Any new non reference 290s can be watercooled?

[King Icewind]

Or is there some aftermarket air cooled reference 290s I should be looking at? As far as I know the EK blocks will work withe Asus DirectCU II, but wondering if there is anything else now.

Story: I have a reference 290 coming that will be cooled with the a G10 + H55. I'm using it on a 5850 now, and it works fine, but I don't want another G10 + H55. It's pretty much the same cost as a gpu waterblock, so I might as well go back to actual watercooling. In the mean time, I'd like it to just be air cooled. Reference coolers obviously suck, so I want it to have a better air cooler.

Going to be funny looking, and maybe not work the greatest, but it's only temporary until I get all the funds/ wc parts and see how exactly 3 three rads is going to fit in a Fractal Design R4 (anyone? ha).

Maybe I should just suck it up and use a reference card/cooler.

Thank you.

 

[Relayer]

As far as I know the Sapphire Tri-X and the Powercolor PCS+ both use reference boards and come with excellent coolers stock.

There's also THIS option from Alphacool. I don't know if that would be an option for you or not?

Also you can get a block for the Lightning from EKWB. I'm not certain it's available yet, but it has been announced.