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About this blog

I don't pretend to be an expert. This blog is not a guide but more a list of chronologically ordered mistakes. Please help me if you can. Thank You All.

Entries in this blog

Duel Red Mod 290x's

Finnished this blog now?: Not quite, I am yet to do the Grid2 Benchmark but I can talk about the general use of the cards. Before modding, the reference card was extremely loud, as you can imagine, whereas the Tri-X cooler stayed almost silent. After this mod, I found that while the total noise for both cards has been reduced, the single 120mm fan is having to work harder that the three 80mms on the Tri-X. So it's louder post mod unfortunately. On the bright side though, the card runs at the sa
Smokey77

Smokey77

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VRM Temperature Benchmark (Gaming)

Grid 2 Benchmark, Max Settings, 2560x1080: Maximum VRM temp was 64 degrees, well within acceptable limits considering the up to 105 degree guarantee. However, Tri-x Sapphire cooler VRM temps will not get beyond 50 degrees with the same settings. This is due, most likely, to the difference in heatsink size between the two cards rather than the airflow. After I ran the bench on loop for 50 minuets, the VRMs dropped down to 40 in a matter of seconds and only took five minuets to get back to the id
Smokey77

Smokey77

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VRM Cooling... Yeah... "Cooling"

Finally Some Results!: Geil VRM sinks came this morning, only two days late... Anyway, these sinks are pretty small and with a fan ghetted on the card pretty poorly, they still hit 103 degrees with furmark. However, in regular gaming, I am seeing 95s on average which is on par to the reference cooler that was on here. This post isn't about the core temps but I'm really happy with them. So this higher VRM temp is worth the sacrifice. Can I Make It Better?: I can certanly get rid of the thermal
Smokey77

Smokey77

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VRAM Cooling

Cooling 'n' stuffs: Just cooling the processor isn't enough, VRM and to a lesser extent, VRAM need some attention too. These heat sinks were pretty cheap and came with a terrible thermal pad that wouldn't stick at all. So I took these off and used the smallest amount of MX2 paste as possible. I also had to spread the paste by hand because the heat sinks are under any kind of retention. Didn't take long after I got the hang of spreading the paste. I have some photos but I've been having phone
Smokey77

Smokey77

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Fitting The Corsair H60 To A 290x

Progress! My thermal paste arrived this morning so I can re-mount the H60. I have done two things differently this time around, one was to fit the cable ties like this... and the other was to add more paste. Moreover, I checked the coverage of the paste and if covers the die which is great. I did this by pressing the cooler by hand before tightening the cable ties. Now, I didn't press down super hard, in fact there were still some blogs of paste that needed to be pushed down a little more
Smokey77

Smokey77

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Countdown

How Much Longer?: eBay claims my VRM and VRAM coolers will arrive next this friday. I know this is an estimate so I might be looking at a delivery next week which will mean no big updates this weekend. Possibly next week I will get the time to mod the test card but I am working on a couple of other builds which are taking up some time. I may do a short blog entry on them on my main blog: Smokey's Chronicles :. Keep up to date with my personal build at my other blog: Smokey Attempts: PC In A Dr
Smokey77

Smokey77

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Stripped Naked 290x ;) (no human nudity here you dirty beggars)

What Did I Do?: To prep the 290x for VRAM, VRM and Processor cooling, I stripped it down. This is an MSI reference PCB card. It came with a stock cooler but unfortunately I cannot show you the removal of the cooler as it's already done but OC3D have a Corsair HG10 review where you can see it step by step. So, moving on, Here are some images of the nude card. Note I have also removed the PCIe cover because this card is being used in my current custom case. You can see the progress of this build
Smokey77

Smokey77

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Oh Lord... Have I Really Done This...

What Is The Red Mod?: The Corsair HG10 and NZXT's Kraken G10 are two examples of Mounting solutions for GPUs that don't require you to cable tie it together. Another important thing to note is that these solutions have built in VRM and VRAM cooling. Whereas the red mod is much more "bodged". It basically lets you fix an AIO to a GPU with cable ties as tension screws. Geil make VRM coolers for the 290 and 290x but I can't say for other cards as I've not looked into it. VRAM coolers are so easy t
Smokey77

Smokey77

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