5* waterblocks

An Ek FC5870 block should be ready in a couple of weeks apparently...

ek_5870_block_concept.jpg

ek_5870_copper_back.jpg

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/15705/1/
 
Had a couple of EK blocks on my 4870's - lovely design, fit and performance - I highly recommend them.

!BbR(sVg!Wk~$(KGrHqUH-CkEqvLmu,N-BKvPDImR,g~~_12.JPG
 
pastymuncher said:
Or just buy universal blocks that cost less, provide better GPU core cooling, are less restrictive and won't have to be replaced everytime you upgrade the card.
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Not quite true though, have I had both and they have the following disadvantages:

1. Although costing less you still have to buy an armfull of ram and vrm heatsinks and the problems associated with getting them to stick.

2.Occasionally, if the airflow is not good enough in your case and clocking to the extreme, you need to add a fan to cool the heatsinks on the vrm (which kind of removes one advantage of watercooling). I had to do this with my 4870.

3. Full blocks properly cool the ram and vrm and I have always found that this gives a higher maximum overclock than just the vga block method. Also I find that they cool the core better than most stand alone gpu only coolers, not the other way round.

4. They are neater and look nicer.;)

5. Universal blocks are only universal until somebody changes the hole diameter and it doesn't fit your new card anymore (although manufacturers are now better about this than before but I wouldn't be surprised if the fermi is different to the gtx 2xx series)

6. Restriction I have never found a problem as any full vga block is way less restrictive than any cpu block.
 
Greebo said:
5. Universal blocks are only universal until somebody changes the hole diameter and it doesn't fit your new card anymore (although manufacturers are now better about this than before but I wouldn't be surprised if the fermi is different to the gtx 2xx series)
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IIRC Fermi is significantly larger than the GT200, so the holes might well move.
 
Greebo said:
Not quite true though, have I had both and they have the following disadvantages:

1. Although costing less you still have to buy an armfull of ram and vrm heatsinks and the problems associated with getting them to stick.

2.Occasionally, if the airflow is not good enough in your case and clocking to the extreme, you need to add a fan to cool the heatsinks on the vrm (which kind of removes one advantage of watercooling). I had to do this with my 4870.
Click to expand...



Never had a problem with getting my Zalman ramsinks to stick and i have used the same ones for four years now, on four different cards and only had to change the thermal tape once. As for the cost, you can get the Zalman ones for less than £5 if you look around or you can get a Zerotherm kit for £4.19 which comes with 16x heatsinks of varying sizes that do the ram chips, vrm's and mosfet's. If you want a dedicated vrm heatsink you can get the Zalman ones for less than £2.80. I am using the stock vrm heatsink on my 4870 with no problems and it's clocked to 800/1200.



Greebo said:
3. Full blocks properly cool the ram and vrm and I have always found that this gives a higher maximum overclock than just the vga block method. Also I find that they cool the core better than most stand alone gpu only coolers, not the other way round.
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Most full blocks only cool the VRM's by having a copper extension over them. Usually there is no actual watercooling going on with them. My experience with overclocks have been the other way around and have had better results with a core only block and ramsinks than with the EK full cover block i once had.



Greebo said:
4. They are neater and look nicer.;)
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They are in a case facing down so you can't see them anyway. ;)



Greebo said:
5. Universal blocks are only universal until somebody changes the hole diameter and it doesn't fit your new card anymore (although manufacturers are now better about this than before but I wouldn't be surprised if the fermi is different to the gtx 2xx series)
Click to expand...



The only card i have had over the past four years that my Aquaextreme MP-1 has'nt fit was the 320mb 8800GTS. Aside from that it has been on 6800GT/7800GT/8800GT/3850Pro/4850/4870. That's one purchase for 6 different cards. A lot cheaper than buying 6 full cover blocks. My MP-1 has more than one set of mounting holes too.
 
The new 5850 block certainly does have active cooling over the vrm ;)

I had my 4870 clocked to over 900+ on a full block ;)

My 4870 got very toasty still with zalman heatsinks on the vrm.

As I have said, over my DD vga waterblock, the full block has always being superior ;)
 
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