Corsair HG10 GPU Bracket Cooler

[ThatSweetGamer]

This does not look nearly as good as the NZXT G10 though, I really would have expected Corsair to make a much more appealing bracket but this thing looks like it was designed in a day by a 13 year old.

I like the look of it. The Kraken G10 made the card look naked, which I didn't like.

[BiG StroOnZ]

I like the look of it. The Kraken G10 made the card look naked, which I didn't like.

 

I don't understand how anyone could like the look of it, it looks clunky, outdated, and not well designed:

 

 

 

 

vs the more modern looking:

 

 

Everything just looks out of place on the HG10, it looks like they didn't even try to make it look good and people will buy it because they are fan boys. They need to head back to R&D because IMO, it is not ready for release at all. 

[Flyguygamer]

How is this old news? It came out today.

What they said.

It was announced several months ago, it was supposed to be released in the end of June if i remember right. They ran into problems in production and it got delayed a bunch.

 

 

There was a thread already made 2 days ago

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/237434-hg10-gpu-bracket-cooler-wut/

 

The HG10 was brought up a looooong time ago, so long I can't find the thread anymore.

 

 

1) this is a repost

2) the HG10 can use more than jsut corsair liquid coolers. It can use any Asetek design AiO, including the NZXT coolers

3) the HG10 actually cools the VRM and VRAM properly unlike the G10

[Flyguygamer]

I don't understand how anyone could like the look of it, it looks clunky, outdated, and not well designed:

 

 

 

 

vs the more modern looking:

 

 

Everything just looks out of place on the HG10, it looks like they didn't even try to make it look good and people will buy it because they are fan boys. 

I don't like either of them. And I am a huge corsair fanboy...

The point is until we get some very well integrated things like the 295x2 I see no point. 

[BiG StroOnZ]

I don't like either of them. And I am a huge corsair fanboy...

The point is until we get some very well integrated things like the 295x2 I see no point. 

 

But you have to admit that the Corsair looks worse by a mile.

[Flyguygamer]

But you have to admit that the Corsair looks worse by a mile.

Yes it does. The g10 is the better looking of the 2.I just hate them both.

[zacRupnow]

Does it really ONLY work with Corsair's coolers?! Even though most AIOs have the same mounting system?

[ltguy]

This does not look nearly as good as the NZXT G10 though, I really would have expected Corsair to make a much more appealing bracket but this thing looks like it was designed in a day by a 13 year old.

Really?? Cause that is exactly what i would expect. Have you seen their corsair gaming logo. It was designed by a 13 year old in less than five minutes. Look how long they spent on the name... nzxt called it g10.. what should we call ours.. hmm lets add an "h" to their idea.. done.. hg10 it is.

 

But I applaud nzxt for bringing the g10 to market. I wanted for a long time to have the simplicity of cooling your cpu with AIO's to be available for gpu's. Kudos to NZXT. Yes it needs work but they got the ball rolling.

[snowComet]

There was a thread already made 2 days ago

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/237434-hg10-gpu-bracket-cooler-wut/

 

The HG10 was brought up a looooong time ago, so long I can't find the thread anymore.

Actually there is already a thread about this HG10, together with other products, made during Computex....

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/160697-computex-press-releases-bitfenix-corsair-noctua/

[MonkeyFace]

Corsair is way too late to the game, there are barely any reference R9 290(X) left in the market, and R9 390X is expected to have liquid cooled reference cards.   

 

Nvidia cards sure don't need these either. 

[Faceman]

1) this is a repost

2) the HG10 can use more than jsut corsair liquid coolers. It can use any Asetek design AiO, including the NZXT coolers

3) the HG10 actually cools the VRM and VRAM properly unlike the G10

The G10 cools the VRM and VRAM properly.  It is a software issue, not hardware issue.  Don't run kombustor and the G10 is perfectly fine.

 

Its a crap product when compared to the G10.  At least, that is how I feel based on what we currently know.

 

First, its more expensive. $40 compared to $25-$30 of the G10.

 

Second, it is not interchangeable between cards.  You have to buy a certain model for your certain card.  So if you later upgrade to a new card, it won't be compatible.  Unlike the G10, it is compatible with a wide variety of cards, Intel, AMD, reference, non-reference.  Even the 900 series is compatible with the G10.

