What you guys make of EK's new universal GPU block?

3t3P · 19 Feb 2013 at 15:23

As GREAT as my EK full cover blocks are, and how nice they look, going full over over and over adds up to serious £££'s.

I really like the look and principle of their new universal GPU block.

Sure you gotta add on passive sinks to memory and vrms but you have a solution that is more future proof? You can still do SLI too.

http://www.ekwb.com/news/313/19/EK-releases-EK-VGA-Supremacy-HWBOT-Edition/

panyan · 19 Feb 2013 at 15:37

its a limited edition block that will probably be a lot more expensive and not a lot better

sieze2 · 19 Feb 2013 at 15:59

panyan said:
its a limited edition block that will probably be a lot more expensive and not a lot better

It's 73 euro's ! That's crazy pricing IMHO !

BluD · 19 Feb 2013 at 16:05

I liked the good old days when ya just moved ya gpu cooler from card to card, and then ya just either stuck some heat syncs on ya mem or just buy some copper and make some vmem water coolers, which i prefered. Ive got a box full of old water coolers in my wardrobe seems such a waste.

*Rich* · 19 Feb 2013 at 17:18

Surely at that price you'd want a full cover block. Looks very much like my CPU Supremacy block.

panyan · 19 Feb 2013 at 17:23

*Rich* said:
Surely at that price you'd want a full cover block

+1

gatecrasherlok · 19 Feb 2013 at 18:14

Yeah at that price not only is it a limited edition, but very much little in materials used to construct. The full cover block would be a much better option.

JonJ678 · 19 Feb 2013 at 19:50

Old school.

pgi947 · 19 Feb 2013 at 21:43

Not bad but show me a limited edition full nickel HWBot CPU block and EK will have a sale from me

*Rich* · 20 Feb 2013 at 07:09

pgi947 said:
Not bad but show me a limited edition full nickel HWBot CPU block and EK will have a sale from me

Probably be a couple hundred pounds at that though. Some standard ones are past £100 already.

Gunslinger · 20 Feb 2013 at 13:56

EK still leaves a bad taste in the mouth following the poor quality nickel plating issues of not too long ago

andybird123 · 20 Feb 2013 at 14:04

yeah, my thoughts are; there are already decent GPU only blocks for far less, and as a general rule I avoid EK products and definitely EK nickel products

Gunslinger · 20 Feb 2013 at 14:13

oddly enough - i have an EK nickel/plexi block

.... only ones that fit the asus v2 5850 i have ! might get it replated though, or use it for a bit then upgrade, i don't need a massive gpu as i dont play games

spoffle · 20 Feb 2013 at 14:21

" As GREAT as my EK full cover blocks are, and how nice they look, going full over over and over adds up to serious £££'s."

That was exactly my thinking, so I recently bought some EK-VGA Supreme blocks, I got 2 of them for £50 delivered.

I've heard you tend to get better temps with GPU only water blocks too, I haven't properly tested it out as I've only got a 360 slim-line radiator at the moment running 2 overclocked 7950s (1200Mhz core) and a 4.5Ghz 3930K, but even with that, I've been seeing temps of 50c on both cards full load, which has impressed me.

I've got a thicker 480 radiator on its way that should seriously improve the temps of my CPU and GPUs, then it's time for the real testing

andybird123 · 20 Feb 2013 at 15:07

you get better GPU core temps yes, but you get limited cooling of VRAM and VRM's which can lead to problems if overclocking (e.g. limited overclocking)

I didn't think it was much of an issue but having done a bit more research and practical testing myself I've discovered that my overclocks are being held back by VRM temps even with quite big heatsinks on them and directed airflow

I'm going to be going with full cover blocks next time around and selling my GPU only blocks

spoffle · 20 Feb 2013 at 15:20

My 7950s have these VRM sinks on them;

http://i1278.photobucket.com/albums/y515/spoffle/cooler3_zpsd0e5ce11.jpg

and I've taken a fan from the IceQ X2 cooler and fixed them over the VRM heatsinks.

I'm checking GPU-Z now, and my idle VRM temps are 25c, I'll do some resting later and see what they're like under load.

BluD · 20 Feb 2013 at 15:25

I would imagine if ya dont make some water blocks for the rest of the stuff that needs cooling your gonna need heat syncs and a fan or 2 directing flow over them, if your water cooling to remove a few fans and quiet things down ya gonna end up going backwards doing this.

BluD · 20 Feb 2013 at 15:26

spoffle said:
My 7950s have these VRM sinks on them;

http://i1278.photobucket.com/albums/y515/spoffle/cooler3_zpsd0e5ce11.jpg

and I've taken a fan from the IceQ X2 cooler and fixed them over the VRM heatsinks.

I'm checking GPU-Z now, and my idle VRM temps are 25c, I'll do some resting later and see what they're like under load.

Thats a nice sync.

spoffle · 20 Feb 2013 at 15:46

BluD said:
I would imagine if ya dont make some water blocks for the rest of the stuff that needs cooling your gonna need heat syncs and a fan or 2 directing flow over them, if your water cooling to remove a few fans and quiet things down ya gonna end up going backwards doing this.

The heatsinks have a fan each of them, the stock fan from the card actually, which works very well.

BluD said:
Thats a nice sink.

Yep

p)

*Rich* · 20 Feb 2013 at 18:29

What is this marketed at?

As said above, it's a core block only so you'd need (on higher end cards) some kind of extra cooling for the vram etc on the card.