NZXT Kraken G10 GPU Water Cooler Review on a Radeon R9 290X

[Apoptosis]

NZXT Kraken G10 GPU Water Cooler Review on a Radeon R9 290X

When we heard that NZXT was coming out with a low-cost water cooling kit for video cards we were ecstatic and couldn’t wait to get one to try out. At first we thought NZXT was coming out with a product that included a water cooler, but the end result is basically a $29.99 mounting kit for a water cooler. The Kraken G10 from NZXT allows you to install ANY Asetek based All-In-One (AIO) water cooler to your video card. Read on to see what happens when we install the NZXT Kraken X40 to a Radeon R9 290X video card with the NZXT Kraken G10 mounting bracket!



Article Title: NZXT Kraken G10 GPU Water Cooler Review on a Radeon R9 290X
Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/nzxt-kraken ... 90x_130344
Pricing At Time of Print: $29.99 Shipped

[sbohdan]

I always knew, that when anyone has commented an extremely hot-running card with "it can take these high temps, because it was designed this way, so it's OK" - was BS! I was never comfortable with GPU's going over 60C, not just because of shorter life-span but because overall performance and stability IS always better, when the GPU is kept cooler! OC is almost certainly higher with better stability on top. Now I find out, that even power usage is lower because of less or no leakage! BTW, NZXT fans are not the best for noise, so by changing the provided fan to a quiet one can lower the noise even further! No more vacuum-cleaning when gaming!

Great review BTW!

[screwloose45]

That's pretty awesome. Would this work with a Corsair H80? Also, isn't it a bad idea to have the VRAM go un-cooled?

[Apoptosis]

That's pretty awesome. Would this work with a Corsair H80? Also, isn't it a bad idea to have the VRAM go un-cooled?

The Corsair H80 won't work as it doesn't use the Asetek style retention system. That reminds me I need to ask why Corsair is now using Asetek pumps with custom retention systems. I know they want to be different, but there are pros to using the Asetek solution that has been around for 7+ years and now has accessories like this for them.

As for the GDDR5 memory... I didn't see anything alarming and the NZXT Kraken G10 bracket has a cooling fan on it to provide some airflow to most of the card (obviously some will be blocked by the water block). If you are concerned with the memory you could always put small heatsinks on them individually with double sided thermal tape.