There's not much to say here, is there? The Alphacool Core 1 already showed last year that the German DIY cooling brand has a winner on its hands here, and it has sold quite well based on my discussion with Alphacool at Computex this year. I saw the higher-end Apex blocks at the show too, and those would be priced higher no doubt, but Alphacool was teasing something coming under the $100 price range to help address the needs of those who have been rightfully complaining about CPU blocks—among other things—getting too expensive. The Core 1 LT series is simpler than the Core 1 in that you "only" have two options in the form of a black acetal top or a polished acrylic top with integrated RGB LEDs. The former costs €5 less and looks quite clean/minimalist whereas the version I was sent is clearly going to appeal to those who found the lighting of the standard Core 1 series to be lacking. You get a lot of real estate here to be lit up, or used with colored coolant perhaps, even just with clear coolant if you want to see how it flows through Alphacool's 3D cooling engine. The ability to spot any trapped air bubbles or a coolant degrading is a nice bonus on top.

Alphacool's new cooling engine has been tweaked around for a while now. I saw shades of it in the Eisblock XPX, and this iteration employed in the Core 1 and Core 1 LT have resulted in excellent thermal performance without being overly restrictive either. It allows Alphacool to manufacture a lot of blocks with various options of tops and other features and there is even the possibility to make a copper-only cold plate for less if there was a substantial market for it. At $75-80, the Core 1 LT is a fantastic block from a large brand with an international retail channel too. Those who worry about customer service issues from the likes of Bykski should be happy to see these new blocks come out thus. While I can't speak for AMD CPUs, the overall feature set and execution on my Intel test platform is enough to merit an Editor's Choice award.