What's up with everyone deciding to mark up their GPU blocks so much recently while most of the other DIY cooling components are still hanging around the same cost as the previous generation or two? Perhaps this is to do with the volume scales for GPU blocks given stock air coolers have been doing very well already, and then the numbers sold will be even lower for aftermarket PCB designs. The ASUS RTX 4090 Strix/TUF is one of the more popular such offerings though and no doubt there will be enough people who can afford both the card and a custom loop, hence why we see multiple brands vie for attention and your money. Having a few different such blocks here means I was able to carefully analyze the various strengths and weaknesses before deciding whether they offer enough value for money. I'd argue that none of these blocks even come close to doing that, except perhaps the CORSAIR universal block we'll talk about at a later time, so it then comes down to whether you can justify one block over another. In this case, I am not sure I can say this for the Phanteks blocks.

The black anodized version is the least expensive at $250 and the other two colors cost slightly more at $270. For context, the chart-topping Watercool Heatkiller block costs about the same as the white/chrome version of this block and gives you a much more compact cooling solution at the same time. The CORSAIR block is on sale for $205 now and offers pre-installed thermal pads and paste. I'll talk about the EK block next but let's just say it also comes in different colors and somehow costs even more—at least there is an active backplate option to try and stand out further from the crowd even if it makes little practical sense this round. The biggest competition comes from Alphacool which, at under $200, offers lower coolant flow restriction and better thermal performance too. Phanteks does some things well but not well enough to justify a recommendation—perhaps it's time for Phanteks to re-think this cooling engine for GPU blocks.