NZXT Kraken G10 Liquid Cooled GPU Bracket, White Cooling RL-KRG10-W1 White

It does what it's supposed to do. Be a mount. After that it was also partially the reason how I managed to kill my R9-290 GPU. Then again that was also my fault. I had bought this to pair up liquid cooling (Corsair H75) to my XFX DD R9-290 which had no good reason for why it needed it, besides the fact I wanted it to have liquid cooling. A quick check of NZXT's site showed my card as being a compatible one, however, it did have the * next to it meaning "* Some variations in AMD die height may require the use of a copper shim which is not included in G10. You need to purchase the shim by yourself." . However mine did not require this. Next up it also said the H75 cooler would work just fine.All of the pieces of the puzzle finally arrived and like a timid little kid I disassembled my perfectly good GPU to "modify/upgrade" it. However, as I discovered rather quickly the screw mounts for the AMD GPU are the narrowest ones and that combined with the plastic bump outs for the H75 meant 3 of the screw heads couldn't fit! So being the macgyver I am, I took and grinded down the screwheads to about half their original size, enabling them to fit under the H75's cover. Alright ez pz! put everything together, mounted it all in my case and everything fired up. It was a huge relief. but.....3 days later while I was sittin at my computer not doing anything, all my screens shut down! Ok, no big deal...restarted it and nothing. Computer would run but no monitors were responding...attempted this 3 more times before deciding something must have happened with the GPU. Took it out and all apart (when doing this the plastic cover on the H75 easily popped off which meant I would have never had any mounting issues if I had figured that out in the first place) to see some weird "metal flakes" on the cooler. I thought maybe it just needed some new thermal compound so I wiped it clean and that's when I saw something no PC enthusiast should ever see....those metal "flakes" were actually chunks! And there were cracks extending on both sides of those missing chunks.What happened? Well like I said I ground down the screw heads to fit under the H75 cover, but in order to tighten them I made a rookie mistake and used a screwdriver (ALWAYS TIGHTEN YOUR SCREWS BY HAND!!! ALWAYS!!!) because I couldn't get to them by hand. Which in turn lead to me over torquing the screws, applying too much pressure on the GPU! @#^#$Y#$TY#$$!@@$!!%^ After 3 days of some gaming and everyday use, the heat combined with pressure must have got to it and physically cracked my GPU. smh.I've learned from my mistakes. Went and found another R9-290 off craigs list and now am awaiting NZXT to get some new mounting screws so I can do this again...but the correct way.I can't knock NZXT for what happened. Although I did try and contact them through email about the combination of intercooler, graphics card and their mount that I wanted to use to make sure they would work together and they never did respond. The mount worked exactly like it was supposed too. Rookie mistakes were made though which lead me to killing a perfectly good graphics card. I'll attach some photo's from my experience for your laughs.

I purchased the blue version, mostly for the cost ($10-20 less than other colors) but it does match my G.Skill Ram & Blue LED lights so that is a plus. However it's just painted metal so I'm not sure why the price variations in colors.Pros+ Cheap+ EffectiveCons- Weakens the mounting for your GPU- 92mm Fan is loudInstallation:I was using this on a EVGA GTX 770 Reference Card with a Kraken X40 Liquid Cooler. The Kraken X40 does come with a locking ring to lock the pump in place, but that only works on the CPU bracket and not this GPU bracket. Since this is an NZXT product it would be nice if they included a locking ring that works with the G10 and it would work with other models as well. This way you aren't trying to manage multiple things at the same time during installation and it just makes life easy. For the record the locking ring that comes with the X40 will work on the G10, but the minute you move the radiator the ring pops off because the G10 has a thicker surface for it to snap in place. I ended up ditching the ring idea and managed to get it installed.Performance:I changed my setup from an Ibuypower Revolt case to a Coolermaster CosmosSE Case so that may have an impact on cooling performance. Max Temperatures in the Revolt case would hit 70-80c (70mhz OC). Inside the Cosmos with the G10 bracket and running Heaven with 120mhz OC, the temperatures aren't moving past 55-56cCase Fitment:This was an issue because I tried initially having everything neat and clean, ziptieing along the side of the fan as its designed to do. The X40 tubing, which is 16" had no where to mount inside my case. I ended up removing the zipties and letting the radiator/fan sit against the HD Cage and it shouldn't move or be interfered by anything.Conclusion:This will help degrease GPU temperatures and allow you to squeeze more out of your overclock. I would run a 70mhz OC on Aircooled and now able to run a 120mhz OC. The fan is noisy and the installation can be a little annoying but it works and works well.