Optimus Foundation CPU Block (Intel)

[VSG]

Perhaps the most requested CPU water block review in years, we finally take a look at Optimus Water Cooling's Foundation CPU block. With a near-rabid user base touting praises galore, we put it to the test to see if the hype and asking price is justified.

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[1usmus]

Amazing WB

 

[XL-R8R]

You cannot deny the beauty of this block; or its performance.



Outstanding - even if the price is elevated.

 

[lorry]

I believe that it is on the AMD side that many of the temp drops are being seen, due to a bowed coldplate to better match the IHS with lapping, also it covers all of the chiplets from what I understand.

 

[Animalpak]

Im so happy to see more and more manufacturers releasing waterblocks, this one is simple straight to the point i love it ! The machinery on the nickel block is one of the highest quality i ever seen. I would like to see other colors of brackets like a red one for ROG themed builds or AMD.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
I have to disagree with the 1c better bit of the foundation against just the heatkiller 4 pro

I've seen 3c better and also much better the higher the clock goes on a 9940x
4.5-4.8 was pretty obviously better seeing there was barely 2c climb in max core temp per increased multiplier with no avx offset being used
Also you mention nothing about core temperature spread from lowest to hottest cores
Foundation shines at this and results have been easily within 10c where as heatkiller 4 pro looses the higher the clock goes foundation stays within 10c

Using purely Blender opendata full or long test which is about the same 30 minute test on a 9940x to complete the 6 rendering files

 

[Mescalamba]

Its due high restriction, if you make high PSI waterblock right, it will logically scale till material limits.

Of course there is that problem with high PSI, maybe they should make some high quality pump or repurpose something.. Anyway, kudos for making something non-China, functional and actually kinda nice.

 

[HM_Actua1]

I switched to this block a couple months ago and I was blown away by the performance and quality. I noticed a 10deg difference over the EK supremacy blocks I was using. This block looks and performs amazingly.

 

[Oberon]

Glad to see these blocks aren't just hype. I was planning on getting one for myself soon just because I like the looks, but it's good to know the performance is there too.

 

[lorry]

From the review - "The company does claim their blocks are optimized for the more typical custom loop pumps from Xylem, which is their way of saying they are aware these are not going to be great options for the weaker pumps used in copper AIOs and standalone solutions. "

I presume that this is the pump that is mentioned?

Lowara DDC Pump for computer and electronics cooling | Xylem UK

www.xylem.com

 

[VSG]

From the review - "The company does claim their blocks are optimized for the more typical custom loop pumps from Xylem, which is their way of saying they are aware these are not going to be great options for the weaker pumps used in copper AIOs and standalone solutions. "

I presume that this is the pump that is mentioned?

Lowara DDC Pump for computer and electronics cooling | Xylem UK

www.xylem.com

The D5 or DDC are both plenty fine. To be honest, I only measure coolant flow restriction at 1 GPM because the enthusiast market has become accustomed to targeting it as a flow rate desirable. In practice, once you are past turbulent flow in radiators, you will not gain much. Even half that value at 0.5 GPM is quite sufficient to reap the benefits of custom watercooling, and Optimus here is merely making sure the higher pressure drop with their blocks can be met with a pump that has a higher head pressure compared to the smaller AIO pumps that come (Alphacool DC-LT, EK SPC-60 etc).

 

[lorry]

The D5 or DDC are both plenty fine. To be honest, I only measure coolant flow restriction at 1 GPM because the enthusiast market has become accustomed to targeting it as a flow rate desirable. In practice, once you are past turbulent flow in radiators, you will not gain much. Even half that value at 0.5 GPM is quite sufficient to reap the benefits of custom watercooling, and Optimus here is merely making sure the higher pressure drop with their blocks can be met with a pump that has a higher head pressure compared to the smaller AIO pumps that come (Alphacool DC-LT, EK SPC-60 etc).

Thank you, so I presume that the EK Water Blocks Quantum Kinetic TBE 200 D5 PWM D-RGB Pump Reservior - Plexi will fine for this then ?

 

[ThrashZone]

The D5 or DDC are both plenty fine. To be honest, I only measure coolant flow restriction at 1 GPM because the enthusiast market has become accustomed to targeting it as a flow rate desirable. In practice, once you are past turbulent flow in radiators, you will not gain much. Even half that value at 0.5 GPM is quite sufficient to reap the benefits of custom watercooling, and Optimus here is merely making sure the higher pressure drop with their blocks can be met with a pump that has a higher head pressure compared to the smaller AIO pumps that come (Alphacool DC-LT, EK SPC-60 etc).

Hi,
I would really like to see your core temp spread after your tests, coldest cores and hottest cores those differences.
Not averages.

 

[VSG]

Thank you, so I presume that the EK Water Blocks Quantum Kinetic TBE 200 D5 PWM D-RGB Pump Reservior - Plexi will fine for this then ?

Yeah, that's plenty enough for the vast majority of loops. Keep in mind that this is contingent on what you have in the rest of the loop, since of course using a lot of GPU blocks and high restriction radiators changes some things.

Hi,
I would really like to see your core temp spread after your tests, coldest cores and hottest cores those differences.
Not averages.

I am sure that will be useful to you and many others, but there is only so much I can do and report in the time I have. I use average core temperatures for CPU blocks, and average GPU core + VRM temperatures for GPU blocks. Unlikely to change anytime soon, and hope you will find what you are looking for elsewhere.

