XSPC 290X & 290 Razor Waterblock Review and Fitting Guide

[tinytomlogan]

Let's see how well the latest Razor from XSPC can tame the tempestuous R9 290


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[WYP]

Good Review Gary as always. I agree with all your points fully, as I do own the same water block on a r9 290.

If XSPC were only slightly cheaper they would easily dominate the market IMHO, I just love their LED lighting!

 

[barnsley]

Man that is a real beaut. :wub:

 

[Grimsons]

What did you use with the Kraken G10?I was thinking of doing it that way with an Corsair H55. Or would that be to small for the amount of heat produced. Should I just go for a full custom loop. I already have an H100 in the system for my cpu.

 

[RickPlaysWarr]

Great Review Gary. I love the point where you just stopped and said we need to bask in the glory of the assembled card/backplate. The design is simply lovely. I took a look and see they make a block for the R295x2. Now that would be an awesome pair if I ever found the $2K or so it would take to make it happen.

I love the simplicity and classy design that XSPC putting into the Raystorm line of products.

Thank you much Gary

 

[tinytomlogan]

What did you use with the Kraken G10?I was thinking of doing it that way with an Corsair H55. Or would that be to small for the amount of heat produced. Should I just go for a full custom loop. I already have an H100 in the system for my cpu.

Go read the G10 review dude

 

[Grimsons]

Will do thanks I didn't realize there is one... I'm new

 

[looz]

Nice, the beast has finally been tamed!

 

[SnowmanFromHell]

Nice... especially that the block actually covers the entire PCB, unlike certain other blocks (*ahem* aquacomputer *ahem*) that basically end at the VRMs and leave an unsightly part of uncovered PCB (yeah yeah, I know, you probably won't see it anyway... but just KNOWING that the block doesn't cover the whole card is annoying )

 

[polar]

great review, spot on with everything, only thing i'd add would be that by using better, than the provided in the box, thermal paste on the GPU and thermal pads on the VRMs, you can get even better temps.
love my razor 290, it's probably the best bit of upgrade kit i've bought, in terms of making a difference from the vanilla component.

 

[tinytomlogan]

great review, spot on with everything, only thing i'd add would be that by using better, than the provided in the box, thermal paste on the GPU and thermal pads on the VRMs, you can get even better temps.
love my razor 290, it's probably the best bit of upgrade kit i've bought, in terms of making a difference from the vanilla component.

We always use MX4 or Noctua NT-H1

 

[polar]

used gelid gc extreme and a strip of fujipoly ultra extreme on the VRMs myself. unfortunately haven't got the test equipment to back up any claims scientifically but i saw something like 5-7º drop in temps on full load on the GPU core and even more on the VRMs, especially so on the problematic VRM1.
if nothing else, it helped ease my mind about baking the card when playing a game : )