 

Third, It is only compatible with reference design cards.  If you have an aftermarket cooler, this product is not for you.

 

Fourth,  The HG10 looks a lot more difficult to install than the G10.  The G10 isn't a cake walk either, but that video looks a heck of a lot more difficult than the G10 installation video.

 

     One major argument to buy the HG10 over the G10 is because of VRM temperatures.  The Kraken G10 gets a lot of bad publicity because people claim that it has insufficient Voltage Regulation Module(VRM) and Video Card RAM(VRAM) Cooling.  For starters, the VRAM never gets hot enough to be worried about, so lets focus on the VRMs.  Does the GPU need additional heat sinks for the VRAM and VRMs?  In short, no.

 

   The whole "insufficient VRAM/VRM cooling" began with a review of the G10 by Puget Systems.  This review is probably the most critical review of the G10 out there.  While it makes an interesting point, I have to explain its critical flaw to a certain extend.  To begin, their Unigine temperature test, which is most closely related to video game performance, their measured temperatures are perfectly fine, they are even lower with the G10 than with the  stock heat sink for both the GTX Titan and Reference R9 290X(Notorious for high heat).  The only time when we see the temperatures higher with the G10 than the stock heat sink are when they run Kombustor.

 

     Kombustor/Furmark is a program that should NEVER be run.  It puts unnecessary load on the GPU that is completely unrealistic.  It is a card killer.  It is uncommon, but happens enough that it needs to be mentioned.  Kombustor can and will brick your card.  It happened to me earlier this year, and it happens to many others.  I like Tiny Tom Logan's analogy of this stress test.  "It is like the Navy Seals, it is incredibly rigorous and has a low pass rate."

     I like to give my components 2 weeks of break in time before overclocking to make sure everything is working properly.  This is what I did with my brand new, MSi GTX 770 Lightning.  I had used the card for 2 weeks, no problems, everything going fine.  As you know with a Lightning, this is a card built specifically for overclocking.  Without knowing what I know now, I ran Kombustor at stock settings to get a baseline for my overclocks.  It took all of 3 minutes running Kombustor on a brand new, factory settings card for it to die.  I am not the only one this has happened to, so I always tell my story whenever I get a chance because Kombustor is a dangerous program, and should not be used.  If you want to run some benchmarks for your GPU, use Unigine, 3DMark, and In-game benchmark utilities.  Not Furmark/Kombustor.

 

     Back to the Puget review.  They ran Kombustor during their test, which as a reviewer, they should do in order to review the G10 in all scenarios to give the reader an idea of what to expect.  My problem with the review and the negative perception it has created is that it is an unrealistic scenario, one which I would not recommend anyone do at home, and you are unlikely to encounter that type of load during regular use.  I'm not aware of any real world applications where your GPU would be put under that much stress.  So lets look at the part of the review that pertains to real world scenarios, their Unigine portion of the test.  The VRM temperatures are perfectly fine, even lower with the G10 than the stock heat sink.  This is with "naked" cards.  A lot of non-reference cards which a lot of people own come with mid-plates that passively cool the VRAM and VRMs. 

 

     To give you an idea of what VRM temperatures are like for those of us at home, we asked members of the OCN G10 Owner's Club, who have cards that can monitor the VRM temperatures to run some tests.  Simple before and after tests. There are two reviews that I will point to. The Asus DCUII GTX 780Ti, Post #1147 and a reference R9 290 Post #1486 & Post #1500

   You will see that the guy with the Asus GTX 780Ti was getting DCUII temperatures of 86C on the Core and 104C on the VRMs, his card was overclocked.  You can look at the link to see specifics of his OC, nothing major, very average.  Once he did the G10 modification without extra heat sinks, he was able to further overclock his card, and temperatures dropped to 49C on the Core, and 81C on the VRMs.  This tells us two things.  #1, the VRMs can withstand a lot of heat, #2 the G10's Fan does an excellent job of cooling the VRMs on its own without any heat sinks.  Keep in mind, this card does come with a mid-plate that passively cools VRMs and VRAM.