 

[ThrashZone]

I switched to this block a couple months ago and I was blown away by the performance and quality. I noticed a 10deg difference over the EK supremacy blocks I was using. This block looks and performs amazingly.

Spoiler: Nice rig

View attachment 145370

Hi,
Nice my ghetto rig not near as pretty though but foundation is a sweet block for sure
Have you tried blender opendata it's my P95 substitute
Blender Open Data — blender.org

I am sure that will be useful to you and many others, but there is only so much I can do and report in the time I have. I use average core temperatures for CPU blocks, and average GPU core + VRM temperatures for GPU blocks. Unlikely to change anytime soon, and hope you will find what you are looking for elsewhere.

Hi,
Guess that falls into the category people want to see what they want to see you mentioned in both articles ?

I guess if someone saw a core or two.. that did show 5-8c.. improvement over another water block or tighter core temp spread it wouldn't count in your mind :/
I never liked the hype either but reading temps in averages when mostly Max tempertares really matter to people overclocking is just simplifing for the view you want to show and not what reality is.

So is there a difference in 4.8 at 100c verses 4.8 at 90c or is that too just what I want to see

 

[lorry]

Yeah, that's plenty enough for the vast majority of loops. Keep in mind that this is contingent on what you have in the rest of the loop, since of course using a lot of GPU blocks and high restriction radiators changes some things.

Yes I'm aware. For the time being at least it will only be the CPU not GPU. The radiator for the time being will be the Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 360

 

[VSG]

Yes I'm aware. For the time being at least it will only be the CPU not GPU. The radiator for the time being will be the Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 360

You will be fine. That EK product should have the newer Xylem PWM motor too, which is more compliant with PC PWM implementation and give you a nice longer and more linear RPM range of control, so set up a pump RPM curve based on component (or better, coolant temperature if you put in a coolant temp sensor) and that will be a nice balance of performance and noise.

 

[lorry]

You will be fine. That EK product should have the newer Xylem PWM motor too, which is more compliant with PC PWM implementation and give you a nice longer and more linear RPM range of control, so set up a pump RPM curve based on component (or better, coolant temperature if you put in a coolant temp sensor) and that will be a nice balance of performance and noise.

Yes, from their site -
EK-D5 PWM G2 is an enhanced variant of the world renown Xylem D5 with improved power management control, which allows for better speed control trough motherboard BIOS or dedicated fan controller.

 

[gamefoo21]

As someone who has had to retire blocks because of the micro-fractures. The use of better quality materials here really is something that makes me happy.

It's a often looked over point, because of how much the lower/generic grades are used. Really like that they still use metal to mount everything to or at least that's how it looks to me. Takes a lot of stress off the plastic parts.

I for one also welcome our springless future mounting overlords!

 

[ThrashZone]

I am sure that will be useful to you and many others, but there is only so much I can do and report in the time I have. I use average core temperatures for CPU blocks, and average GPU core + VRM temperatures for GPU blocks. Unlikely to change anytime soon, and hope you will find what you are looking for elsewhere.

Hi,
You already have the data seeing if you didn't you could never of found the average

 

[Optimus Water Cooling]

Hey VSG, thank you for the review!! Excellent testing and results

And if anyone has any questions, happy to answer!

PUMP POWER: yes, our blocks are made for the latest pumps aka D5 and DDC. We feel restriction isn't nearly as big a deal as it has been in the past when weak pumps were all the rage. But that was like decades ago. Even AIOs use super tight skived fin designs. And the results are obvious. Even with the test here (using a DDC), the restriction is high but the performance is high as well. We tun multiple radiators, cpu, gpu, etc on a single D5 and it's plenty. Adding more pumps can drop temps slightly in certain OC situations, but there isn't any reason to worry about restriction for the average builder.

 

[Oberon]

Hi,
You already have the data seeing if you didn't you could never of found the average

Or, y'know, they could have taken the measurement from an application that provides the average of all cores.

 

[ThrashZone]

Or, y'know, they could have taken the measurement from an application that provides the average of all cores.

Hi,
Most monitoring apps read Current/ Minimum/ Maximum/ Average that I've ever seen
SIV64/ hwinfo64 that I've used anyway.

Anything that only produced an average without min/ max would be suspect
Heck I'd settle for cpu package temps but again we're being given incomplete review
Not to mention a small chip

How about a big boy chip instead of a 8 core
Add 10 more cores and do a review 10980xe are a lot cheaper 5.0 supposed to be ezpz

 

[Oberon]

Hi,
Most monitoring apps read Current/ Minimum/ Maximum/ Average that I've ever seen
SIV64/ hwinfo64 that I've used anyway.

Anything that only produced an average without min/ max would be suspect
Heck I'd settle for cpu package temps but again we're being given incomplete review
Not to mention a small chip

How about a big boy chip instead of a 8 core
Add 10 more cores and do a review 10980xe are a lot cheaper 5.0 supposed to be ezpz

The min/max in HWInfo are still an average across cores (and potentially other sensors), which is the average you're complaining about....

 

[ThrashZone]

The min/max in HWInfo are still an average across cores (and potentially other sensors), which is the average you're complaining about....

Hi,
Well they are averages from tj max.
Max is something oc'er track
Averages are not.