Corsair H55 or Corsair H60? R9 290 or GTX 780?

[RevoltTrain]

I plan on picking up either a 780 or 290 Reference soon and water cooling it with an AIO. I've been wanting to upgrade GPU's ever since my PC was built. The NZXT G10 is on sale currently for $10 on TigerDirect. Which has me in the mood to buy the GPU and AIO right now. So which AIO would be better for a GPU and which GPU should I pick up?

[ImBleu]

H60 > H55, but it'll be more expensive probably.

 

If you want to use corsair's cooler - you can only use amd reference. G10 works with basically anything.

[RevoltTrain]

H60 > H55, but it'll be more expensive probably.

 

If you want to use corsair's cooler - you can only use amd reference. G10 works with basically anything.

H60 and H55 are currently the same price. Which GPU will give me more performance?

[Interfectorem]

I would go with the H60, my logic is telling me that the higher number, 60, makes it a better product that the H55. As for which GPU, both will give you very similar performance, although the 780 will run cooler and consume less power (If you care about that anyways). Both are good choices, but honestly, I would go with whichever one is cheapest.

[The Crazed Child]

If the 290 is cheaper, you can use the extra money to get a better AIO which will dramatically bring down the temps.

[RevoltTrain]

Turns out I can't use the H60 as it isn't compatible with the G10.

[RevoltTrain]

If the 290 is cheaper, you can use the extra money to get a better AIO which will dramatically bring down the temps.

Turns out I can't find a reference 290. But the 290X is the same price as the 780. How big of a performance difference is there between the 290X and the 780?

[Faceman]

I plan on picking up either a 780 or 290 Reference soon and water cooling it with an AIO. I've been wanting to upgrade GPU's ever since my PC was built. The NZXT G10 is on sale currently for $10 on TigerDirect. Which has me in the mood to buy the GPU and AIO right now. So which AIO would be better for a GPU and which GPU should I pick up?

H60 is not compatible with the G10.  Buy the H55.  Also, I recommend the R9 290.  It is at a crazy low price, and it benefits much more from the G10 than the 780.  Also, 4GB of VRAM which is becoming more important, plus 3 free games that are actually quite good.

 

If you need more help, visit the G10 Owner's Club on OCN.

 

780Ti > R9 290X > GTX 780 > R9 290

[my414]

I am just going to give you a warning by saying, you should not expect to overclock unless you have a way to better cool the vrm, they get VERY hot without any heatsinks.

 

I have h55 on my r9 290, temps are mid 60's

[Faceman]

I am just going to give you a warning by saying, you should not expect to overclock unless you have a way to better cool the vrm, they get VERY hot without any heatsinks.

 

I have h55 on my r9 290, temps are mid 60's

Core temps or VRM temps?

 

What model R9 290?  This person is using a reference R9 290 + H55 and gets VRM temps of 75C, which is down from 110C they were getting with the stock heatsink.

 

The other two main components are the NZXT Kraken G10($25) and Corsair H55($50).  Before continuing with the GPU WaterCooling, check and make sure that your card is compatible.  As this is one of the more complicated mods out there, it is a good idea to do a lot of research and ask a lot of questions.  The OCN G10 Owner's Club is a fantastic resource for information if you need help with anything.

Here is a list of compatible cards:

Nvidia : GTX 780 Ti, 780*, 770, 760, Titan, 680, 670, 660Ti, 660, 580, 570, 560Ti, 560, 560SE.  Some of the 900 Series GPUs are also compatible, this is on a card by card basis though.  Check to make sure of compatibility.

AMD : R9 290X, 290, 280X*, 280*, 270X, 270 HD7970*, 7950*, 7870, 7850, 6970, 6950, 6870, 6850, 6790, 6770, 5870, 5850, 5830

The compatibility list is based on AMD Radeon and NVIDIA's reference board layout, screw spacing and die height only. Please check the height restriction before purchase.

* Some variations in AMD and Nvidia die height may require the use of a copper shim($3). Ask in OCN if your specific card needs a shim.  I know the EVGA 780 SC w/ ACX Cooler needs a shim.

 

 

   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. 

     There was another test done with an R9 290.  They went as far as to do a before and after test with heat sinks on their G10. that they went from something like 90C on the core with the reference cooler all the way down to 55C with G10 + H55. VRMs went from 110C down to 75C.  Most importantly, when they added heat sinks the VRM temperatures 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.

      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.  Here is a list of my optional extras you might want to buy to go along with your G10:

 

1 Pack of Cosmos mini Aluminum VGA Heatsinks(20pc) - $6 You can place these on your VRMs for peace of mind if you like.  It is what I did, even with a card that has a mid-plate.  My VRMs have never exceeded 54C according to my NZXT Sentry 3 Fan Controller.

 

1 Pack of Sekisui Double-Sided Adhesive Thermal Heatsink Tape(2pc) - $3 The heat sinks come with thermal tape pre-applied, but it is not very good quality and people report them falling off.  Buy this high end thermal tape to get better heat transfer, and to make sure your heat sinks stay on.  You will have to remove the old pre-applied tape before using the good tape.

 

Aftermarket Thermal Compound, it comes with the AIO Cooler, but if you want to buy some performance stuff to shave off an additional 1-4C buy your own.  Can also be used on your CPU.  It is also nice to have just in case you need to remount anything.  The Cooler Master Seidon 240M actually comes with a tube that you can apply yourself, so you will have some extra.  This TIM is good, but definitely not "performance" stuff.  I recommend Gelid GC-Extreme - $11

 

 VGA to PWM Fan Adapter - $5  This Fan Adapter is very nice because it allows you to plug the G10's 92mm fan directly into the GPU instead of into the valuable motherboard fan headers.  Once plugged into the video card, you can control the fan speed in MSI Afterburner.  Set it to a constant speed, not a fan curve.  The reason being is that the temperature is derived from the core.  The fan is for the VRMs.  Set it to a constant value of close to 100%.

 

Cooler Master Blade Master 120mm PWM Fan - $12  A 2nd 120mm fan for your H55 will go a long way in cooling performance, and noise.  Having two fans allows you to run them at lower speeds, keeping the noise down, while maintaining the same awesomely low temperatures as a single fan at high speed, or crank them both up for even better performance.