14 DAY TRIAL // The ASUS Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II OC graphics card gets part of its name from the DirectCU II air cooler. EK wants that cooler swapped for one of its own though.
Well, that's not perfectly accurate because a water block can't act as a cooler all on its own. It relies on a water cooling system to work.
Anyway, the Ljubljana-based premium water cooling gear manufacturer is preparing a water block for the board.
So, I suppose that after you buy the card and install the water block on it (EK-FC R9-290X DCII), you won't be able to call it DirectCU II anymore.
The GPU, RAM and VRM will be cooled directly, and there will be three visual options, all with a backplate (mostly there for aesthetics purposes).
The product will only show up in February 2014 though, so there's no picture of it yet.