Making my R9 290 SHUT UP!

[RafaelSoaresP]

So, I've been bitching around for a while now because of the thermal performance of my GPU. I have a XFX R9 290 with the reference cooler.

I at first was amazed at the power that this little monster can provide, but i figured out that you can't be cheap, powerful and efficient all at the same time.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago i thought it was time to solve the noise / heat / throttling situation i was facing, and ordered a Arctic Accelero III aftermarket cooler on Aliexpress.

Today I've received it and proceeded with the installation. Here is the log

 

So, here's my victim

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And here it is side by side with my (gigantic) savior

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It's time to disassemble, and here I use the literally most useful thing Linus taught me. Having a place to put stuff.

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After disassembly a little comparison between the two coolers

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Everything clean and ready to receive the new heatsinks

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The heatsinks that came with the cooler already had a thermal tape pre installed.

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There were two different sizes, and the smaller of them was still not small enough to cover my VRM, so i had to cut it in half. (sorry for the shaky pic)

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For the other VRM, I've opted to use a piece of the base plate of the stock cooler. I've done that because on some online forums I've read people weren't getting a decent cooling performance with the heatsinks provided. 

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Everything is set now. 

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BUT, nothing is easy on this life is it?

 

I've found out that the heatsinks wouldn't allow the cooler to come in contact with the GPU. The movement when I've tried to place the cooler made some of the heatinks fall off. For the ones that did, I've used the provided silicon plaster to glue them in place. For the others, I've left the stock tape.

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I guess universal isn't really universal right.?

 

Anyway. I had to cut one of the fins of the upper heatsinks, and two on the bottom so everything could fit nice and tidy.

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After that it was time to fix everything on it's place. 

I was having a really hard time to align everything properly, so I've used some straightened paper clips to guide the holes when placing the cooler down.

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And here are some really blurry shots of everything assembled. I really don't know what happened that the camera got so shaky. 

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As of now, I've left the whole PC upside down because i don't really trust the tape / glue provided with the kit, and I want to let the "cure" at least for sometime.

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So, you guys wanna hear some results right?

 

With the stock cooler the GPU would reach 94ºC quite fast, and it would reduce it's speed to prevent overheating (as if 94ºC wasn't already overheated ¬¬).

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Now, with the Artic Accelero Extreme III installed the GPU won't go above  64ºC anytime, wich means a solid 30ºC reduction on it's temperature. 

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Though, as i said nothing is perfect. If you look closely, you'll see that VRM 1 temperatures are way higher (91ºC). This happens because the heatsinks provided being so small were far from enough to dissipate all the heat they generate. 

Thing are safe though. VRMs are known to be designed to work up to 125ºC and still be ok, so there is a quite large margin here.

Perhaps I'll use another piece of the stock cooler plate to cover the VRM1 and reduce it's temperature. But it's work for another day  

 

Bottom line, despite being a pain in the ass to assemble, the Arctic Accelero Extreme III is a great replacement to noisy and inefficient fans, without going the liquid cooling route. 

Temps ans specially noise levels were drastically improved, and now I can consider myself a happy owner of a (near) silent gaming PC .

 

 

 

 

 

[Xenift]

Reference design?

You in some hot mess.

 

[RafaelSoaresP]

Just now, Xenift said:

Reference design?

You in some hot mess.

 

Was* in some hot mess.

Now i'm cool with it

[Aytex]

You could've spray painted the white fans yellow to match your case fans

[ImBleu]

I feel so bad because that Accellero cooler looks so bad and out of place on that GPU that i'm like crying

 

Why not consider an AIO solution like the Kraken G10 or Corsair's HG10 A1 ?

[byalexandr]

6 minutes ago, RafaelSoaresP said:

Was* in some hot mess.

Now i'm cool with it

Ah, brings back memories. I had the exact same card a few weeks ago, now I have my super quiet, super tiny, still pretty powerful R9 380 Compact.

 

I liquid cooled my old 290 btw:

 

Got rid of that since it's too long for my 5.5L chassis. Now I have this bby:

[RafaelSoaresP]

1 minute ago, ThatCoolBlueKidd said:

I feel so bad because that Accellero cooler looks so bad and out of place on that GPU that i'm like crying

 

Why not consider an AIO solution like the Kraken G10 or Corsair's HG10 A1 ?

They are waay expensive here in Brazil. This costed me around 70 USD

[Xenift]

Just now, byalexandr said:

Ah, brings back memories. I had the exact same card a few weeks ago, now I have my super quiet, super tiny, still pretty powerful R9 380 Compact.

 

I liquid cooled my old 290 btw:

What on earth?!?!

This makes you look like a heart surgeon or something along the lines of that.

[RafaelSoaresP]

4 minutes ago, Aytex said:

You could've spray painted the white fans yellow to match your case fans

Maybe in the near future. But as my case is completely sealed it doesn't bother me.

[byalexandr]

Just now, Xenift said:

What on earth?!?!

This makes you look like a heart surgeon or something along the lines of that.

Eyy, worked well. Idled at 30C, load never went over 60C and the fans never went over idle.

[RafaelSoaresP]

3 minutes ago, byalexandr said:

I liquid cooled my old 290 btw:

 

I must say I'm impressed with your creation Dr. Frankenstein. Hahah. Great job mate.

You managed to sell it like this?

[byalexandr]

Just now, RafaelSoaresP said:

I must say I'm impressed with your creation Dr. Frankenstein. Hahah. Great job mate.

You managed to sell it like this?

No I actually traded with a fellow forumer for another reference cooler, that liquid cooler made it even bigger and then it stuck out of my tiny case. He uses that now, I think he modified it a bit. I sold it with a PowerColor reference cooler on it.