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Replacing R9-290 Reference Cooler with Artic Accelero Xtreme III

Tags:
  • Cooling
  • Heatsinks
  • Memory
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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November 30, 2013 5:43:31 AM

Hi,

I currently have an Artic Accelero Xtreme III and my R9-290 ready to install into my new system. However, I've been looking at the guide here and it seems like I'll be short on 4 memory heatsinks. The guide says that this doesn't matter unless you feel the need to do it anyway, but as this is my first build and I plan on overclocking, I was wondering 2 things:

1. Should I try to find some extras somewhere and make sure i have all 16 available before I start or will it not make a great deal of difference?

2. If I put it together today and get the parts another time, can I put them in at another date?

Thanks very much for any help. I'm sure it's a fairly simple question for anybody with experience.

More about : replacing 290 reference cooler artic accelero xtreme iii

Best solution

November 30, 2013 5:44:09 PM

1-
Theoretically that type of load spread across 16 different VRAM chips should lead to fairly cool operation, so you shouldn't NEED those 4 heatsinks. BUT, I personally plan on using some extra heatsinks I have sitting around in the garage for my R9 290 (assuming they fit).

That said, if you opt to only use 12 heatsinks, be sure to put heatsinks on the 3-4 VRAM chips in the top left corner near the voltage regulator up there. Voltage regulators can get toasty, and those are close enough that the heat can easily spread to the VRAM chips nearby.

Another option I've seen people do is take two of the longer-thinner heatsinks, place them side by side, and then spread them across two VRAM chips. So two sets of two VRAM packages share two heatsinks a piece (hope that makes sense), and the remaining 12 use the 12 heatsinks included.

2-
Yes, but you'll need to reapply the thermal paste on the GPU.


Anyway, I'm currently waiting for the Accelero Xtreme III to come back in stock. Somehow all the retailers sold out during black Friday. Not sure what happened--perhaps a black Friday sale I missed? Hopefully the heatsinks I have will fit, but if not I'll just buy a pack.

Which reminds me, if it isn't too much trouble, can you measure the height - width - length of the VRAM heatsinks included in the Accelero kit? It would be very helpful, should I need to buy extra heatsinks. If you are interested, FrozenCPU.com has a nice selection.
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November 30, 2013 5:52:27 PM

Thank you very much for your reply, that was very helpful, especially the suggestion to use pairs of the other heat sinks instead. I will see if I can get that to work tomorrow for more thorough coverage.

Also, it's late here, but I will definitely post back here in the morning with the dimensions for you.
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