It would be interesting to test older water block generations to see the progress. I still use my ek supremacy evo

@olivierwolphjoseph2329

9 ай бұрын

Currently using a Ek Phoenix 😅😎

@bchurch19

9 ай бұрын

I only replaced my 15 year old EK Supreme HF recently 😂

@sumtingwong665

9 ай бұрын

Using the same block as well!

@Tealc2323

9 ай бұрын

I use EK-Supremacy EVO too and I wish to know if it's worth upgrading.

@spaghettilocomotive

9 ай бұрын

I recently swapped out my Supremacy Evo for the new velocity2+direct die conversion kit for my 12900k, but the block or direct die part was pure garbage, the old supremacy evo cooled better than after delidding and liquid metal. Safe to say I wish I could turn back time and just keep it stock with the old block.

I always find EK to be the SnapOn of the watercooling industry. Big money for identical or comparable performance to lower priced products. you are mostly paying for the name just like SnapOn or Matco tools. (old mechanic here, thats the closest analogy i can relate to)

Why this dude doesn't have a million subscribers in beyond me. IMHO the best tech channel on YT.

@hokiturmix

9 ай бұрын

Aron Ra-'s videos about atheist rants have millions of views.. About biology is just a fraction of that.

@marinipersonal

9 ай бұрын

Because, sadly, most people prefer shallow goofy approach. The laziness to learn and think. Is a long curve, but worth, given the willingness and time required. But as I’ve mentioned earlier, a goofy dropping a 2k dollars GPU is funny for some.

@kidShibuya

9 ай бұрын

Because other tech channels would take this result and make the thumb EK IS RIPPING YOU OFF! Then rant rant rant in the video till the fanboys are all fired up. Nobody is really interested in facts, just drama.

@ItalianMetalHED

9 ай бұрын

@@marinipersonal linus tech tips channel is proof of this! gamers nexus should have 15mil given his attention to detail and proper lab testing like debaur. Linus is quirky and annoying and people are drawn to his antics. I found him annoying.

EKs answer totally confirmed what I believe what EK does with every product. EK doesn‘t aspire to be the best, their business model is to be the first. Because they know enthusiasts who are the early adopters buy the first available water cooler!

@96kylar

9 ай бұрын

They also will swap for the best

@Jeff.55649

8 ай бұрын

1-2 c difference between all blocks, lmao. Doesn't matter what block you buy. But haters gonna hate!

@pcodyssey41

7 ай бұрын

@@Jeff.55649 1-2c worse for a $250 block vs a $50 block, simps gonna simp.

@Jeff.55649

7 ай бұрын

@@pcodyssey41 haha someone's mad cuz I'm right, lmao

@Dr_b_

7 ай бұрын

@@Jeff.55649 EK's gone off the rails with their over engineering that doesn't yield better performance and only increases costs. If the performance was there, which it is not, then maybe someone with deep pockets chasing the absolute best would be interested in it, otherwise why pay a $200 premium for a block with mounting and contact issues?

Thank you so much for doing a round up like this. I remember the radiator round up about 10 years ago and that was super helpful for the community. Hope to see more coverage like this and hopefully every few years or so. Thank you again!

Awesome video. Really appreciate the time that went into it.

Im always amazed by the quality of your testing videos. Very informative and educational. You are great teacher. Thanks for posting.

Billet Labs definitely should have contacted you instead

@ayah922

9 ай бұрын

@der8auer EN Pleassse do it. I know in a vacuum choosing LTT was the right business decision (assuming they wouldn't mistest it and slander it) but I would love to see Roman's opinion as an engineer. Neither Steve from GN, Jayz2cents, or any other youtube have the machining experience Roman has and that should be one of the main things to be evaluated. Aesthetic finish, fluid dynamics, craftsmanship, performance, and value. I have no clue what gives Linus the right to say it's overpriced when he knows nothing about labor and materials costs in Europe. Roman has first hand experience running a machine shop and would have the best opinion in the tech space on whether the product is priced competitively in an objective sense. I know it will never have 'value' when it's competitors have 1/8 the price, but what manufacturing costs are all things considered and what the profit margins likely are. If I can pay my local machine shop to make the same/similar for me at a more competitive price then they might have a problem.

@Morrigan_DeDesarux

7 ай бұрын

Agreed. Although, as unfortunate as the situation was, it brought a lot of things to the surface along with the Lab's jabs at HUB and GN regarding data collection stuff.

@B3n85_

5 ай бұрын

I which Heatkiller made Ram blocks

Great information. I wished I had this information two weeks ago. My loop is complete. Thanks for taking the time to create this content.

