AMD's R9 295X2 Gets Its First Water Block
A big water block for a big graphics card.
Aqua Computer, which you might have guessed is a water cooling component manufacturer, has announced a new water block for AMD's almighty Radeon R9 295X2 graphics card. This block will be known as the Kryographics Vesuvius.
This water block is probably one of the biggest water blocks out there. It spans the entire length of the card and covers every heat-source on it. As such, both GPUs are covered, all the memory is covered, the VRM circuitry is covered, and the PCIe bridge adapter is covered.
The paths for the water flow are not in series but rather in parallel. Both of the paths have been built to provide equal resistance, meaning that an equal amount of water will flow over each of the GPUs and that one of the GPUs won't suffer higher temperatures due to heat from the other GPU flowing over it. Mounting fittings to it should be a snap due to support for standard G1/4" fittings.
Aqua Computer has made a standard bare copper version available, as well as a nickel-plated copper version. They'll cost €169.90 and €184.90, respectively. Backplates are coming in May.
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Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.
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jhanschu With the power constraints of the PCIE slot and only two 8-pin connectors I doubt that there's enough power to get monster overclocks out of it. But still, will be interesting to see the true limits of this beast!Reply -
fil1p I really like such full cover blocks, this one looks epic. As for other cards EK makes some nice blocks but what I don't like is that their full cover blocks don't fully cover the whole card. It doesn't affect performance but it doesn't look as nice as a block that covers a card from edge to edge.Reply -
John Wittenberg "Kryographics Vesuvius" - Mt. Vesuvius, Italy. So when Kryographics Vesuvius erupts, instead of superheated gases vaporizing people in Pompeii, it will do that to your PC innards? Ahaha - I really couldn't help but draw together the similarities!Reply -
clonazepam Someone's gonna cover that and the boards in that dragon skin / clay, and run refrigerated coolant through and really blow some sh** up. Can't wait :)Reply -
KelvinTy Should have been the reference design... That thing generates way too much heat for it to be hybrid air cooled.Reply -
DarkSable Personally don't care for the looks of the cooler, but the thing that bothers me is the comment about how the gpu loops are run in parallel so that "One gpu won't be hotter from the heat of the other in the water flowing over it."Reply
Watercooling doesn't work that way, guys - the water is moving so quickly that the temperature in one spot will not be measurably warmer than the water in another spot. -
spookyman You know makes the card more tempting now since I can put better tubing then what they did for the card.Reply -
shogunofharlom I would ask why we need to water cool a water cooled card, but man does that water block look good. I'm sure the temps will be even better too. It is a shame to waste the sexy fan and shroud though.Reply