EKWB GTX 1080 Water Blocks - Release Date!

Smffy · 18 May 2016 at 14:46

*** DO NOT POST IF YOU ARE JUST GOING TO MOAN ABOUT PRICES ***

If you are like me and looking forward to picking up a few 1080's in the near future and getting them nice and chilled under water you may like to know EKWB confirmed they will have full blocks available on the 27th May!

Available finishes will be:

Copper plexi, copper acetal, nickel plexi, and Nickel acetal. No frosted this time.
Same back-plates as Titan X line up (hopefully in the same range of colours)

Looking forward to seeing what these cards can achieve with some decent custom loop cooling! I've been thinking about beefing up my radiator width for a while so this might also be on the cards, who else is joining the under water 1080 gang?

Father Torque · 18 May 2016 at 14:58

Well, recent reviews show that 1080 is power limited and for full OC potential you need more input than 8pins. So, who needs a water cooling systems for reference (FE) 1080??

Undesirable · 18 May 2016 at 15:05

Based on reviews, I'm gonna wait for cards with higher power limits.

Plus the price is too high at the moment for the card & waterblock (sorry, couldn't resist).

Flying_Hellfish · 18 May 2016 at 15:33

Yes please. Waiting on custom cards though, what's the point of paying +£100 for the ref cooler only to remove it THEN pay probably £100 for the block?

Let's see what wonders EVGA etc can come up with.

enigma27 · 18 May 2016 at 16:02

I will be doing my first full WC project on a 1080 so this is good news..

although makes no difference as I will wait for no reference models to come out..

avatar12m · 18 May 2016 at 16:09

"Same back-plates as Titan X line up "

so does this mean i can order a titan back plate and it will fit 1080 ?

i watercool so i can get a silent rig and improve cooling and prefer not to have a hovercraft sat 2 feet away.

TheMadMan697 · 18 May 2016 at 16:44

Also looking to watercool the 1080. Planning to pickup a card with a reference PCB and a block from EK. As much as I would like to wait for a custom PCB and waterblock to suit in the hope that it has better power delivery and can overclock more I really dont want to wait well over a month for the cards and blocks to be released. I have a HTC vive and my SLI 670's are not cutting it anymore especially when SLI isnt really a thing in VR yet. Surprisingly I can run most room scale games fine on low with the 670 but anything more demanding like project cars there is no chance.

Kaapstad · 18 May 2016 at 17:00

avatar12m said:
"Same back-plates as Titan X line up "

so does this mean i can order a titan back plate and it will fit 1080 ?

i watercool so i can get a silent rig and improve cooling and prefer not to have a hovercraft sat 2 feet away.

The Titan X has memory chips on the back of the PCB so completely different to the 1080.

Smffy · 18 May 2016 at 17:30

Flying_Hellfish said:
Yes please. Waiting on custom cards though, what's the point of paying +£100 for the ref cooler only to remove it THEN pay probably £100 for the block?

Let's see what wonders EVGA etc can come up with.

Doing the same mate, personally waiting on some of the custom vendor options to see if we can't deliver more power via two connectors.

Kaapstad said:
The Titan X has memory chips on the back of the PCB so completely different to the 1080.

This, same style different actual plate i'm told.

Disco_P · 18 May 2016 at 19:32

Gonna wait for a clearer view of the whole scene before opening my wallet. Custom 1080, 1070 and whatever AMD come up with.

Was there ever a white EK backplate available for titan x? I had to paint my last one but will do the same again if needs be.

Bradley1928 · 18 May 2016 at 21:49

I hope they also do one for the 1070

Diagro · 18 May 2016 at 22:04

Custom 1080 if I get one.
Hopefully asus or gigs will add a second 8pin power

Rasphelt · 18 May 2016 at 23:34

Bitspower are releasing theirs on the 27th too, or so they tell me, I should be getting a peek at them (which I will post) on Monday! They will cost £75.00 or just under. I am told that they will look similar to the Titan Z - EDIT: Scratch that, I have seen a mock up and they are the same as the Titan z in physical design, but not in asthetics.