Wow! Good stuff, brother! You really know your work. I'm glad I found your channel. Keep up the excellent work!

Great work! Love it!!!!

Amazing video. Finally someone made the test. And thanks for confirming to me that the Heatkiller is basically the best block and only at 80 euro. Im done with EKWB and this video confirms it. Also can you mind telling me what quick connect fittings you use? thanks.

@Dr_b_

9 ай бұрын

EK is over engineered and overpriced for the performance

@marinipersonal

9 ай бұрын

EK is not too bad. Performance average, design is good, but is waaaaaay overpriced, also quality control is poor. Shipping active backplate with longer screws that wouldn’t fit as desired, cracking the bridge between the blocks (stress), distro with over tighten or not tighten enough, same issue for GPU blocks. Let’s not forget the DOA RGB strips or the flipped jet plates. Apart from that, is fine. 😂

@luckerNo01

9 ай бұрын

Im interested in those quick connect fittings too! What are those?

@someusername121

9 ай бұрын

Ek has been shit for 10 years but they sponsor KZreadrs so kids who are new and don’t know better think they’re good.

@undefwun2135

9 ай бұрын

Great news on the Heatkillers. I just found a local (Aussie) shop that has these in. Hoping to upgrade my now aging (6.5) years system and pretty much an almost full Watercool components loop (res, cpu, gpu, rads) on my wish list spreadsheet.

I love getting all the extra manufacturing infos on the various blocks.

Thank you so much for including the EK Velocity2 in your roundup as I bought one of those a couple of months ago but have yet to mount it! 😊👍

Great video! I would love to see the same type of video about radiators.

Thank you for the roundup! Interesting results. I'm using the full nickel Heatkiller in my AM5 build, love the look and build quality.

@BleepBlop-rh9lm

9 ай бұрын

The same. Amazing build quality and looks.

Great video, Love the details

The Barrow blocks have an add on RGB controller that plugs onto that 3 pin rgb header , there also a converter cable that changes it to a normal RGB header.

Great content as ever mate! Would be awesome if you could do a direct die comparison at some stage too

Roman, thank you for the testing information. This really helped me understand more about these types of coolers. I know what to look for and what to do because of your hard work. Thanks again for all that you do. Ronnie.

This was very good, thank you.

Awesome review - very systematic.

Thanks for the wonderful testing. I have two projects going on and I actually have both the barrow AND alphacool block that was in this video and it's kinda cool being able to see how both compare.

Great technical insight and content

Very good Video! Thank you

@der8auer-en

9 ай бұрын

thanks!

thanks you ! awesome video

Very good point, always good to look at multiple test results, from multiple sources. Especially if you are going to be purchasing that item.

Great video

Awesome as always!

Finally some news from water cooling perspective. Nice vid as always man🤙

Awesome work and detail on it and thank you for your time , I'm definitely Add alphacool core 1 and watercool Heatkiller IV to my next upgrade blocks :😀

Well done, explained ser gut. Very useful data for interested costumers.

Such a great round up. That Alphacool block is… surprisingly great & basic.

Fantastic job, man 👍

@der8auer-en

9 ай бұрын

thanks!

This was fantastic! I'd love to see me testing like this that gives super accurate, comparative results for us to know not only what to buy, but how what we've bought should be performing.

Great and informative vid as usual! Was the retail Core 1 also suffering from the same plating issues as your engineering part? Ty

thanks for sharing

this and techpowerup convinced me to buy the core 1, perfect timing. Thanks.

Quite interesting. Good to know that the performance of high end blocks is so close

Great video, that Alphacool block did perform well.

derbauer on the velocity2 mounting: "really simple". Jayztwocents: *immediately breaks it* :D

Damn, i wish this was available when i was building my AM5 rig...i bought the EK Velocity 2. Im using the very good Alphacool Eisblock for my 4090 which has performed much better than i expected.

Nice video. I bought one of the Alphacool Core 1s off the back of positive reviews, and because I liked the look of it. It replaced an EK Quantum Velocity block. The RGB, although I'm not normally a fan, looks great. Performs well, too, keeping a 7800X3D below 80 degrees with a 35 degree or so water temp.

@Div617

9 ай бұрын

Is this with CB23 runs or just gaming?

@philth7587

9 ай бұрын

@@Div617 Sorry, had meant to say, CB23

I really wish you would test with higher pump speeds as well. I understand why you don’t, but it would be interesting to see the differences.

@GhostPsi69

9 ай бұрын

Theoretical performance vs actual real life performance, also doing max pump speed would allow manafacturers to cheat on flowrate in the blocks.

