EK-FC 290X on MSI R9 290 Twin Frozr: bent PCB as bad as it looks?

[xboxbman]

About to do my first GPU water cooling, picked up a pair of EK-FC R9-290X - Acetal+Nickel for my pair of MSI R9 290s. I installed the waterblock on one of my video cards, and got nervous when I saw how much the video card was bending.

As far as I can tell, there are some capacitors getting in the way causing it. I have the backplate installed; it doesn't seem to help it much. I actually had to remove a corner screw from the backplate because it was bending it so much.

Here's a link to an imgur album with some photos.

https://imgur.com/a/XWcpM

First picture is with the corner screw in (it's the upside down one, for those of you familiar with the waterblock and backplate combo), so you can see how bad it is, and the following three images with the screw removed. It looks better, but still not great....

So....is it as bad as it looks, or am I being overly worried?

 

[Nebulous]

By this statement:
As far as I can tell, there are some capacitors getting in the way causing it

Those blocks may not be for those cards. I would check the revision of the pcb and recheck with EK via phonecall.

I would advise not to use them. By the pcb warping like that, you could possibly kill the card(s). Doesn't take much warping to kill it with the swiftness.

 

[xboxbman]

By this statement:
As far as I can tell, there are some capacitors getting in the way causing it

Those blocks may not be for those cards. I would check the revision of the pcb and recheck with EK via phonecall.

I would advise not to use them. By the pcb warping like that, you could possibly kill the card(s). Doesn't take much warping to kill it with the swiftness.

I have checked a few times on the EK configurator, and it says these are the right blocks, and it has a picture of the video card PCB and it looks identical. I'm pretty confident it is the right block.

Maybe I need to reseat it and try again. Blarg. It is not a quick process.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

I would take those off asap. Never let a PCB bend or warp like that. Something is obviously wrong. You could damage the traces on the PCB or capacitors or something could be making contact when it shouldn't have and poof! goes the GPU. Careful. Take that all off and have a talk with EK and double check which revision GPU do you have. People have been tricked before even though things showed up right but the revisions weren't known about.

 

[Mr.Scott]

There is no way that block is for that card.
Send that back. Hope the card is ok.

 

[Jakusonfire]

That looks like the new rev PCB

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/t...0-x-gaming-lightning-card-club.197912/page-14

 

[Nebulous]

That looks like the new rev PCB

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/t...0-x-gaming-lightning-card-club.197912/page-14

Great info!

 

[xboxbman]

That looks like the new rev PCB

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/t...0-x-gaming-lightning-card-club.197912/page-14

Well....poo. I guess that's that. Thanks for the info.

So now what do I do, since I have already opened both water blocks and cannot return them?

1. Buy 2 new blocks that aren't full card that will fit
2. Replace the capacitors with shorter ones so the cards fit? (5 capacitors per card, 2 pins per cap, and really is easy soldering compared to some of the stuff I have done)
3. Just skip water cooling these cards (which means I have a 360mm and 240mm radiators just for my cpu.

 

[xboxbman]

sorry for the double post.

Going with option 4: using a drill press to make holes for the 5 capacitors. It won't go into the actually waterblock, and only needs to be 2-3 mm deep to make enough room.

I'll post pics when I get it done.

 

[xboxbman]

Fixed, and working like a charm Photos of the finished case are in the Photos Thread.

 

[Conumdrum]

Good job!