I first got word of the new EK Classic lineup when a package arrived at my door a couple of weeks before CES, but at the time, the company was still contemplating pricing. It was obvious then that it was part of their plans for CES, and I had to meet them to get more details on retail availability and pricing. My initial thoughts on the $70 price point were not very positive, especially combined with the USA-only availability (at least for now) and consistent comparisons to the previous generation of EKWB CPU water blocks.

I made a comparison at their suite of how the EK-Supremacy Classic and EK-Velocity are analogous as a pair to their older EK-Supremacy MX and EK-Supremacy EVO respectively. If we are to extend such comparisons further, think of how newer GPUs offer similar performance to preceding, higher-tiered GPUs. So in this case, I went in expecting performance similar to the EK-Supremacy EVO, but at a price point closer to the EK-Supremacy MX (which was $50-$55). Perhaps my GPU comparison was more valid than I would have liked, however, with increasing prices throughout meaning we are paying more than ever before for water cooling products as they add in features to help take our minds off the diminishing returns from thermal performance and coolant flow.

The EK-Supremacy MX has an injection molded plastic top and no RGB lighting with no nickel-plating option for the cold plate and is still being sold by EK (albeit at an increased price of $57.99). Is the $12-$18 increase justifiable for the CNC-machined top, RGB LED strip, and a justifiably better cooling engine borrowed from the EK-Supremacy EVO? Should we have expected improvements at the same price point given it has been over two years? Within EK's own product portfolio, the EK-Supremacy Classic RGB makes sense and does indeed offer good value for money. It ticks off what many want from EK, and does so at a lower cost. The EK-Velocity starts off at $10 more, but a more equivalent version in the RGB nickel/plexi variant comes in at $100, which makes this seem like a real bargain.

When we look at the entire market, however, offerings from XSPC especially compete on pricing while offering full metal tops, RGB lighting, better thermal performance, and higher coolant flow. If the Raystorm series from XSPC did not exist, the EK-Supremacy Classic RGB would look much better overall. But there is no denying that it indeed does what EK markets it at and even at $70 offers good value in the current market that is priced higher in general now than it was even two years ago, especially in the USA, where the Asia-only brands are not in consideration. For everyone else outside the USA, this is not an option for purchase at all, so you might as well want to consider others.