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Buy a 4890 with a fan and mount water to it.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
This. Also the nvidia cards with water blocks are normally overpriced by several hundred dollars.
It's really better to buy a full coverage water block separately. XSPC makes some really good full coverage waterblocks for cheap. Try jab-tech. IMO, the 4890 doesn't need a waterblock, as it really is quiet with the stock cooler. It only ramps up a bit in games, but I don't hear it over the game volume. Some people can't stand any noise though and I get it.
My guess is that specific vendors that sell ATi cards arnt as "hardcore?" as those that sell nvidia.
You notice that specific companies from the green side have always produced WCed gpus(such as evga and BFG).
If we get a chance to see more companies producing both, you will probably see more factory WCed cards. Im not too familiar with ATi vendors and warranties, but companies such as EVGA allow you to switch out the cooler without voiding the warranty. I understand why you would want to purchase a card preconfigured this way for warranty reasons, but for pocketbook reasons I would shy away.
Also, I can speak from experience. Ill never WC my gpu again, unless I roll into a lot of throw away cash. For me the juice wasn't worth the squeeze. Besides paying 100 used for my 8800gtx block, then selling it years later for 40 bucks, it was a PITA to have it in there. Sure it looked cool, but it was impossible to remove any component without removing every waterblock on the board.
My CPU and northbridge are watercooled. I can swap procs without emptying my loop, I can reapply thermal paste etc. Just unscrew the block from the back plate, swing it out of the way and remove whatever I need(mobo or CPU). In order to remove the gpu, change the thermal paste, it required a full rebuild and I had to physically remove the GPU from the system.
I have learned and I wont go back. Hopefully from here on out we will see cards that are quiet enough that I dont regret not having my GPU WCed. Ive been over wiretaps house quite a few times, and his 2x GTX295s are LOUD, but my new GTX260 is quiet enough where it doesnt matter.
I dont know if that was too much of a response to your statement.
i agree that water cooling is a pain in the ass.. just to change out my ram was a pain.. but 1 reason i like having everything watercooled in a small case is that it's such a pain, i dont upgrade that often.. so in the end, i'm making money with watercooling.. lol
i have a Q6600 @ 3.24, so i wont be upgrading my CPU for another 2 years or something... So i'll dont have to worry too much
You're water cooling and only running that CPU at 3.24Ghz????