I went back to 2007, which is when TechPowerUp had its first full-cover GPU block review. Danger Den was a reputable brand at the time, and the Tyee apparently cost $125, which was on par with other such full-cover blocks at the time. That did shake me up somewhat since just a few years later, $125 would have been on the higher side of average for blocks that were way better to where the Tyee just looked like a toy in comparison. The standards for DIY watercooling are extremely high now, so much so that many brands have fallen by the wayside. If we just went by 2007 prices, the $175 price tag for the EK-Quantum Vector RE would seem extremely reasonable.

What happened instead was competition and a larger market driving down prices within the last decade, before a stagnating market coupled with ever-increasing material costs reversed said trend. The average GPU block now costs $150+, and many do not include a backplate at that price point, either. It just so happened that two of the first three companies being represented here do, and at prices lower than what the EK-Quantum Vector costs by itself. No doubt, EK will say that the EK-Classic line offers better value for money, and that the EK-Quantum Vector RE stands for itself. My issue is that while that approach worked somewhat with the EK-Quantum Magnitude CPU block, which was a massive overhaul in design and customization compared to the market, it cost significantly more and still sold out.

EK usually ends up bringing blocks to market sooner than just about anyone else, so there is the luxury of being able to price things based on the high demand at launch. This time around, things were weird, however, with barely any GPUs and confusion galore about the reference PCB design. Regardless, if a product costs that much more and the backplate is an additional expense, I expect to see a better portfolio relative to the rest. Build quality here is good, but nothing that makes me say it is significantly better than the others, especially with the contact surfaces on the GPU block not having a polished finish and there only being five LEDs on the whole block. My biggest pet peeve is that EK, once the champion of customer-friendly installation, has gone the opposite way—gone is the printed manual, gone are the pre-cut thermal pads, and gone is the PCB-specific installation hardware. Instead, we get a "universal" installation bag, which means the customer has to do more work while paying more.

Thermal performance is great, and liquid flow restriction is excellent; it just so happens that the others are not that far off, or even better in some areas. For me, the only reason to get the EK-Quantum Vector GPU block is to pair it with the EK active backplate, at least as there are other options to choose from, and that active backplate is for the RTX 3090 reference PCB only. Of course, if you get a non-reference GPU and wish to add it to your custom loop, odds are you'll have fewer options to choose from. In that case, things are again more favorable for EK. As it stands, this particular GPU block and backplate combination doesn't do enough with the RTX 3080 reference GPUs to merit a recommendation from me.