Closer Examination

As we noted on the previous page, the block comes in a plastic wrap to help keep it clean and free of dust for when it is first taken out of the packaging. Once done, the first thing you will notice is just how large it truly is. While not something I can convey with pictures, it also weighs a lot more than the average acrylic top CPU waterblock. A lot of this has to do with the large 90 mm x 90 mm cold plate (as compared to 70 mm x 70 mm on most others), which means there is a lot of nickel-plated copper in here. The red aluminum top cover is unique looking for sure and adds some flair to what would otherwise be a polished, clear acrylic top. For those preferring the latter, Bykski sells this very design without the top cover as a separate CPU waterblock.

Initially, I thought perhaps the top cover is removable and helps hide the mounting screws for the waterblock. But after seeing how short the mounting screws were, that hypothesis quickly came to an end. There is no mounting visible from the front or top, allowing for a clean look, and the uncovered sections of the top allow for a view at the coolant inside. The only branding to be seen here is the laser-engraved FOUR in a steel insert on the top, and all this combines to create one of the cleanest-looking waterblocks I have ever seen.


There are two BSP G1/4" threaded ports on the top, and there are no markings to indicate a designated or preferred inlet port. Based on a quick look at the internals from the acrylic top, the port on the right as seen from the front is the inlet port and the left port the outlet, and both are equidistantly away from the center as well to allow for larger fittings, such as 1/2" x 3/4" compression fittings, to be used without issues. Pictured above are two Bykski 10/14 mm hardline tube compression fittings, for example, and these were provided by Bykski as well to show the color matches across their FOUR range of products.


From the side, we get a better look at the three major components of the block - the top cover, the top, and the cold plate. There are no holes for LEDs here if that is something you were interested in. Flip over the block completely and we get to see the gigantic cold plate as well as four threaded standoffs at the corners. This means that installation is completely from the back of the motherboard, similar to a monoblock, which is the first I have seen personally for a CPU-only waterblock. Monoblocks are not the easiest to install, so time will tell how this ends up going. The cold plate does not have a mirror polish, and there are some machining marks that will be visible up close only.


Disassembly of the block is fairly simple, with eight hex head screws on the bottom holding everything together. Given there is no mounting bracket as we generally know it, there are only four separate components here - the top with a cover, the cold plate, the O-ring, and the jetplate. Once disassembled, we can see that the two ports are indeed exchangeable since both just lead the coolant in at one end of the jetplate, onto the center of the microchannels in the cold plate and then collectively out through the other.

There are 33 microfins and 34 microchannels, each 0.3 mm wide in a mostly square section measuring 31.1 mm x 32.4 mm, which excludes the larger sections on either end. As such, while the actual "cooling engine" of the block is still larger than that of most other CPU blocks, it is not as significantly larger as the big cold plate would indicate since there is under-optimization of the space going on here. Perhaps the main reason to go this big was to have a clean installation rather than anything else.

When re-assembling, just remember to put the O-ring back in place if it got dislodged and reverse these steps accordingly. As always, TechPowerUp is not liable for any issues that arise due to the disassembly of the waterblock.