Read more

 

[AMD Radeon]

i wish AMD made this waterblock as a reference cooler

 

[Zac Lloyd-Jones]

60MHz boost. Nice. *sigh*

 

[onedos]

I'm new to the the build your own pc world. I don't usually hear about powercolor products how do they conpare to msi, Asus and gigabyte

 

[3ogdy]

onedos, they're not bad at all BUT I'd always go with ASUS, Sapphire, Gigabyte....in that specific order...I've heard of reliability issues with some MSI products, but generally speaking they should be fine -again, as long as there are alternatives from any of the other three companies I've mentioned, go with something from them.

 

[KiranKara78]

@onedos

regarding gpu manufacturers, id say depends partly where you live. See this table

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18231329

Asus cooling on a 290x might be advisable or gigabytes windforce gets exceptional reviews, evga are magnificent, and so are gigabyte in my experience. Any of big boys should be fine, just read individual card reviews, and if ok, id base decision on customer service, and rta time in your country

 

[vaughn2k]

Could be, but I still have a Radeon 9800XT from Powercolor... and its still running in excellent condition 😉

 

[cyan1d3]

GIven this is a reference model card, it should be the same as any other Gigabyte, Asus, MSI, Powercolor, etc. EKWB only has blocks for reference layouts.

 

[Tanquen]

"nickel plated" = Pass.

 

[sha7bot]

@ Tanquen: Nickel Plated is optional, which is important for all of the variations on liquid cooling systems.

My entire system is nickel plated because, at the time, copper radiators were nearly twice the cost. It means no corrosion or electrolysis in my lines because I'm not mixing metals.

"'nickel plated' = Pass. I have copper blocks and radiators" - Fixed.

 

[Stevemeister]

@ Taquen - the EK blocks are nickel plated over solid copper and the nickel coating is so thin that is will not inhibit the thermal conductivity - it keeps the blocks looking better longer - copper oxidizes over time (and copper oxide has poor thermal conductivity), nickel doesn't oxidize. I've run both nickel plated blocks and pure copper blocks and there is no thermal difference

 

[Tanquen]

@ Tanquen: Nickel Plated is optional, which is important for all of the variations on liquid cooling systems.

My entire system is nickel plated because, at the time, copper radiators were nearly twice the cost. It means no corrosion or electrolysis in my lines because I'm not mixing metals.

"'nickel plated' = Pass. I have copper blocks and radiators" - Fixed.

Sorry, it’s just I’ve seen all those pics with nickel plated gunk in the system. Why take the risk? I thought they were all nickel over copper to look cool and or not have the mixed metals issue. I don’t want to risk the whole loop from bad plating from one component.

 

[cyan1d3]

EKWB had some bad nickel plating a while back, no such issues with the newer products.

This would have been a better way to go instead of buying a reference card and a water block.. Oh well!! I sure hope to see more board partners go this route in the future. Don't have to worry about voiding a warranty to water cool your GPU!

 

[cyan1d3]

EKWB had some bad nickel plating a while back, no such issues with the newer products.

This would have been a better way to go instead of buying a reference card and a water block.. Oh well!! I sure hope to see more board partners go this route in the future. Don't have to worry about voiding a warranty to water cool your GPU!

 

[rdc85]

I hope they also offer copper - plexy, or copper acetal variant

It will be better if they also offer a 290 non X ones...

 

[Double N]

really hope they make 290 non X as well

 

[IconicGamerX]

Nice strategy opted by Amd but just kinda curious whether it will outperform the 780ti of