Installation

Installation of the CORSAIR XG7 GPU water block is a piece of cake as long as you have a compatible GPU. For this 10-series block, this includes a vast list of reference PCB editions of the NVIDIA GTX 1070/1070 Ti/1080/1080 Ti as listed in the compatibility tab on the product page. The pre-applied thermal pads and thermal paste go a long way in making the process easy on even the first-time enthusiast. Begin with the removal of the stock cooler, which is outside of the purview of this article, and place the block over the card. Flip the assembly over carefully on a box such that the card's own I/O section hands out and does not cause an issue in the block mating with the card. Place the backplate over and align it with the holes in the PCB that in turn match the standoffs in the block, and remove any covers off SLI fingers as applicable. Now, simply screw in the block-card-backplate sandwich, beginning loosely around the GPU core and moving outwards before coming back around to tighten them all. You may have to use a screw with the provided locking nut depending on the PCB design, as in my case.


When doing so, take care to also have the requisite cable(s) out of the way so they don't block any of the screws or get squished by PCB components. Now, simply connect the cable to a compatible LED controller and plug this into your system to then plumb into the loop of your design. The finished looks are seen above, and the relatively cleaner design tickles my specific fancy.

Lighting

Here's the light show that greets you when the cable is connected and powered on. It is a rainbow wave lighting effect that does a good job of showcasing the individually addressable nature of the 16 RGB LEDs, and we can also see how and where the light comes through the block.


I will go over iCUE as it pertains to the Hydro X series in the final build article, but it works as expected provided you let the driver know what exactly is connected to the device. I used a Lighting Node PRO here, which has two channels, and a drop-down list allows for the Hydro X GPU block to be chosen. I did not have anything connected to the pass-through cable, which was thus left blank, and an on-screen render helps visualize the various lighting effects that are immediately reflected in the block.


Here is a look at some of the various lighting options, be it static or dynamic. I was impressed with the fairly-true-to-color white these LEDs were able to reproduce, and the upward-facing LEDs with the light diffusion from the acrylic and redirection from the aluminium make for smooth lighting without harsh, discrete light sources visible when seen straight through or even at most angles inside a case. As with anything compatible with iCUE, lighting can be configured to match with other products collectively.