NZXT Kraken G10 + GTX 780 Lightning Mini-Review

[Face2Face]

So I pre-ordered the NZXT G10 Kraken bracket back in beginning of December. After weeks of waiting I finally got it delivered last week as part of the 2nd batch, so I am very happy that I am finally able to get this bracket installed. Now for the GTX 780 Lightning. Overall I have been very pleased with the Lighting minus the crap Elpida memory. Ascetically is looks a little riced out in my opinion, with all of the blue LED lights on the back of the PCB and the color changing logo from green to blue to pink.... I mean't red.. The performance was pretty good from the stock cooler. I do however use the aftermarket Skyn3t bios on my card and run my card at 1320Mhz on the core and 1656Mhz on the memory when gaming. In order for me to get decent temps (below 80c) I have to keep the fan speed at 75% or more. At that fan speed the card is just a little to loud for my liking. This is the main reason why I decided to purchase the NZXT G10 bracket.

Installing the bracket was fairly easy, but the screws that are used to mount the All-in-one cooler were too short, so I didn't use the rubber spacers for the back retention bracket.

These little guys

Evidently NZXT is aware of the issue and will be shipping longer screws in the their 4th batch of pre-orders. People using reference cards shouldn't have too many issues, but there have been a few people with reference R9 290's that had issues with the screws being too short. I think mine were too short because I wanted to keep the back plate installed on my card. Looks too naked without it.

As you can see the back G10 retention plate doesn't touch the Lightning backplate, but it's very close. Also note, I had to remove the reactor on the back of the Lighting in order to install the G10. I don't plan on going LN2, so there really isn't a need for it. Here is what it looks like installed.

Now my Corsair 500R is not meant to house multiple 240mm radiators. So I modded, which is a cool way of saying "Cut" a section of my 5.25" bays in order to mount the Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme in the front of my case. Turns out that this all-in-one and most other Asetek made all-in-one's only have 12" coolant hoses.... Doh... I was about an inch and half off overall... The exception is the NZXT X40 and X60, they have 14" hoses so mounting the radiator in front of your mid or full tower case is a much easier task.. Go figure. I had no choice but to mount the radiator in the bottom of my case. The left 120mm fan is pulling cool air from the outside of the case, and the right 120mm fan is pulling some of the cool air provided by the lower front case fan. This setup is not optimal, and i'm sure I can shave off a couple degrees with a better configuration....

Test setup

The temperatures were taken using Unigine Heaven 4.0 with max settings at 1440p. I ran the benchmark for 20 minutes for each result. I then allowed 20 minutes for cool down as well. Room ambient temperature was 21c.

Here are results. They are broken down by cooling method, core and memory clock speeds, core voltage, fan speed or profile, core, vrm, memory and PCB temperatures. The GTX 780 Lightning is one of the only GTX 780's that allows for software monitoring for everything besides the core temperatures.

Now enough rambling. Off to the results!!

Now I can enjoy the quietness of gaming at 1320/1650 with the Thermaltake water 2.0 set to quiet mode using the included software. The extreme fan setting, which is basically the radiator fans maxed out to 100%, produce about the same noise as the Lighting cooler @ 75-80% fan speed if anyone was interested.

Youtube video of setup

 

[tolis626]

Are you serious?I was quite sure that the G10 would be more like a "I can't make a full water loop so whatever,let's go to the next best" solution.These results are amazing!1480MHz witn 1.38v and still well within temperature comfort zone?To hell with it,that's gonna be my first update in the summer.Case closed.And I'm going with a large case to fit the second rad.

It's the first time I'm so glad someone got to be the guinea pig.Thanks bro,much appreciated review.

 

[Pandamonia]

i decided it was just easier to run a 780 SLI Lightning and and leave them at 1200mhz each. Worked out cheaper as well with the LE versions. i got 90% ASCI on LE cards!

How much was the cooler?

 

[Face2Face]

Are you serious?I was quite sure that the G10 would be more like a "I can't make a full water loop so whatever,let's go to the next best" solution.These results are amazing!1480MHz witn 1.38v and still well within temperature comfort zone?To hell with it,that's gonna be my first update in the summer.Case closed.And I'm going with a large case to fit the second rad.

It's the first time I'm so glad someone got to be the guinea pig.Thanks bro,much appreciated review.

1450Mhz to be exact :O)

I believe the biggest reason the vrm temps are acceptable on this card is because of the awesome heat spreader/plate MSI used on this card. And the fact you have 16 GPU phases to cool instead of 6 on the GTX 780 reference card with no heat spreader/plate.

