Closer Examination

We saw before that Alphacool joins CORSAIR in throwing in a backplate with the GPU block, and it is a decent aluminium backplate at that. It comes CNC machined with an applied Alphacool logo on the bottom-right corner as seen from the front, as well as an acrylic inlay which borrows design cues from the block itself, I imagine. Turning things around, we see it is quite bare in that there are no machined contact surfaces to indicate where the thermal pads will make contact, with Alphacool instead going with an uninterrupted plane aside from the four screw mounting holes.


As any other vendor today, Alphacool has seen the demand for RGB lighting and acrylic GPU blocks. As such, the majority of the company's GPU block SKUs in 2021 tend to be of the Eisblock GPX Aurora variant, as with this version being reviewed here. You get a thick acrylic top that is held in place by 16 hex screws in a countersunk fashion. That helps maintain a clean look, but that's before all those O-rings underneath come in to spoil the party as far as I am concerned. The see-through top allows users to use colored coolants to good effect visually, check for any stuck air bubbles, and/or use the integrated RGB lighting. Branding comes in the form on an Alphacool logo on the bottom-right corner.


There are the usual four BSP G1/4" threaded ports as part of an I/O terminal on top, which differs from the two side-mounted ports on the ES Acetal version. The terminal is also acrylic, so Alphacool seems confident about the material withstanding micro-fractures potentially caused by over-tightened fittings. Three screws and two O-rings secure the terminal in place to prevent coolant leaks. The provided tool and low-profile screw-style stop plugs work well for when you have two of the ports occupied with fittings as part of the loop, and arrows are etched into the acrylic top to indicate the preferred inlet and outlet ports.


Turning the block around, we see an interesting implementation of the cold plate that is shared with the ES Acetal version. The reference vs. Founders edition PCB difference this time around was a curved ball for all GPU block makers, and then the use of taller-than-expected capacitors made things worse. What Alphacool has done is basically use three separate contact plates rather than a single larger one. These are all nickel-plated copper and get a mirror polish that makes the photography not the easiest in the world. A look from the side also shows the flexible PCB inset in the bottom that houses 12 d-RGB LEDs shining upwards through the top. The cable comes off the end and uses the adapter cable from before for power and control over the LEDs.

I will refer you to the Eisblock ES Acetal review for a closer look at the cold plate, which I did not bother to take apart again given the identical construction and thoroughly polished acrylic top giving us a good look at the three-piece construction. There is the same distribution plate setup for the top as with the acetal top in the other one, which ultimately ends up being a busy look with all the channels and O-rings to where it at times looks like it came from a Steampunk setting.