Corsair or EK?

Steveo1982

Steveo1982

Steveo1982

Associate
Joined
28 Jan 2009
Posts
581
Hi all.

Looking at at first custom loop but not sure if I should go down the all corsair hydro route or look at ek.

I am just not sure which is the better performer.

Thanks
Steve
 
not much in it. both are expensive, both are reasonable. I'd suggest there are better manufacturers but none that offer quite such a "complete" design aesthetic.
 
MikeTimbers said:
not much in it. both are expensive, both are reasonable. I'd suggest there are better manufacturers but none that offer quite such a "complete" design aesthetic.
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I am just not sure which manufacturer to go for.

I have a phanteks evolve x case and was looking at their cpu block and the ek distribution plate and pump go with it but not sure.

I am so used to aio coolers but want to go for full custom loop.
 
Steveo1982 said:
I am just not sure which manufacturer to go for.

I have a phanteks evolve x case and was looking at their cpu block and the ek distribution plate and pump go with it but not sure.

I am so used to aio coolers but want to go for full custom loop.
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Phanteks blocks are very solid and perform well, so no issues if you went that route. I had thier Intel Block and Strix block for my GPU until few moths before selling as I upgraded, but both were superb quality and performed just as well as my EK blocks and would have no issues recommending them. In general going to be personal preference with regards to looks and its all subjective.
 
Radox-0 said:
Phanteks blocks are very solid and perform well, so no issues if you went that route. I had thier Intel Block and Strix block for my GPU until few moths before selling as I upgraded, but both were superb quality and performed just as well as my EK blocks and would have no issues recommending them. In general going to be personal preference with regards to looks and its all subjective.
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Thanks mate much appreciated.

I do like the corsair eco system and my keyboard mouse fans etc are all icue so might just stick with what I know. Only issue I saw was a der bauer video with a 3070 water block and looked like liquid was going all over the place and not through the fins. Is this common with corsair gpu water blocks?
 
Steveo1982 said:
Thanks mate much appreciated.

I do like the corsair eco system and my keyboard mouse fans etc are all icue so might just stick with what I know. Only issue I saw was a der bauer video with a 3070 water block and looked like liquid was going all over the place and not through the fins. Is this common with corsair gpu water blocks?
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I think it can unfortunately happen to plenty of water blocks. Partly because most of them these days use a single large O-ring around the perimeter of the card. The rest of the card is in effect kept in check with the acrylic pressed against it. However in some cases if the acrylic moves slightly away from the cold plate and that means an opening for liquid to go into. It will not massively affect performance really and happens to plenty of brands, even seen some with the special edition FE blocks which costs an arm and leg from EK suffer. There are few that use lots more o_rings which will negate this problem a bit better Alphacool are a good example, if you see there blocks, they have loads more rubber O-rings to keep water in channels a bit more: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/alph...ftw3-graphics-card-water-block-wc-0bt-ac.html but yeah, with most brands these days using a single O-Ring around the edge, it can happen to most brands.
 
Steveo1982 said:
Thanks mate much appreciated.

I do like the corsair eco system and my keyboard mouse fans etc are all icue so might just stick with what I know. Only issue I saw was a der bauer video with a 3070 water block and looked like liquid was going all over the place and not through the fins. Is this common with corsair gpu water blocks?
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Oh to add, not sure if your aware by the way, by default these days, iCUE has a plugin for ASUS motherboards. I say this as your sig mention strix. As a result lighting link works across Corsair bits and ASUS bits. Actually what my current rig and my second rig is set to, colour shift, my mouse, mat, keyboard and, motherboard and strips connected to the ASUS board all shift colours together. I say this as most those water blocks like the phanteks or EK ones have normal 3 or 4 pin RGB headers. Can therefore plug into your motherboard and your motherboard managed via in iCUE. For example I see

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On my secondary rig, use EK blocks on GPU and CPU, RGB header connected to the Strix motherboard which is managed by Icue and my commander pro manages Corsair light strips and it all syncs together nicely there too. Just a thought :)
 
I am using a lot of phanteks halos which all daisy chain in to some d rgb to corsair connectors that go in to my commander pro but yea I see what you mean about the gpu blocks. I just can't understand the o ring thing. It would just be better for them all to use them to make the units more cooling efficient.
 
Steveo1982 said:
I am using a lot of phanteks halos which all daisy chain in to some d rgb to corsair connectors that go in to my commander pro but yea I see what you mean about the gpu blocks. I just can't understand the o ring thing. It would just be better for them all to use them to make the units more cooling efficient.
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Why spend money on 5 o-rings when you can use 1 and your customers will just accept the worse aesthetics?
 
Most GPU are horizontally mounted so the look of the block is irrelevant. Vertical mounting is a recent trend and the manufacturers haven't yet really made gpu blocks specifically for vertical mounts and the associated aesthetics.
 
I've read that the EK D5 pumps perform better than the Corsair ones, despite them looking near enough identical on paper. I can't confirm if this is true, though!
 
For GPU blocks, I’d go EK over Corsair after seeing the videos of Corsair ones leaking.
They might have changed the design now, but I’d still be wary of them.

 
D4N said:
For GPU blocks, I’d go EK over Corsair after seeing the videos of Corsair ones leaking.
They might have changed the design now, but I’d still be wary of them.

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They changed the design quite a few months ago based on recommendations from jaytwocentz, it no longer leaks
 
Grim5 said:
They changed the design quite a few months ago based on recommendations from jaytwocentz, it no longer leaks
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Not to quibble but I happen to be aware that Major Hardware* discovered the issue before Jay did, and pointed out the lack of a third middle screw. Jay showed a clip from Major Hardware's vid in one of his own and then repeated what Major Hardware said as if it was his own ideas. Corsair probably told Jay the fix was based on his recommendations to feed his ego as he has the larger channel.

* He has a fun fan series going on with viewers sending in all sorts of fan designs and he tests them, good entertainment if you haven't seen it.
 
EK all day long the new Torque fittings are great as I had a few 90 degree's in my loop and they had a fair bit of movement in them now replaced with ek torque 90 and they are solid, another reason to go ek is their customer support.
 
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