     There was another test done with a reference R9 290, a card notorious for high heat and VRM throttling.  This person went as far as to do a before and after test with heat sinks on their G10. that they went from 90C on the core with the reference cooler all the way down to 55C with G10 + H55. VRMs went from 110C down to 75C.  The G10's included 92mm fan alone dropped VRM temperatures by 35C!  Most notably, when they added $6 worth of heat sinks the VRM temperatures further dropped from 75C to 60C.  So adding heat sinks does help out if you are concerned about VRM temperatures. This was with a reference R9 290, so it was a naked card without mid-plate to passively help cool VRAM and VRMs.  These are just two examples, if you read through that thread, there are many more.

     My personal experience with an EVGA GTX 780 SC w/ ACX Cooler is not a perfect example, but I will mention it anyways.  My card cannot read VRM temperatures, it doesn't have a built in sensor like the other cards I listed.  I did the G10 modification to my card, and just to be safe, I spent an extra $6 to buy some tiny aluminum heat sinks.  I later purchased an NZXT Sentry 3 Fan Controller which has a temperature probe.  I place the temperature probe directly on my card's VRMs and I have never seen it exceed 54C, even in the lengthiest of gaming sessions.  I don't have any before temperatures unfortunately, but one can assume that it was probably 10-15C higher without the extra mini heat sinks.

 

      In summation,VRM temperatures are not a concern as long as you don't run a dangerous program like Kombustor/Furmark.  For awhile now people have been thinking that its a hardware problem, when in reality, its a software problem.  You will be perfectly fine buying just a Kraken G10 + AIO of your choice without extra heat sinks.  Any extras you decide to buy are optional.

[Enderman]

blablablalotsawordzhere

Actually yes, the VRM and VRAM do get hot. Do you know what overclocking is?

When you pump 150% power into your GPU and crank the memory clock up the VRAM gets really hot. Why do you think graphics card manufacturers put a unibody heatsink over all the VRMs and VRAM? Because it gets hot.

 

The G10 just has a fan blowing air over it, and absolutely no heat dissipation materials on the components. So yes, you would need to spend $10 anyway on a set of heatsinks and thermal adhesive to keep your card at safe temperatures.

 

Oh and also the G10 takes up 3 slots while the HG10 can fit in a 2 slot space with other cards.

[Faceman]

Actually yes, the VRM and VRAM do get hot. Do you know what overclocking is?

When you pump 150% power into your GPU and crank the memory clock up the VRAM gets really hot. Why do you think graphics card manufacturers put a unibody heatsink over all the VRMs and VRAM? Because it gets hot.

 

The G10 just has a fan blowing air over it, and absolutely no heat dissipation materials on the components. So yes, you would need to spend $10 anyway on a set of heatsinks and thermal adhesive to keep your card at safe temperatures.

 

Oh and also the G10 takes up 3 slots while the HG10 can fit in a 2 slot space with other cards.

Even if the G10 takes up 3 slots, plenty of people running SLI in mATX cases with G10's in that thread.

 

Did you read the links I posted?  Those people are overclocking their cards and getting lower VRM temperatures with the G10(without extra heat sinks) than with their stock heat sinks by as much as 35C.

[Faceman]

Show me the HG10 outperforming the G10 in terms of VRM temperatures by a considerable amount and I'll change my tune. 

 

Still doesn't change the fact that it is reference card only, and card specific.  If you want to upgrade cards, that HG10 you spent $40 on isn't transferable, while the G10 is.

[MEC-777]

My apologies for digging up an "old" thread, but I only just saw this thread today and felt that I should share my experience as a kraken G10 owner/user.

 

In a nutshell, everything @Faceman explained and pointed out with regards to the G10 cooling the Vram and VRM's is totally on the mark. Also, the more I hear about it, the more I am convinced Furmark is a card killer and is what killed my 7950. I never had any issues with this card before I ran Furmark. I had very strong overclock running on that card for over 6 months without a single issue. I installed furmark and hadn't even run it for more than a few seconds and it locked up - the card was dead. Hindsight = 20/20 and furmark is a card killer! I really don't see the point in a program that loads the GPU in an unrealistic manner that would never be observed and is not indicative of real-world use. Had I known at the time it was that much of a risk to run that program, I wouldn't have even considered it.

 

The HG10 looks like a reference cooler that was simply cut open (I know it's not and there is much more to the design). Not a big fan of the design and athletics of it. IMO, the kraken g10 is a superior product on many levels and would highly recommend the G10 over the HG10 for any card, every time. Even for reference 290's.

