Asus told Sampsa Kurri (Muropaketti.com) that their custom won't be here until middle of December at best so might slip to 2014. I don't want to wait that long and went with GTX 780.
What do you want to do? XD I understand you wanna upgrade. So if you wanna get a 290 only chance is to wait and see until custom ones come out. Or.. get a reference one now and slap an aftermarket cooler on it.. something that works, mk 26 or accelero xtreme, not sure which one? Maybe custom cards will be out by December.. then you can upgrade.. Or another route would be a GTX 780 with lowered prices. But.. I would wait and see and get a 290 tbh, OC the crap outta it + then I'm sure it'll surpass that 780.
I wouldn't not recommend it as it will blow the hot air to the rest of the components, especially into the cpu cooler. I know because my ex. GTX480+MK13 was a mess... Get watercooling+290 or buy a 780.
You seem to think the 290 is unusually hot, it isn't. This has been proven time and time again. TPU took the cooler from a HIS IceQ X2 280X and put it on a 290X. Temps dropped into the 60's. The problem isn't with the GPU proper, it's just an impossibly bad stock cooler.
Yeah, voiding the warranty part sucks.. Can it be done in any way to not void it? XD I understand there's a sticker.. or something on it. So.. just preserving that sticker I guess would work and slapping that back on when needed..
You can buy them with aftermarket coolers ready installed by harware stores, but the warranty is down to the store and often limited. They also tend to charge through the nose.
w00t which stores? That doesn't happen here in Estonia, care to name a few where that happens? Or where it can be done.. I suppose it doesn't matter anymore because it's an extra service provided by.. stores in the UK I guess? Yeah we don't have it here in Estonia. Or maybe we do.. lol. XD
OCUK do it if you go look, I can't link as they're blocked by guru. Edit: Went to check and they've a 290 on sale for £307. Soooo tempting. LoL
Oh.. right, ok.. cool. Yeah.. that would be pretty ideal tbh, if the store then also provides the warranty for the time being, if you purchase the card.. Hopefully they don't charge too much..
I did void my warranty 2 months after purchase by disassembling reference cooling. Un-welding vapor chamber. Cutting space for accelero around GPU mounting holes into heatsink. Cutting off ring around PSU connectors (were obstructing accelero too). Then I used permanent thermal mixture to glue it to original position. On that I placed accelero's small&poor heatsinks. And finally mounted main accelero heatsink to GPU. As far as 290(x) goes I would keep warranty for little bit longer. Since Black screen on some is not solved.
Roughly £100 more for a Prolimatech MK-26 fitted and a two year warranty and £130 for an EK waterblock fitted and two years. So not terrible, but when I look at that mark up I think.. "I can buy a 780 WITH an aftermarket cooler and a better warranty for that money."
Exactly lol.. those noobs don't know how to make marketing rofl. Make something purchasable not charge way over the top for it.
I was thinking about 780 but R9 290 seems to run BF4 better and it's $100 less. I don't wanna deal with third party custom cooling. I'm a noob when it comes to that. Maybe I will get XFX one that has lifetime warranty (register within 30 days) but the noise may drive me crazy. I didn't like the noise from 470 too much. I should wait for custom cooling cards. Just have to use my 580 for now. Damn I hate waiting! Actually my GTX 580 is pretty loud when the fan is at 100%. I wonder if R9 290 is louder than that at 80%? Some people say at 80% fan, their temps are below 85C which is good I guess.
