Watercooling Sapphire Dual-X R9 280X

[captaindyson]

Hello Everyone,

I have recently acquired a Sapphire Dual-X R9 280X and am looking to water cool it. Now I am aware that this is a custom PCB design and that no full cover blocks have been made for it, but I also know that in general R9 280X's are just re-branded 7970 cards, so i was wondering if any of you knew if there is a 7970 card that has the same custom PCB design but did have a block made for it?

For example this covers a number of 7970 cards including sapphire ones:
http://www.coolingconfigurator.com/waterblock/3831109856697

Alternatively I found this thread which shows modding a cooler to fit a sapphire 7950 card, does it have the same custom PCB? could I do the same (or similar) mod?
http://www.overclock.net/t/1448003/watercooling-a-sapphire-hd-7970-ghz-edition-3gb-vapor-x

Thankyou in advance for any responces.
Kind Regards

 

[nikoli707]

if ek doesn't have it listed in their compatibility list, then there is no full block. i wouldn't waste time or money with the chip only block as it becomes a pain to cool the mosfets and ram.

as far as the 7950, i have an msi twin frozr 7950 and according to the people on the official tahiti owners thread, the 7970 tf3 had a difference pcb altogether. this might not be true for other brands though.

 

[captaindyson]

if ek doesn't have it listed in their compatibility list, then there is no full block. i wouldn't waste time or money with the chip only block as it becomes a pain to cool the mosfets and ram.

as far as the 7950, i have an msi twin frozr 7950 and according to the people on the official tahiti owners thread, the 7970 tf3 had a difference pcb altogether. this might not be true for other brands though.

Thanks for the response. I agree that i don't want to go chip only, not only is it a hassle but it looks ugly too

And im sorry but i dont quite understand your second statement, what is a tf3? are you saying that or your 7950 has a similar pcb to my own?

 

[nikoli707]

tf3=twin frozr 3(msi). the msi 7950 tf3 has/had a different pcb than the msi 7970 tf3, and also the msi 7970 lightning had a different pcb. all were different from the reference design. im not sure about sapphire but i would imagine they are also using a non reference designed pcb on the 280x. i would ask questions on overclock.net official 280x owners thread as the users there will have much more extensive knowledge specific to the model you own than here on toms.