[alexyy]

It's a fail compatibility wise, but it solves the poor VRM cooling problem from the G10, the G10 does also look more stylish.

 

It's compatible with other aftermarket models as long as they use reference PCB not a completely reference cooler 

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

To all ypu guys saying it's not original and it's bad well it's not. Corsair is better, period.

Lol, I'm just kidding....

[Faceman]

My apologies for digging up an "old" thread, but I only just saw this thread today and felt that I should share my experience as a kraken G10 owner/user.

 

In a nutshell, everything @Faceman explained and pointed out with regards to the G10 cooling the Vram and VRM's is totally on the mark. Also, the more I hear about it, the more I am convinced Furmark is a card killer and is what killed my 7950. I never had any issues with this card before I ran Furmark. I had very strong overclock running on that card for over 6 months without a single issue. I installed furmark and hadn't even run it for more than a few seconds and it locked up - the card was dead. Hindsight = 20/20 and furmark is a card killer! I really don't see the point in a program that loads the GPU in an unrealistic manner that would never be observed and is not indicative of real-world use. Had I known at the time it was that much of a risk to run that program, I wouldn't have even considered it.

 

The HG10 looks like a reference cooler that was simply cut open (I know it's not and there is much more to the design). Not a big fan of the design and athletics of it. IMO, the kraken g10 is a superior product on many levels and would highly recommend the G10 over the HG10 for any card, every time. Even for reference 290's.

Yup, Furmark will kill cards.  Thank you for your contribution to this post, hopefully it will help dissuade others from running Furmark.

[rockmassif]

I think It looks better compared to G10. It's not the best, but still better.

 

But it still sucks that we only have 2 options. Wish there was more brackets.

 

It's really too expensive to watercool GPUs if you're not interested in buying these crappy ones.

[Faceman]

I think It looks better compared to G10. It's not the best, but still better.

 

But it still sucks that we only have 2 options. Wish there was more brackets.

 

It's really too expensive to watercool GPUs if you're not interested in buying these crappy ones.

How are these crappy?  One of them isn't even out yet, and we don't know how it will perform.  We do know that it is reference card only, and it is card specific only, so no transferring it when you upgrade GPUs.

 

If you're concerned about VRM temperatures on a G10 don't be.  There is tons of evidence to show that VRAM and VRMs don't get hot during normal gaming use, even when overclocked to the max on stock BIOS. If you are concerned, and want to add heat sinks, it only costs $10 to fully heatsink any GPU.  The G10 is also reusable on future graphics cards.  Lots of people had G10s on their old 700 series cards and it was as simple as moving the G10 from one card to the other when they upgraded to 900s.

 

Total cost for me to do the G10 mod to my EVGA GTX 780 SC:

 

NZXT X31 = $67.5 (Could easily use a H55 instead which I actually recommend over the X31 for only $40-$50)

G10 Bracket = $25 (Have seen it as low as $10 after MIR)

Aluminum Heatsinks 20 Pack = $6(Optional but encouraged)

Sekisui Double Sided Thermal Tape = $2.75(Optional but encouraged)

VGA to PWM Adapter = $5(Optional)

Copper Shim = $2.50(Only necessary on a small percentage of cards)

Cooler Master Blade Master 120mm fan = $9(Optional)

Gelid GC Extreme Thermal Paste = $0(Already had some from before, but it is typically $12.  There are other less expensive, and high end TIMs available)

+

------------------------------------------------------------

=                                                             $117.75

 

I could have paid a cool $100 for everything if I went for an H55 instead of that stupid X31.

 

For the cost of just a GPU waterblock I dropped my card's temperature to the mid 40s, never exceeding 52C, and that 52C was when I used DSR to create an Ultra 4k result on BF4 Single Player.  For the most part I am never above 49C, and all users experience very similar results when using 120mm AIOs with the most common high temperature being 55C on GTX 780s, even when overclocked to the max 1.212v.  R9 290(X) users with 120mm AIOs are reporting temps of 55-60C.  The cost of doing this mod with all the recommended extras is just $100!

 

For anyone that doesn't want the hassle or doesn't have the money to go custom loop, the G10 is the way to go.

[rockmassif]

Not the performance, the look is pretty crappy.

[Faceman]

Not the performance, the look is pretty crappy.

Thats fairly subjective.  The look is perfectly fine to my eyes.