Factory OC-ed 290X or Reference 290X - both water-cooled

[AznKnight82]

Before I state my question, I'm going to say this:

 

 

I plan to drop some big money on a new system anyways. I can buy a system that guarantees me no money (a gaming system with NVidia) or I can buy the same-priced system but use it to mine in the 80-100% of my typical day when I don't play games, with no guarantee of no money but still be good at gaming. I've got a laptop now. Planned on mining dogecoin. I'm voting on the latter.

 

 

Ok. So I was looking to getting two R9 290X's and water-cooling them. I rent an apartment that is managed by a big company (they own a couple dozen buildings in my area) and the electricity is included in the rent. Also, the apartment is already pretty warm for my tastes and not the largest, so efficient silent cooling is a must. So mining, other than getting the rig, doesn't really cost me any money. To me, it's zero risk/cost investment and if it completely collapses, I still have what I originally wanted: a decent gaming machine.

 

My question is this: Should I spend the extra $50-100 per card to get a factory OC-ed version of the card? I typically understand that they might have better chips and components in them, translating to a better life-cycle.

 

If I was ever concerned about an ROI is if mining completely burns out any of the cards.

 

[nsyedhasan]

What ever is cheaper.

[flibberdipper]

Get the cheaper one. Then OC it some more to match or surpass the factory OC'd card.

[91wow]

I'm not sure on this but i think if you want to water cool sapphires new one with a EKWB on it is best price for water cooling.

[AznKnight82]

The factory OC-ed cards will typically have higher OC headroom.

 

 

What ever is cheaper.

 

As I said at the start, I'm dropping the money on it anyways. My absolute ceiling is for two R9-290x's and water-cooling them (on top of everything else, including a water-cooling enthusiast-class case). I have the budget to get the more expensive ones.

 

My concern is the risk of burning out the cards, even on water cooling. I still want a rig that is capable of solid gaming.

 

 

I'm not sure on this but i think if you want to water cool sapphires new one with a EKWB on it is best price for water cooling.

 

I've heard Sapphires, Powercolor, and something else were not so good for mining. Was going to go either ASUS, Gigabyte, or MSI. I'm not looking to make an ROI. But if I can make some extra money on the side, that's fantastic.

[AznKnight82]

To add to this topic, I've read that mining does task the GPU's VRMs more than just gaming. So something like this:

 

Acclaimed DIGI+ VRM has been applied via an eight-phase power design that uses digital voltage regulators to minimize power noise by 30%, enhance power efficiency by 15%, widen voltage modulation tolerance, and improve overall stability and longevity by 2.5 times over the reference design. (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121840)

 

is appealing.
 

[flibberdipper]

To add to this topic, I've read that mining does task the GPU's VRMs more than just gaming. So something like this:

 

Acclaimed DIGI+ VRM has been applied via an eight-phase power design that uses digital voltage regulators to minimize power noise by 30%, enhance power efficiency by 15%, widen voltage modulation tolerance, and improve overall stability and longevity by 2.5 times over the reference design. (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121840)

 

is appealing.

 

If you're gonna push the card a lot, you're gonna want good VRM's, and you're gonna want to keep them cool.

[AznKnight82]

Maybe I need to re-word my question:

 

When water-cooling the 290x, should I be concerned about burning them out (or them dying before their time) when mining almost 24/7 with them?

[AK0490]

Maybe I need to re-word my question:

When water-cooling the 290x, should I be concerned about burning them out (or them dying before their time) when mining almost 24/7 with them?

No, I wouldn't worry about it. I've had many brands of cards running for 9 months mining with no problems, including some that are water-cooled.

[Virgule]

Go ASUS for mining.

[beefalo]

Maybe I need to re-word my question:

 

When water-cooling the 290x, should I be concerned about burning them out (or them dying before their time) when mining almost 24/7 with them?

From what I've seen, whether your card is great for mining or not is kinda a crapshoot.  With them under water heat should never be a problem so what I would choose based on would just be price.  Getting a custom pcb card will help for gaming but not as much for mining.  The 290x is limited by power on the reference models when under water but when mining you usually leave the core clocks fairly low and just crank the memory so power usually isn't an issue.  I would also expect the custom cards to have slightly better qc so that could be an advantage when running at 100% 24/7.