Introduction

It has been nearly three years since we last took a look at Bykski, and the Chinese watercooling brand has gone from strength to strength since. Indeed, Bykski has launched a premium brand in this time called Granzon and has maintained the main brand to offer products that aim to best pretty much everyone else from a pure value perspective. In fact, looking at the tagline of this very review, it seems clear that this trend has continued. What has not remained the same, however, has been Byksi's marketing team which seems to change each time they contact me. Thankfully the most recent conversation led to a Bykski care package in my hands with a few different CPU blocks to go through in the coming weeks.


I was not ready for this product name. How exactly does someone decide "CPU-XPR-C-I" is easy to find online? The name has some logic behind it though with "CPU" telling us this is a CPU block, "XPR" likely to be the product line it belongs to, the "C" corresponds to the top option which is clear acrylic in this case, and the "I" confirms this is an Intel platform block. There are versions of this same waterblock design with POM and metal tops as well as support for AMD sockets, in addition to some SKUs with 12 V, 4-pin lighting (not individually addressable) whereas most use the more popular 5 V, 3-pin ARGB lighting as is the case here. As such, outside any potential performance differences from the metal top variants, this review would be representative of the entire family of the Bykski CPU-XPR lineup. Let's examine the block further in our review today which begins with a look at the product specifications in the table below. Thanks to Bykski for providing a review sample to TechPowerUp!

Specifications

Packaging and Accessories

Knowing this is an inexpensive block, I wasn't expecting a lot when it comes to the unboxing experience. The product box for the Bykski CPU-XPR-C-I block is fairly simple and also of a standard design, allowing the brand to re-use this for other similar products given the extremely generic writing on the front to go with the brand logo. A sticker on the side confirms the exact product inside and a seal on the other side helps keep the contents in place on their way to you. Opening the box, we see a thick foam sheet with two compartments that ensures the CPU block on the left does not get accidentally scratched by the accessories during transit.


The CPU block comes inside a thick plastic sheet with a sticker on the back which indicates whether the product was opened before or not. We also get an installation guide, albeit it's relying on poorly printed instructions and diagrams that are not going to be the most user-friendly to those new to PC DIY watercooling. It also does not help that the two plastic ziplock bags containing installation hardware have older Intel sockets listed on them, but thankfully the product page and webshop pages both have the same instructions more clearly legible and updated for LGA 1200 (no different from LGA 115x) and LGA 1700 that may require you to move the standoffs in the provided Intel socket backplate to the furthest positions in all four corners, depending on your motherboard. Rounding off the unboxing experience is an adapter cable allowing you to use standard 5 V, 3-pin ARGB LED headers with the CPU block. That said, there is no thermal paste included with this block, so you will have to provide your own.