 

[Face2Face]

i decided it was just easier to run a 780 SLI Lightning and and leave them at 1200mhz each. Worked out cheaper as well with the LE versions. i got 90% ASCI on LE cards!

How much was the cooler?

I paid $39 for the G10 Bracket and got the TT Extreme water 2.0 for $60 slightly used.

You could easily get away with a cheap Corsair H55 AIO and still get great results using this bracket.

 

[IEC]

As a bonus you're probably using a little less Wattage at full load due to the cooler GPU and VRMs. I know for my R9 290s proper air cooling has helped reduce power consumption by 10-15%. I can't wait to see how much water cooling will help when I get a chance to set up my custom loop this weekend

 

[Tristor]

Very nice review. Thanks for posting this. I was considering going with the Kraken G10, but in the end decided that the VRMs get too hot under it for my tastes, so I've ordered a 1/8" thick sheet of 110 copper and am going to have it custom CNC machined to become a front plate for the 780 and cool with with an H80i. The G10 is less costly and seems to be pretty effective, but your VRM temps seemed a bit high. Doable for games, but not so great for more strenous activities (Furmark, etc.).

EDIT: I figured I should link to the review that ended up with me ordering the copper plate http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/NZXT-Kraken-G10-Review-527/

 

[Face2Face]

Very nice review. Thanks for posting this. I was considering going with the Kraken G10, but in the end decided that the VRMs get too hot under it for my tastes, so I've ordered a 1/8" thick sheet of 110 copper and am going to have it custom CNC machined to become a front plate for the 780 and cool with with an H80i. The G10 is less costly and seems to be pretty effective, but your VRM temps seemed a bit high. Doable for games, but not so great for more strenous activities (Furmark, etc.).

EDIT: I figured I should link to the review that ended up with me ordering the copper plate http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/NZXT-Kraken-G10-Review-527/

On a reference GTX 780 you are left with a vrm cooling dilemma. I haven't seen any vrm/memory plates for sale. And not sure if you can you measure you vrm temps using software on your card? I don't think the vrm temperatures I posted were very high at all considering the voltages being used. I don't use Furmark for testing because it's not a realistic load. I wonder if EVGA would sell the plate they use on the ACX cards?? Might be another decent option.

 

[JumBie]

Any in game benches coming at that clock speed?

 

[Face2Face]

Any in game benches coming at that clock speed?

Not yet, I will get to it though. Keep in mind my the low memory clock is the limiting factor. Running 1350/1650 vs. 1450/1650 will not yield huge gains because of the low memory clock speeds. When overclocked the GTX 780 is very sensitive to the lack of memory bandwidth.

 

[Pandamonia]

Not yet, I will get to it though. Keep in mind my low memory clock is the limiting factor. Running 1350/1650 vs. 1450/1650 will not yield huge gains because of the low memory clock speeds. When overclocked the GTX 780 is very sensitive to the lack of memory bandwidth.

Thats why i went SLI.

Only 200GBP more than a 780 Ti Reference which will only clock so far.

The im stuck with an Elpida and a Hynix tho

 

[Face2Face]

Thats why i went SLI.

Only 200GBP more than a 780 Ti Reference which will only clock so far.

The im stuck with an Elpida and a Hynix tho

Hynix isn't all that bad. I have seen some decent numbers out there on them. There are very few Samsung Lightnings around from what I have seen. Still boggles my mind why MSI put such :| memory in these cards.

 

[Pandamonia]

the Lightning LE was 380GBP which is same as reference pricing. So i cant complain about Elpida

Best buy ever.

Elpida will limit my Hynix

 

[thirdeye]

Good to see a nice review on these. I just installed two of these on my 7970s over the weekend using the Corsair H55 units. It's pretty impressive how well they work. Even when scrypt coin mining with both cards I'm still seeing a 10C+ temp drop on both cards compared to the stock Dual-X coolers. VRM temps barely touch 100C as well.

 

[Elfear]

Excellent results Face2Face. Thanks for posting the mini-review. It's too bad the card came with Elpida because the core can really fly.

 

[NTMBK]

Really nice results, that's a great setup you have there. I bet this sort of thing would work pretty well in a Bitfenix Prodigy case, strap a big fat rad into the top of the case.

 

[Face2Face]

Good to see a nice review on these. I just installed two of these on my 7970s over the weekend using the Corsair H55 units. It's pretty impressive how well they work. Even when scrypt coin mining with both cards I'm still seeing a 10C+ temp drop on both cards compared to the stock Dual-X coolers. VRM temps barely touch 100C as well.

