A Closer Look

Out of the package one can see the Tyee is a complicated piece of watercooling technology. The top is made of ¼” CNC-machined acrylic, tightened down with 14 stainless steel button head screws. Under the acrylic is a custom-designed o-ring that provides the seal. One large channel is milled into a solid block of copper, and it snakes its way around the memory chips and core locations for the video card. Over the core, there are four fins which create five smaller channels and more surface area to provide improved cooling.

]
The bottom of the block is just as finely machined as the top. The surface for the core is a different height than the surface for the memory chips, and the center of the block is milled out to help reduce the weight. For the most part, this block is similar to the X18 except for the two indentations around one of the memory chips to allow for clearance of close surface-mounted components on the cards PCB. On top of the copper is another ¼” thick piece of acrylic that is secured by three more stainless steel button head screws and sealed with an o-ring. This is where the two G1/4” barbs are installed to allow connection to water loops with ½” or 3/8” barbs.


The core mounting surface was extremely flat, and passed the razor-blade test with flying colors. The ram surface was not quite as flat, but still does a good job here. From my experience ram cooling is not as critical as core cooling.


Here you can see the barbs and the copper sandwiched between the two layers of acrylic. Also, note the warranty stickers across the seams. These are added by Danger Den after the block has been tested and ensured to be leak-free.


The downside to that leak testing can be seen here, as there is a slight amount of discoloration noted inside the channel near one of the barbs. This is due to a small amount of the water that entered the block was not completely blown out after the test. I would consider this to be very minor though, as the water that will be running through the loop is going to do the same thing. This will have no effect on the performance of the block.


While on the subject of flaws, I did find a small mark on the bottom of the block near one of the mounting lugs. This is probably due to the block being bumped during handling. As soft as copper is, these things will happen from time to time. However, this spot was not near the core. I’m sure if it was, Danger Den’s quality control would have rejected the block.