Our Hands-On of the Corsair HG10 GPU Water Cooling Bracket

The HG10 mounted on a graphics card, in a system.

Corsair was demonstrating its HG10 graphics card cooling bracket at COMPUTEX 2014, and even though we already shared a paper launch with you, we wanted to present a more hands on experience.

The HG10 is a bracket that can be employed to use Corsair Hydro H110, H105, H100i, H100, H80i, H80, H75, H60, and H55 liquid coolers to cool the GPU. The supported GPUs are AMD Radeon R9 290 and R9 290X cards (of reference design), along with Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan, 780 Ti, 780, and 770 cards.

The unit itself is a fairly simple device, elegantly crafted and seemingly very simple to mount. We didn't actually mount it, though it looks relatively straightforward. Of course, with the water cooling unit cooling the GPU, the VRM and memory still needs to be cooled. This is done by the bracket itself along with the stock fan found on the AMD card.

The HG10 on a PowerColor R9 290X, with Logan Hale's leg in the background.

The reason for using the stock fan is because the fan profile that's built into the card is to be used with this fan and no other. According to Corsair, it would deliver undesirable results with other fans. Don't worry, though; the water cooling unit kept the GPU well-cooled, which prevented the stock AMD fan, which is known to be rather noisy, from spinning up to noisy levels. The test system we saw sounded very silent even though it was under heavy load, while the system beside it with the reference AMD cooler made a noticeable amount of noise. This was in a busy place though, with a lot of people talking.

The AMD version of the bracket should be available any time now, while the Nvidia version of the bracket is slated to come out sometime throughout Q3 2013. Pricing is set at $39.99.

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Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

  • nukemaster
    People have been doing this for years :)

    NVIDIA GPU Mod @ overclock.net (Nvidia)
    The Red Mod @ overclock.net(AMD)

    The temperature drop is quite noticeable.

    Most exciting thing about this is that it works with the CoolIT based H80i style pumps without much issue.
    Reply
  • Platinum Era
    Looks like a response to NZXt's G10
    Yay for competition!
    Reply
  • Vigilence
    How would I know the card is of reference design? Can anyone give a few manufacturer examples for the R9 290?
    Reply
  • nukemaster
    The G10 has an advantage of fitting more cards at the cost of a custom fit to cover VRM's/ect.

    As long as the Asetek coolers are what you want, they are also a very good option.

    The close name is surprising too.
    Reply
  • RishabhTheOne
    I think you might have meant Q3 2014, for the nVidia versions.
    Reply
  • soccerplayer88
    Looks like a response to NZXt's G10
    Yay for competition!

    I wouldn't even really call it a competition. It's less compatible and it costs more then the NZXT G10.

    Don't get me wrong. I love Corsair and have plenty of their products, but this just looks like a weak attempt at mimicking the G10.
    Reply
  • Phillip Wager
    this is a far less elegant solution then the NZXT nobody can claim otherwise
    Reply
  • Phillip Wager
    How would I know the card is of reference design? Can anyone give a few manufacturer examples for the R9 290?


    if the card has a "blower" fan that self vents the heat externally of the case instead of one or more (more than 1 fan is a big tip off) that exhaust the heat inside of the case.
    Reply
  • Gishan
    Looks very nice! The black matches his brown shoes perfectly.
    Oh and the cooler thingy is neat too.

    PS: Just kidding - love you Logan, you rock man! (https://www.youtube.com/user/razethew0rld for reference)
    Reply
  • ScribbleMike
    this is a far less elegant solution then the NZXT nobody can claim otherwise
    This, less elegant solution can actually cool the VRMS
    Reply