XSPC has added memory watercooling to their new "Neo" lineup, offering side plates and an acrylic top block in chrome and dark chrome finishes. The aim is to provide users with both matching, RGB-lit waterblocks for their entire system and better cooling than stock RAM heatsinks.
The RayStorm Neo is XSPC taking their flagship RayStorm Pro block and applying a new look to it. Featuring a polished acrylic top, chrome-plated aluminum brackets, and included RGB LEDs with controller, the Neo offers an option to those who want more than a matte/metal top block. Add in a precise installation mechanism and good performance alike and this is a block well worthy of consideration in the sub-$80 market.
Today, we take a look at two different watercooling solutions for the non-reference ASUS GTX 1080 Ti Strix from EKWB and Bykski. Both offer a full-cover water block with design twists of their own, and both are put through the full course of testing, including coolant flow restriction as well as GPU core and VRM thermal testing.
The Koolance VID-NX1080 GPU water block offers two top options - acetal and acrylic - with excellent build quality, good value for your money, and an optional backplate that puts most others to shame. It does fall short on relative performance, but will be a very strong consideration for those on a budget.
The Swiftech Apogee SKF "Heirloom Series" is a flagship CPU water block featuring hundreds of customization options, built-in addressable RGB lighting with a dedicated controller, and industry-new 125 micron thick fins. It is aimed at modders and enthusiasts alike and has the performance to back it up.
The Bykski FR-N-GTX1080 is a full-cover water block component from Bykski's high-end FOUR series. It features an anodized aluminum top cover over an acrylic top, nickel-plated copper cold plate with split flow design, an included anodized aluminum back plate, and multiple color options for customizing your build.
The cuplex kryos NEXT from Aqua Computer is an extremely customizable water block with features including an integrated display with a 32-bit ARM MCU, the ability to fit the block to your particular CPU, an industry-first physical vapor deposited titanium coating, and excellent performance overall to choose from. With over 90 different configurations ranging from $60 to $260, there is something to suit everyone.
Bykski is a watercooling brand that has been operating in Asia thus far, but recently made strides to go global. Their new FOUR series of CPU waterblocks offer five color customization options, a metal top cover on an acrylic top, a massive nickel-plated copper cold plate, and installation all from the back for a clean look when installed.
EKWB has turned back time and gone all aluminum in their latest Fluid Gaming series of watercooling kits. Today, we take a look at the Fluid Gaming 240G kit that promises excellent cooling for all the latest CPUs from Intel and AMD and also includes a full-cover GPU waterblock for the higher-end NVIDIA Pascal GeForce GPUs, all at a price point intended to lower the entry barrier to expandable PC watercooling.
The EVGA Hydro Copper GTX 1080 is a full-cover waterblock that offers integrated lighting with no cable management needed, a six-port I/O port manifold, and an aluminum front cover for aesthetics and rigidity alike. It also aims to simplify installation by incorporating pre-installed thermal pads out of the box.
The Glacier GTX 1080 waterblock is among Phanteks' first ever offerings to the DIY watercooling market. It features integrated RGB lighting, an acrylic top with aluminum side covers, nickel-plated copper cold plate, and a split central flow design scheme for low coolant flow restriction.
Bitspower has not enjoyed much success in the sector of CPU waterblocks, owing to average performance and high product cost with limited customization. They aim to change this in 2017 with the new Summit EF that promises to run at up to 6°C less than before; it will also come with top options in acrylic, nickel-plated copper, and a special gold-plated copper edition.
The Swiftech MCP655 is perhaps the most well-known retail option of the Laing D5 pump and is Swiftech's attempt at bringing to market a pump that is proven to be reliable, quiet, and high performing. The additional touches provided by Swiftech include a vibration dampening mounting kit and an acrylic top promising good performance and aesthetics alike.
Hardware Labs has been a mainstay in the PC DIY watercooling industry for over 15 years now, with an emphasis on radiators for different needs. Today, we take a look at the new Nemesis GTR 360 for those who want the best possible thermal dissipation performance from their radiators.
Today we take a look at EK Water Block's EK Supreme. This CPU waterblock features a universal mounting plate, as well as a clear acrylic top that can be lit up with two 3mm LEDs. Performance is excellent on the EK Supreme, making it truly worthy of the name "Supreme".
With the redesigned MC-TDX CPU waterblock, Danger Den has also released some new chipset blocks based on the same pin design. The new MPC series chipset blocks feature 225 heat-dissipating columns in the typical copper base. We take a look at the MPC-975X chipset block, which is designed to work with the Intel 975X chipset.
Danger Den redesigned the TDX to improve its performance on multiple-core CPUs. This new version, dubbed the MC-TDX, features 240 pins above the CPU core area to help dissipate heat. The rest of the design is classic TDX, with its offset outlet barb, acrylic top and simple mounting hardware.
Thermaltake's new BigWater 760i watercooling kit is an affordable and compact solution to users who are are afraid of the cost or the complexity of a full kit. It is easy to install, so even less experienced people can get their feet wet with watercooling.
Danger Den is considered to be one of the best companies around when it comes to high performance watercooling hardware. Taking a similar approach used on their previous Tyee waterblock, Danger Den designed a full coverage waterblock for the Radeon HD 2900 Series, the DD-29XT. The waterblock and can cool both the GPU, Memory and Voltage Regulators efficiently and promises dramatic results.
Are you looking to get into water cooling, but are not quite sure where to start, or want something a little more than a pre-built cooler? Well we may have a solution for that - The GIGABYTE 3D Galaxy II Water Cooler. Today we will take a look at GIGABYTE's new water kit and put it to the test.
Trends in waterblock design don't change often. Until recently, it was thought that jet-impingement was the best way to go for achieving the lowest temperature when cooling a processor. Then came along quad-core CPUs, and it became evident that we must look at other ways of cooling these beasts – their core surface is very large, so waterblock designers were forced to return to old-school, large surface area waterblocks. The Apogee GT is one of the first blocks that attempts to offer jet-impingement performance from a block relying on a simple array of copper pins – can it succeed?
The only way to get cooler temperatures than with air coolers is to use water cooling. But how do you get cooler than a water cooler without using some form of complicated exotic cooling? The answer is not very easily, until now. CoolIT has come up with a new cooler that utilizes a means of exotic cooling, yet it's designed for ease of use for the average end-user. Today we take a look at this new cooler from CoolIT and see if it really is better than any other cooler out there.
Danger Den is one of the most established players in the watercooling business. Their new Tyee GPU Waterblock has been designed specifically for the ATI Radeon X1800/X1900 Series and can cool GPU, Memory, Voltage Regulator and CrossFire Encoder Chip with just one block. Even though its installation is a bit complex, it shouldn't be a problem for more experienced users.
Xigmatek is a new company churning out computer cooling components. We took a look at one of their heatsinks not so long ago, and now, we have their S80 on our testbed. This is not a normal HSF by any means - it is a fusion of both air and water cooling, using dual 80 mm radiators and a 72 l/hr pump to cool your CPU. How does such an interesting concept perform? Can watercooling packed into such a small form factor be any better than standard air cooling?
The Danger Den Maze 5 is a waterblock that fits most ATI and NVIDIA video cards. It is engineered for optimum performance and flow rate. Danger Den has years of experience in designing water blocks, which you can see in this product. In our testing we saw an increase of maximum stable GPU clock by over 70 MHz compared to the ATI stock cooler.
