The EK Fluid Works S5000 may be expensive compared to a far simpler consumer system, but for a proper workstation, this is the norm. That doesn't mean the system is overpriced; on the contrary, it is a compelling option for those wanting a fully built system with tremendous performance. Part of that is due to using a fully custom liquid-cooling loop that keeps temperatures in check no matter the workload. During my testing, the system peaked at 1220 watts under load with an average of 1180 watts. That much power means there will also be an extreme level of heat. The custom loop quickly conquered the heat load with the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X, averaging 59°C under load, while the two NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 graphics cards averaged 57°C and 58°C, respectively. The peak temperature for the CPU was 64°C, and for the graphics cards, it was 61°C on both. In regards to the GPUs, the hot spots on both never broke 75°C. Now you may think with nine EK Furious Vardar 3000 RPM fans, the system would be loud, and while it isn't silent, it peaked at just 51 dBA under extreme load. At idle or lighter loads, it hovered around 45 dBA. With plenty of headroom regarding temperatures, tweaking the system to reduce noise while maintaining peak performance is possible if needed.

Due to the system's design, it is also possible to significantly upgrade it if needed. Due in part to the distribution block of the water-cooling loop, adding additional graphics cards and plumbing them into the system should prove relatively easy. While the lack of NVLink is a bit of a downer in today's world, it is not entirely necessary for scaling workloads across multiple GPUs. As seen in numerous benchmarks, the second GeForce RTX 3090 adds significant performance boosts in specific workloads, and those gains will scale further with the addition of more graphics processing units. Meanwhile, the remaining four DIMM slots make it a nearly painless process to double system memory to its 256 GB maximum. In general, the EK Fluid Works S5000 scores high marks for upgradeability. The three-year warranty is a nice bit of icing on the cake, so to speak.

While I give EK Fluid Works credit for their attention to detail, be it tubing runs, wiring, system configuration, and overall performance, the S5000 has a few potential issues. I use the word potential because servicing water-cooling loops can be tedious, and not all IT departments, potential prosumers, or even those working from home will want to deal with it. Even if that isn't a problem, the chassis design means opening the case can result in the panel mounting mechanisms breaking. To secure the panels, a metal peg is inserted into plastic clips on the chassis. Metal being a much harder material, it can apply a great deal of pressure on the plastic clips and make them snap. While the design does make for a genuinely clean-looking system, its drawbacks are readily apparent. This can be mitigated by being as gentle as possible, but if you take a panel and pound it into place, there is a good chance of breaking a clip. It is something to keep in mind as it can potentially add to your maintenance woes if in a rush. That said, since they are just plastic clips, I imagine getting some extras or 3D printing some shouldn't be out of the question.

Overall, the EK Fluid Works S5000 proves itself to be a monster of a system compared to more traditional consumer options. In fact, in heavily threaded or GPU-intensive workloads, it all but dominates traditional PCs. Therefore, if your workloads can benefit from a brute force approach, the EK Fluid Works S5000 proves more than capable, and as such, I have no issue recommending it if your budget allows for it.