Alphacool Lets Its Water Cooling DNA be Known at CES 2018

[Raevenlord]

Alphacool, the renowned watercooling and accessories company, took to CES 2018 to showcase their watercooling product and accessory lineup. The company's Eisstation cooling blocks made a welcome, "LEDy" appearance, as did the company's full-coverage waterblocks for your choice of VGA. The company also demonstrated a hybrid, water and air cooling solution via its dressed-up radiators; a good-looking maintenance kit; and the company's distinct Eisbecher Helix and Helix Light watercooling "bling".



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Chaitanya]

Alphacool had been teasing that AIO since start of Dec, certainly seems to have changed since initial teasers.
https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/alphacool-teasing-their-new-aio.239497/

 

[Valantar]

The company also demonstrated a hybrid, water and air cooling solution via its dressed-up radiators

That sentence needs some explanation, as it makes zero sense. All radiators are air coolers, given that they use fans to dissipate heat. If it's a dressed-up radiator, it's standard water cooling (albeit with added bling). If it's somehow hybrid, is there air cooling directly connected to the CPU (or GPU? This isn't clear either)? From its looks, this is a radiator with an integrated pump.

 

[nemesis.ie]

I also wonder if these new products will have the same crappy build quality and reliability as the current ones.

I also hope they have modified their coolant so it not longer eats nickel plating like that found on EK products - or at least add a warning to the bottle labels,

 

[EddyAlphacool]

If our water would eat nickel plated products, you would be not able to use it with our components because the most of them are nickel plated ;-) So maybe you should think about why only EK had the problem with their nickel plated products. And by the way, not only with our coolant.

@Valantar
You are right, it is not a hybrid cooler, it is a normal AIO watercooler with of course fans on a radiator. The only different is, that the pump and the reservoir are on the radiator and that we made a aluminium cover around everything for a better look.

@Chaitanya
We will ha a release in Q2 2018 ;-)

 

[nemesis.ie]

Well all I can say is I put your Cape Kelvin catcher + whatever comes pre-filled in the Eisbaer and Eiswolf into the loop with my EK-FC Vega block and within a week or two the EK block was GREEN and the plating peeling off inside.

It seems like you are saying there is an issue with EK's plating, if that's the case this should be spread far and wide and perhaps include a note on the bottle/with kits "Warning, not compatible with EK nickel plating" or the like, you would have much happier customers that way.

I removed the lid, cleaned it off and replaced the fluid with purified water and then added Mayhems biocide and 3 weeks later there is no further damage.

Additionally, within a month (prior to attaching the EK block, using only Alphacool stuff) the pump on the Eiswolf became unreliable and the Eisbaer came with a jammed QD connector.

The packing of the EIswolf was very bad too, parts thrown in the box with a few bits of foam between then rather than proper compartments.

Support wanted me to send all the parts back first and wouldn't even agree to advance-ship a QD! Very poor really. So I just went with a custom loop and put the AC stuff on the shelf ... postage from Ireland would cost too much to send them back, no refund of postage was offered. Other companies collect and return faulty items within ~30 days (and often longer) of purchase.

On top of that, the design of the Vega EisWolf covers the BIOS switch and the fan connector - it should really have holes for both and come with a gfx to 4-pin fan connector, or at least sell a cable as an option.

The instructions for cutting out the thermal pads could be better - or actually they could be pre-cut e.g. with a die-cutter as there are so many and they are so different. The bkacing tape is a pain to get off too, Thermal Grizzly's pads have backing that is much easier to remove, maybe look at using something similar?

I mentioned most of this to AC support and they just ignored my suggestions on the design, again, very poor IMO.

Perhaps some of these points will assist with improving the QC and CS at AlphaCool.

 

[Chaitanya]

If our water would eat nickel plated products, you would be not able to use it with our components because the most of them are nickel plated ;-) So maybe you should think about why only EK had the problem with their nickel plated products. And by the way, not only with our coolant.

@Valantar
You are right, it is not a hybrid cooler, it is a normal AIO watercooler with of course fans on a radiator. The only different is, that the pump and the reservoir are on the radiator and that we made a aluminium cover around everything for a better look.

@Chaitanya
We will ha a release in Q2 2018 ;-)

Thanks for info, will be looking for reviews it certainly looks promising and better packaged than EKs recent MLC. Although will have to find someone travelling from Germany to India if I decide to get one.