EK Unveils Its NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Water Blocks

[Cristian_25H]

EK Water Blocks, Ljubljana based premium water cooling gear manufacturer, is proud to introduce full-cover water cooling solution for NVIDIA reference (NVA-1G401) design GeForce GTX 980 series graphics cards, based on Maxwell GM204 graphics processor.

EK-FC980 GTX directly cools the GPU, RAM as well as VRM (voltage regulation module) as water flows directly over these critical areas thus allowing the graphics card and it's VRM to remain stable under high overclocks.





For the first time ever, the EK-FC980 GTX water block features a central inlet split-flow cooling engine design - just like with the flagship EK-Supremacy EVO CPU water block - for best possible cooling performance. Such type of heat exchanger also works flawlessly with reversed water flow without adversely affecting the cooling performance. Moreover this radical design offers great hydraulic perfromance allowing this product to be used in liquid cooling systems using weaker water pumps.

"This new cooling engine allows us to increase thermal performance of the cooler by as much as 3°C compared to our previous design", said Niko Tivadar, Project Manager at EK Water Blocks. "Achieved without sacrificing the slim, single-slot form factor design that has been our trademark throughout the years."

Base is made of electrolytic copper (bare- or nickel-plated, depending on the variant) while the top is made of either acrylic- or POM Acetal material. Plexi variants also features two pre-drilled slots for 3mm LED diodes. Screw-in brass standoffs are pre-installed and allow for safe, painless installation procedure which allows for re-use of the original NVIDIA backplate.



In order to simplify the search for suitable and compatible water block EK is adding newly released graphics cards and motherboard from various manufacturers to EK Cooling Configurator database and compatible graphics cards are being added to the list on daily basis.

These water blocks are made in Slovenia, Europe and are readily available for pre-order through EK Webshop as well as Partner Reseller Network, together with two variants of aesthetic retention backplate, which is again available in Nickel:



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[The Terrible Puddle]

The central inlet split-flow seems interesting

 

[buildzoid]

The central inlet split-flow seems interesting

CPU blocks had this for ages so I guess it's to improve performance.

 

[The Terrible Puddle]

CPU blocks had this for ages so I guess it's to improve performance.

Even though it says in the press release that reversed flow won't affect performance I doubt it until I see a review.

 

[2big2fail]

Nice to see the full cover blocks using jet plates.

Even though it says in the press release that reversed flow won't affect performance I doubt it until I see a review.

All the other jet plate designs I've seen are directional. The velocity of the water is the important factor here. If the flow direction is reversed, think of it like a traffic jam: it is not at all conducive to efficiency. The velocity is slowed over the heat transfer area, which is exactly the opposite of what is desirable.

 

[Steevo]

Nice to see the full cover blocks using jet plates.



All the other jet plate designs I've seen are directional. The velocity of the water is the important factor here. If the flow direction is reversed, think of it like a traffic jam: it is not at all conducive to efficiency. The velocity is slowed over the heat transfer area, which is exactly the opposite of what is desirable.

Except when the thermal capacity of the coolant flow at reasonable pressure is reached, which when we are dumping hundreds of watts into a small area happens, so splitting the flow for higher volume at lower pressure allows for more heat transfer and lower die temps.

 

[brechan69]

Looking at EK's Cooling Configurator page; it seems that they are working on bringing out a custom waterblock for the GTX 970 as well, I'm definitely looking forward to that