It retains the original fan, making it quite unusual

Nov 21, 2014 10:22 GMT  ·  By

We've written about a fair few water blocks from Corsair, as well as closed-loop liquid coolers and normal air coolers, but every once in a while, every company has to launch something out of the ordinary. This is one of those times.

Corsair has formally launched the Hydro Series HG10 A1 Edition GPU liquid cooling bracket for AMD Radeon R9 290X and 290 graphics cards.

Although the correct way to describe it would be liquid cooling bracket / heatsink hybrid device, since it doesn't solely rely on water cooling.

Admittedly, it has a radiator, pumps and water block, but water isn't the only thing used. There's also a small heatsink attached.

Corsair Hydro Series HG10 A1 Edition

The company chose differently from other firms like EK when it made it, to a point. EK would have made a closed-loop system with a full-cover water block, as is its habit, and many other brands would have done the same.

Instead of a single-part design, it made the main water block and the VRM/memory components separate, while still making sure that water reaches the memory and voltage regulation module.

In any event, peak temperatures can be driven down by up to 50 degrees while keeping noise levels very, very low at the same time. It helps that the water block covers the VRM.

All the while, the graphics card's original cooling fan is retained, as a supplement for the water flowing to and from the two-fan radiator pictured in the gallery.

You'll still need to create your own liquid nitrogen-based setup if you want to really go mad, but that's hard to do for a video board, as opposed to a CPU. So we won't be shocked if a computer using an AMD Radeon R9 290X and this cooling bracket manages to set a new POC record in the near future.

Support, price and availability

All stock versions of AMD's Radeon R9 290X and R9 290 video cards should be able to accommodate the Hydro Series HG10 A1 Edition GPU liquid cooling bracket. It all boils down to whether or not the company OEMs stuck to the reference PCB or not, so even some factory overclocked ones might work.

Corsair.com has the full list if you want to look for it, or you can wait for other retailers to list the product. Below is the installation video.

The price is of $40 / €40. HG10 versions with compatibility for NVIDIA's GeForce 7-series and Titan graphics adapters will be released in early 2015.

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Corsair Hydro Series HG10 A1 Edition (5 Images)

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