I am definitely buying three 1080's, maybe four (depending...) and putting them all underwater in my SMA8 build, but I am waiting for a 6950X too, so I will have a bit of time to see what the partner cards look like. Like the OP I am hoping for an additional 6pin, to really kill on OC'ing!

Cheers
Ben

Smffy · 19 May 2016 at 14:30

Rasphelt said:
I am hoping for an additional 6pin, to really kill on OC'ing!

Same here mate, have you used Bitspower blocks before? I've never used any of their kit and while I know the fittings are pretty premium are the blocks any good?

Disco_P said:
Was there ever a white EK backplate available for titan x? I had to paint my last one but will do the same again if needs be.

No pretty sure Nickel is as close as it got.

dangel · 19 May 2016 at 15:25

Am looking for two blocks and a solid bridge from EK again this time. There was something sweet about physically bolting the two cards together as 'one' for SLI

I (mostly) watercool for two reasons - silence (yes I try the air coolers they're all too noisy) and the big temp drops you get on GPUs especially. Overclocking is usually something I do later in the card's life.

That said, interesting the power issue - if true that's a bit of a bummer and might make me rethink moving early.

Rasphelt · 19 May 2016 at 16:14

Smffy said:
Same here mate, have you used Bitspower blocks before? I've never used any of their kit and while I know the fittings are pretty premium are the blocks any good?

I haven't used them before as this is my first WC build, but I have gone with a micture of them and EK as I really like them both - check out my build for a parts list and running commentary on my mistakes as i make them!

Cheers mate
Ben

Greebo · 19 May 2016 at 16:16

dangel said:
Am looking for two blocks and a solid bridge from EK again this time. There was something sweet about physically bolting the two cards together as 'one' for SLI

I (mostly) watercool for two reasons - silence (yes I try the air coolers they're all too noisy) and the big temp drops you get on GPUs especially. Overclocking is usually something I do later in the card's life.

That said, interesting the power issue - if true that's a bit of a bummer and might make me rethink moving early.

Yeah same here. Looking at the modded 1080 with watercooling the only thing gained was consistant boost as the temps was kept in check.

And the silence of course as well.

I think i might wait for a beefier board with extra voltage connector before jumping in this time.

pandem0nium · 19 May 2016 at 17:56

Rasphelt said:
Bitspower are releasing theirs on the 27th too, or so they tell me, I should be getting a peek at them (which I will post) on Monday! They will cost £75.00 or just under. I am told that they will look similar to the Titan Z - EDIT: Scratch that, I have seen a mock up and they are the same as the Titan z in physical design, but not in asthetics.

I am definitely buying three 1080's, maybe four (depending...) and putting them all underwater in my SMA8 build, but I am waiting for a 6950X too, so I will have a bit of time to see what the partner cards look like. Like the OP I am hoping for an additional 6pin, to really kill on OC'ing!

Cheers
Ben

I'd bear in mind that you'll have to jump through a few hoops to get over two way and that two way I think is the only recommended configuration.

Smffy · 19 May 2016 at 21:47

pandem0nium said:
I'd bear in mind that you'll have to jump through a few hoops to get over two way and that two way I think is the only recommended configuration.

Two way is supported 'out the box', more cards you have to apply for a key of sorts to unlock in the BIOS... So its less supported than before but possible, from what I understand the 'double bandwidth' was in response to a problem created with many flexible bridges not the bespoke 3-4 way hard bridges made by other vendors. Its not as clean cut as 'oh double the speed because they use both fingers' Jaztwocents did a pretty sound video of that.

In short two way i'll be waiting to see if 3rd party boards are carrying more power connectors and then making my choice, EVGA again I would guess. EKWB is my entire rest of setup so probably the choice but each to their own!