I'm going to call out companies henceforth for treating other regions so much worse than the USA. We've become sadly accustomed to poor currency exchanges compared to USD but then seeing CORSAIR discount the block only in the USA but not elsewhere is salt on the wound. If you are the US then congrats as you have a very decent cooling solution for many GPUs without breaking the bank. In fact, at $103 this is nearly half the cost of the next most affordable block in this roundup. Gone are the days where a full-cover GPU block would cost $110-120 with even the likes of Bykski preferring to market its premium "Granzon" products outside China that cost significantly more than what you expected from the brand. CORSAIR too had a hefty price increase for its hydro XG7 blocks from previous generation and the newer iCUE Link versions are even more expensive. So if you were to look at this block, it seems like a no-brainer given the performance you get for the money. But things are not as simple!

I am conflicted about iCUE Link as an ecosystem since it is not affordable to get into and necessitates you really getting into it, but you really can't use the fan on this hybrid block without a system hub which costs extra—$60 at that—unless you already have it from another product. So there is a legitimate chance of people purchasing the block by itself not realizing the extra cost needed which bumps things up much closer to the Alphacool block which is a much stronger contender in all metrics. If you do have the hub already though, this block is easy the best value for money among the ones I've tested and hence merits the award. At the same time, please note the other caveats here. Given the wide GPU compatibility, you won't necessarily have the best contact with all the components. The VRM cooling also depends on the quality of the components used on your specific GPU with this RTX 4090 Strix not really getting that warm even with just air blowing over them despite there not being additional heatsinks on top. This meant the fan on this hybrid block wasn't spinning really fast and was quiet throughout. This also tilted things in favor of the award even though I realize it's somewhat oxymoronic in needing high quality components, which are usually on expensive GPUs, to get this inexpensive block to work well. The iCUE Link XG3 hybrid block isn't necessarily for everyone thus but I am just glad we have this option for those who will benefit from it.