I will buy an entire set, don´t bother....
But I was wondering... you say that card died after you change the cooler right? And I was looking the cooler and reading the assemble instruction, and they barely scratch in a short circuit issue on the RAM and VR heatsink, because the assemblage involves a insulation tape on that area (step 6 - preparation).
Did you think that may happened to your card? NOW im scared..

I will buy an entire set, don´t bother....
But I was wondering... you say that card died after you change the cooler right? And I was looking the cooler and reading the assemble instruction, and they barely scratch in a short circuit issue on the RAM and VR heatsink, because the assemblage involves a insulation tape on that area (step 6 - preparation).
Did you think that may happened to your card? NOW im scared..

After months of operation? I don't think so. That is where I've used nail polish instead of the insulating tape, because I was afraid that the tape will peel off when the heatsink gets hot.

I will buy an entire set, don´t bother....
But I was wondering... you say that card died after you change the cooler right? And I was looking the cooler and reading the assemble instruction, and they barely scratch in a short circuit issue on the RAM and VR heatsink, because the assemblage involves a insulation tape on that area (step 6 - preparation).
Did you think that may happened to your card? NOW im scared..

After months of operation? I don't think so. That is where I've used nail polish instead of the insulating tape, because I was afraid that the tape will peel off when the heatsink gets hot.

That´s what I was thinking! I will make a double insulation there....ty for your thoughts!

I install the beast today. It´s really huge. That was a TORX 6 toll that was needed. Really necessary to mess with a 690 cooler. Once the original cooler is out, the assemble of the Aero is not that hard. The performance, on the other hand, is kinda worse than I think. I don´t think its even on a pair of the original cooler. I can´t tell about the noise, because the machine has other 2 original 690s, but the cooling is not that good.
So if you have a leaked chamber (a kinda comom flaw it seems), it´s a must have. But if not, don´t mess with your 690......

Once the original cooler is out, the assemble of the Aero is not that hard. The performance, on the other hand, is kinda worse than I think. I don´t think its even on a pair of the original cooler.

It's much better than the original cooler, however it needs more fresh (cool) air than the original (that is how it can be better), so the more other GPUs are in the system, the less gain in cooling performance.

I can´t tell about the noise, because the machine has other 2 original 690s, but the cooling is not that good.

It's much less noisy. But its performance is the best when there is at least 1 slot space between the GPUs.

So if you have a leaked chamber (a kinda comom flaw it seems), it´s a must have. But if not, don´t mess with your 690......

I would say: if you have only 1 GTX 690, it's worth the mess anyway :)

It seems that the long story of my late GTX 690 isn't over. At first one of the vapor chambers failed, later the whole card.
This card was in an ASUS Rampage Extreme III motherboard.
This motherboard is still operational, it runs a GTX 680 and a GTX 670 at the moment.
I share the aftermath of my GTX 690's failure, as I think it reveals the source of that card's final failure, so this can be very useful for others as well. A wise man learns from others' troubles (as we say it in Hungary). So, be wise.

It happened on last Thursday. This host was off when I got home, while the others were running fine. This was suspicious from the first moment, but I turned on this PC to check it could start up normally. It booted fine, both GPUs were working fine, but after about a half hour of operation this host suddenly turned itself off. I've seen such behavior before, when the 8-pin CPU power connector (actually only the four 12V pins) burned out on my other motherboard (also ASUS), so I immediately turned the power switch off, and began checking all power connectors. This MB has two 8-pin CPU power connectors, so I would have been very surprised if they had been burned out, and they weren't. The GPU power connectors were also fine. This PC has a modular PSU (Enermax Maxrevo 1500W), so I had to check both ends of all cables. Only the 24-pin MB ATX power connector remained unchecked, because this one is the hardest to disconnect. As I expected after checking all other power connectors, the two 12V pins were burned out on this one.
This two 12V pins power the RAM, and also the PCIe sockets, therefore the GPUs (they could draw at most 75W from the PCIe slot, that is 6.25A @12V).
Why do I think that this failing connector killed my GTX 690?
Because I have an old GTX 480, and I've put it into this MB after I've fixed these two pins. The VGA output of this old GTX 480 became 'noisy' (darker horizontal lines flashing very rapidly on the screen) when running GPUGrid on it. But not in this MB, since I've soldered the two 12V cables to their pins on the MB. So the two 12V pins could not provide enough power to the PCIe slots while they were connected in their original way, and that could have been the source of my GTX 690's demise.
To fix the connection of the 12V rail, I've removed the two pins from the connector, and I've cut the plastic off of the connector around these two pins on the MB as well. Then I've polished these two pins (they became black from the burning plastic), and I've soldered a thick but short solid copper wire to the two pins on the MB and the two 12V cables to its upper side.
I don't understand why are the fan connectors gold plated, and the power connectors aren't, while the latter have to conduct 10 times more amps? Why are the housing of the PSU's power connectors made of thermoplastic? The parts in my host in question are the most expensive kind, so their price couldn't be an excuse for that silliness. Furthermore there is no point in putting 5V, 3.3V, -12V, -5V rails on the MB and the PSU anymore, because every part is using less and less voltage. Only the +12V rail is used to power everything on the MB (through programmable DC-DC converters), so the ATX power connector standard is obsolete in its recent form. The existence of the separate CPU and GPU power connectors are the proof of it. I've liked much-much more the design of the old power connectors.

So the lesson from this long story is:
- Do not use any power cable converters, extenders as they add extra contact resistance (should I say do not use modular PSUs?)
- regularly check all power connectors for burn marks
- If you put more high-end GPU in a single MB, you should use the extra power connectors on the MB, if there is any. If there isn't such, then don't put more than one high-end GPU in that MB.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Sounds like the issue was with the lack of quality in the modular power cables/PSU rails, or a connection issue (loose connection's cause burn marks). Did you ever OC that card?

I recently had a 700W PSU fail, and still have the cables - they lack any quality; cheap alloy connectors and sharp edged plastic ends (not something they advertise). It was bought as a spare, supposedly 80%+ but wasn't worth the time, money or effort. Buy quality, buy once, no regrets...

As a general rule of thumb, the more efficient a PSU is the better quality the components are, and you can usually tell from the weight. Power efficiency is lost with any cheap components, including cabling and connectors. Anything below 85% efficiency these days is suspicious; you can now get PSU's with 93% efficiency.

There are powerful PSU's and there are quality PSU's - they are not necessarily both. A quality modular PSU with quality cabling is a great choice for a powerful system and offers flexibility and tidiness. If it weighs next to nothings, and has a sticker of a dragon on the side, expect fire, smoke and failure.

In the past I've used many PSU's that say they can supply 500 to 800W but failed within 18months (usually within 6). I've also used a 550W Corsair PSU (of reasonable quality) to support two 215W GPU's on an overclocked i7 for over a year 24/7 without issue. The system drew >450W continuously.

I have two GPU's which use a 6pin (75W) and an 8pin (150W) connector. While the reference models are rated at 170W and 230W, while crunching GPUGrid WU's it's unlikely that the wattage would require any power from the PCIE slots for these cards. The makes them much more reliable. Similarly the two 6pin power connectors (150W) of my GTX660Ti can supply enough power to the card should the PCIE power be substandard. The 170W TDP for the reference GTX760 made me suspicious. There are models that require one 8pin power connector and models that use one 6pin and one 8pin connector.

A few times I had to use a 24-pin ATX power extender (bad MB/PSU design). They are terrible - avoid/get a proper PSU/MB. The pins can sometimes be pushed into the connector, so that they don't touch.

BTW. Not every PCIE slot can provide 75W!

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