Tuesday, June 9th 2020
EK Planning To Enter The Air Cooling Market
EK Waterblocks has unveiled a new air cooler design at their Computex 2020 replacement, EK Cooling Expo. The company released one image of a prototype cooler which appears to include 4 heat pipes and an EK branded fan. EK representatives confirmed to Overclock 3D that the EK heatsink has not been finalized and is still undergoing product design. EK didn't say if they are planning other models or announce pricing/availability of the heatsink. Will EK become a serious competitor in the air cooling market against established players such as Noctua?
Update 09:34 UTC: EK has confirmed that they will be introducing both single and dual-tower models in the EK-AIR series of products, which will feature modern D-RGB lighting, premium build quality, modern aesthetics, and great cooling.
Sources:
EK Waterblocks, Overclock 3D
Update 09:34 UTC: EK has confirmed that they will be introducing both single and dual-tower models in the EK-AIR series of products, which will feature modern D-RGB lighting, premium build quality, modern aesthetics, and great cooling.
16 Comments on EK Planning To Enter The Air Cooling Market
This is literally going to be a more expensive 212 that cools the same as a 212, with a Be Quiet-esque top plate that isn't nearly as quiet as any of Be Quiet's coolers, and Noctua Secufirm-style spring-loaded screws without any of the convenience or strength of the Secufirm system. Essentially, the worst of all worlds from a company that's nowadays known for neither quality nor value.
Nobody is going to be as nice to them in this market
Let's look at the A500 again shall we?
EK doesn't make bad products, but I've always felt their popularity is artificial and largely caused by their overwhelming presence in YouTube tech channel builds early on.... A bunch of people wanting to watercool saw EK in 8 out of 10 builds on YouTube, conflate popularity with quality, and buy the same EK products, and repeat in a self reinforcing feedback loop.
One of the best sites for watercooling reviews was thermalbench, and in the vast majority of reviews, EKs blocks would be continually outperformed by Watercool's Heatkiller line as well as aquacomputer, but it doesn't seem to translate in popularity, but then again if quality had anything to do with popularity, McDonald's wouldnt be where they are today.