Did you by chance use copper shims? I would expect a better temp drop then that.

Excellent results Face2Face. Thanks for posting the mini-review. It's too bad the card came with Elpida because the core can really fly.

Not your fault... Even though it's your previous card I was able to get it up to 1502Mhz in a Valley run @ 1.42v - Not to shabby

Really nice results, that's a great setup you have there. I bet this sort of thing would work pretty well in a Bitfenix Prodigy case, strap a big fat rad into the top of the case.

Thanks! The PSU is the weakest link.... kind of glad I haven't replacement it yet, because a modular PSU would have gotten in the way.

 

[tolis626]

Hmmm...That's strange.I just watched this video from HeliX PC,who installed the G10 with a Kraken X40 on a 290x.His core temperatures were awesome alright (A 1100MHz 290x below 50C is more than good),but VRM temps weren't impressive at all.For him it was over 90C.I know that it's theoretically ok for VRMs,but a) I don't feel that comfortable being that high without a serious overclock,b)I thought that it would be better with water without further modifications.Now he did install some metallic pieces with fins (Kinda like heatsinks) on the VRMs and memory and the situation got vastly better,but the fact that it's necessary to do so is kinda disappointing...

Seems like we'll have to wait for more people with 290x's to buy the G10.

 

[Face2Face]

Hmmm...That's strange.I just watched this video from HeliX PC,who installed the G10 with a Kraken X40 on a 290x.His core temperatures were awesome alright (A 1100MHz 290x below 50C is more than good),but VRM temps weren't impressive at all.For him it was over 90C.I know that it's theoretically ok for VRMs,but a) I don't feel that comfortable being that high without a serious overclock,b)I thought that it would be better with water without further modifications.Now he did install some metallic pieces with fins (Kinda like heatsinks) on the VRMs and memory and the situation got vastly better,but the fact that it's necessary to do so is kinda disappointing...

Seems like we'll have to wait for more people with 290x's to buy the G10.

Do you own a R9 290 or 290X? If so, do you run it overclocked?

 

[tolis626]

Do you own a R9 290 or 290X? If so, do you run it overclocked?

No and no,at least for now.My next rig will probably have a 290 in it though.

 

[thilanliyan]

Hmmm...That's strange.I just watched this video from HeliX PC,who installed the G10 with a Kraken X40 on a 290x.His core temperatures were awesome alright (A 1100MHz 290x below 50C is more than good),but VRM temps weren't impressive at all.For him it was over 90C.I know that it's theoretically ok for VRMs,but a) I don't feel that comfortable being that high without a serious overclock,b)I thought that it would be better with water without further modifications.Now he did install some metallic pieces with fins (Kinda like heatsinks) on the VRMs and memory and the situation got vastly better,but the fact that it's necessary to do so is kinda disappointing...

Seems like we'll have to wait for more people with 290x's to buy the G10.

With core-only cooling solutions you usually need to put some heatsinks and maybe a fan blowing over the VRMs...that's always been the case.

My GPU-only block on my 7950 requires heatsinks on the VRMs or they will get way too hot.

 

[Elfear]

I was able to get it up to 1502Mhz in a Valley run @ 1.42v - Not to shabby

That's crazy but I guess it's why you buy a card with such a robust power delivery system.

 

[thirdeye]

Did you by chance use copper shims? I would expect a better temp drop then that.

Yeah I used shims. That's with both cards running full tilt. The hottest card only sees a 10C or so difference. Individually though, I would normally see 80-85C on one card mining, now I see about 60-65. That's also running 1150/1600 OC.

 

[tolis626]

With core-only cooling solutions you usually need to put some heatsinks and maybe a fan blowing over the VRMs...that's always been the case.

My GPU-only block on my 7950 requires heatsinks on the VRMs or they will get way too hot.

I know that cooling the VRMs is tricky,but the fan on the G10 is supposed to do exactly that.I'm just disappointed that there is extra work required for it to actually work.

 

[Silverforce11]

The lightning have excessive VRMs so they dont even run hot, unlike reference R290/X (and most custom) as well as a lot of the 780/ti models. It really is the best card for AIO cooling since the only flaw with this method is keeping VRM temps under control.

Otherwise a 240mm rad AIO DAF about the TDP of GPUs. Mine stays around 60C MINING and its dirty hot summertime here.

@HelixPC youtube, view his revised video where he actually did things properly, cool core and VRMs.

I wanted to get a few G10 but they dont come here til late Feb so I just used zip ties, same principle.