Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora Edge Full Brass CPU Water Block

[VSG]

Alphacool adds to its popular Eisblock XPX Aurora Edge CPU block line with full brass top and housing versions. Available with minor RGB lighting support and coming in two color/finish options, the Eisblock XPX Aurora Edge offers good CPU socket compatibility in addition to balanced thermal performance and coolant flow restriction.

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[Mussels]

Man my brain melted for a minute there, confusing this review with the review of the pro here

Is this just the solid top version of the one i have?

 

[VSG]

Man my brain melted for a minute there, confusing this review with the review of the pro here

Is this just the solid top version of the one i have?

This is the Aurora Edge, you have the Aurora Plexi. Very very similar.

 

[Footman]

No shocks or surprises here. I moved away from Alphacool blocks primarily due to the high flow restriction. I would consider going back to them if the thermal performance showed a correlation to the high flow restriction, but alas this is not the case. No point swapping out my Raystorm Pro for now.

Nice review as always.

 

[VSG]

No shocks or surprises here. I moved away from Alphacool blocks primarily due to the high flow restriction. I would consider going back to them if the thermal performance showed a correlation to the high flow restriction, but alas this is not the case. No point swapping out my Raystorm Pro for now.

Nice review as always.

Alphacool has started teasing its next-gen water block designs, including CPU blocks. So I expect this will be one of the addressed aspects and we'll know more at CES. Let me tag @EddyAlphacool in case he wants to be generous and start sharing more stuff here itself!

 

[Mussels]

If nothing else, Eddy will pass on the feedback about the flow restriction

They seem to have good performance for that pressure cost, but it'd be a tough engineering balance to get perfect

 

[EddyAlphacool]

Basically, we are not very interested in satisfying Hig Flow enthusiasts. We see no point in having a high flow. The times when high flow is necessary are over. The goal for all future products is to get the highest performance possible, flow is not a criterion.
On the contrary, the upcoming Core cooler will have a flow resistance similar to the XPX cooler, but with a significantly increased cooling capacity. The Apex cooler, which will follow next year, will top the whole thing again. It will be even more restrictive, but offer even higher cooling performance than the Core.
Almost all current CPU coolers from all brands are technically quite old. Most of them haven't changed much, except for the design. Therefore, the Core cooler and the Apex cooler, which will be released next year, are technically completely new developments. Starting with the bottom, the fins, the water inflow and water outflow and a few little things that probably only people with expertise will recognize. But the improvement of the flow, plays no role because irrelevant for us.

We will not be on CES this year and we will not use this time for special releases either. We have other schedules. And quite honestly, there are so many news and presentations at CES that you get lost in the flood of information one way or another. For us, such trade shows are more interesting for the B2B sector than to present something for end customers. We have so much in the pipeline.... that wouldn't work at all. This year alone, we have launched new products on the market every week. And we have about 160 new products in the pipeline. Okay, that's also a lot of simple things like cables, new adapters and other little things, but we're just really busy.

 

[VSG]

Basically, we are not very interested in satisfying Hig Flow enthusiasts. We see no point in having a high flow. The times when high flow is necessary are over. The goal for all future products is to get the highest performance possible, flow is not a criterion.
On the contrary, the upcoming Core cooler will have a flow resistance similar to the XPX cooler, but with a significantly increased cooling capacity. The Apex cooler, which will follow next year, will top the whole thing again. It will be even more restrictive, but offer even higher cooling performance than the Core.
Almost all current CPU coolers from all brands are technically quite old. Most of them haven't changed much, except for the design. Therefore, the Core cooler and the Apex cooler, which will be released next year, are technically completely new developments. Starting with the bottom, the fins, the water inflow and water outflow and a few little things that probably only people with expertise will recognize. But the improvement of the flow, plays no role because irrelevant for us.

Thanks for sharing this with us, Eddy!

 

[Mussels]

That's the sort of info dump I love reading

 

[EddyAlphacool]

Try to do my best, thanks.

 

[Footman]

High flow is actually an important metric for people who want a quiet system. Having high flow blocks in a system means that I can run the pump at a lower rpm, with less stress on the pump.

The performance of modern blocks is comparable from the reviews that I have looked at, so if I have a choice between high flow and high restriction and a similar performance then I will always go with high flow.

I can't wait to see what Alphacool considers 'highest possible performance'....

 

[EddyAlphacool]

As I said, the XPX cooler technically has a few years under its belt. But that applies to all coolers that exist in the water cooling sector. Technical innovations have not been around for a long time. I'm talking less about today, but rather about what is yet to come. Something will also change in the pump segment.
Basically, it will be exciting at least on our side in the next two years. Because we will finally be able to bring the things to market that we have already been working on and preparing for 3 years.

 

[Mussels]

Well if alphacool are selling pumps they know can handle the flow resistance silently, they can comfortably sell those blocks

I've got the pump from their Storm ST30 kit here at 100% since I first installed it and haven't heard it once since the first fill, and i've got a pretty high flow restricted setup with dual reservoirs, dual radiators, extra joins because they looked cool and quick disconnects

Oh and Footman, Eddy will probably live up to that challenge and have something fancy to show off. They do inded have a lot of products for different purposes, you can use their huge threadripper blocks on AM4/AM5 for example and that extra coppers gunna help no matter what

A 500g waterblock is is a heatsink with build in carwash
Threadripper intel LGA 2066/3467 Wasserkühler | AMD TR4 / sTRX4 / sWRX8 | CPU - Water blocks | CPU - Water blocks | Water cooling | Aquatuning Australia

 

[EddyAlphacool]

@Mussels
You think the XPX Pro is big... you haven`t seen the cooler for LGA 4677 and AMD SP5 They are twice as big as the XPX Pro. We had a joke internally about the cooler when it came to naming it.... Brick was at the top of the list. I don't think it sounds as funny in English as it does in German. But we laughed a lot.

 

[Mussels]

@Mussels
You think the XPX Pro is big... you haven`t seen the cooler for LGA 4677 and AMD SP5 They are twice as big as the XPX Pro.

I'm sure i can chop things out like a RAM slot or two if need be - I've got millimeters of wasted space! The horror!