Daer8auer Custom Watercooled a $7,000 RTX 5090, Making It Even More Ridiculous

Famed overclocker and Thermal Grizzly founder Roman “Der8auer” Hartung has posted a new video of an impressive RTX 5090 modification. Originally spotted by VideoCardz, the video shows Der8auer taking the already-ridiculous MSI RTX 5090 Lightning Z and modding it to support a 360mm AIO cooler instead of the stock design.

The RTX 5090 is still by far the fastest card in the world. But with no successors coming down the pipe, companies are working with what they’ve got and producing crazier versions, like the MSI Lightning Z, with its 1,300W power limit and crazy high clock speeds. But Der8auer is taking it a step further and giving it an even more advanced cooling solution.

To make the modification, Der8auer retained the stock card’s cold plate, reusing the copper base, internal rubber flow guide, and external housing. What changed was the new AIO loop and fittings, keeping the aesthetics similar while offering more advanced cooling.

As with most major modifications, there were a few hiccups along the way. At one point, a part that appeared to be nickel-plated steel was actually made of aluminum, which raised the possibility of material contamination, as copper and aluminum don’t always play well together in custom loop designs.

When fully up and running and tested, the card pulled an average of 800W under load, but stayed nice and cool with a core temperature of just 54 degrees Celsius after over an hour of full load. That’s with three D5 pumps pushing 190 liters of water an hour, too. Coolant remained a chilly 32 degrees, showcasing an effective cooling solution for such a powerful card.

This project’s total price tag is probably somewhere north of $8,000 once you factor in materials and Der8auer’s own time and efforts. That’s probably not worth it for a daily driver, but it’s a fun, silly project nonetheless.

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