@rekareaper

9 ай бұрын

@@GhostPsi69 it is actual real life performance for me. I have two loops that I sometimes combine. Each is a MORA3 with an EK Dual D5 pump top that all run at 100%. It isn’t cheating on flowrate to have a block designed for high pressure and high flow, as that’s how you’re going to get the best heat dissipation.

@jjlw2378

9 ай бұрын

I run my pump 100% all of the time. My computer sits a good distance from me and I can't hear it at all. I've never not run a pump at 100%.

@fermitupoupon1754

9 ай бұрын

@@GhostPsi69 how is it cheating though? I mean I vary my pump speed because I want to achieve a certain dT across the radiator, but other than that I see no real reason to do so. If you mount a D5 properly, you're not going to hear it, regardless of pump RPM. My old D5 didn't even have speed control at all, it always ran at full speed. As long as you keep the same pump speed between different blocks in the test, it effectively shouldn't matter what speed your pump is running. Unless a specific block is really designed for slow flow, but then again why would it be, as that just isn't the efficient way to go about it.

Thank you roman!!

Amazing content once again Roman so thank you very much for your hard work on this. I know there will be a million people saying 'oh can you add this' but I would like to make it a million and one! Something I think that would be invaluable to know would be where abouts are AIO in all this, so if you used the exact test bench and threw on the best AIO cooler, how much of a delta would there be between these and the dedicated blocks. Cheers.

Great video! Any updates on the status of your der8auer-branded direct die block? Been a while with no news and am eagerly awaiting it!

The core 1 looks great and performs very well. I still use an alphacool nexxos xp that I modified to fit my 10850K but its tempting to upgrade. It would be nice to have good mounting pressure as my mounting bracket has a single bolt that presses down in the centre of the block.

You didn't mention the killer feature of the Alphacool Core line - the G1/4" threads are **metal**!

Great video Roman. Now we need a radiator roundup 😀

I would like to see a test with a vapor chamber between the CPU and the block. I've looked into doing it myself but the power rating on the ones that would fit seem to max out at 150W. My theory on why the Alphacool block is so good: the sideways slots offer an easier path to get rid of water that has already contacted copper and warmed up. That allows higher flow rate of fresh cool water. It also creates turbulence in the water and also creates a bit more surface area.

I like how you explained how people should watch multiple points of view before making a decision! Watched and respected your thoughts for a long time. I know very little German and I honestly started watching you because it was in German. And you tell the truth as you see it.

Cool vid

Refreshing to see some proper testing again.

i really like the Mounting type of double ended Screwing a Backplate to the Board and then Thumbscrew the Block onto that. it's easy to install/remove, the Backplate doesn't fall off when you take off the Cooler, Et Cetera. it's just the easiest to use IMO. as long as the double ended Screws are large enough to operate with your Fingers, that is.

Great video! Would love to see Optimus waterblocks included in the next one :3

Excellent review. Very surprised by EK's performance. I am going to have to reevaluate my cooling decisions. Thank you

Just fitted a core 1 aurora to my loop

Thank you again of very interesting video. BTW do you already know what the 3 pin connector of the Barrow block is, which cannot be connected to anything.

@jouninurmela81

9 ай бұрын

OK I read almost all comments and it is for 5 v RGB with adapter.

Another excellent video!! Just a quick heads-up, Corsair CPU blocks come with the 3 pin argb connector in the box. I build liquid cooled computers for a living. I currently have 2 XC7, 1 XC9, & 1 XC8 (Jayz2cents) in my inventory. All of the boxes have the argb adaptor in the box so u don't have to use icue. as a side note, I really want to know why that EKWB block is SO expensive when it doesn't seem any better than their cheaper blocks. Thank you for everything you do for our community! God Bless from the US!

never been disappointed by alphacool, they're my first choice whenever I need any watercooling bits

It'd be cool to see another one of these roundups with more small name blocks, like Optimus PC. They make some bold claims about their performance.

As always, excellent video. If you plan to do more testing Optimus Signature V2 is a must.

Think. Im going to try a cpuwater Loop cooling solution. Really like the look of the heat killer block

Great content. Any update on their Thermal Grizzly 13th Gen Direct Die cooling water block?

This is a nice test you have going and would add a few blocks you could test as well. These would be the optimus foundation and the old xspc raystorm waterblack, this the raystorm with acrylic frame and I got a metal one to use instead. I got the raystorm 280 kit with a x79 board, do to fluid in the res falling below half and barfing its fluid. I have have been using it for some year, with a d5 aalpacool eisstation instead. Im moving all that to server duty and got a x299 board to replace it, going to used use a 7th gen chip and your direct die kit. I understand this x299 will have a lot more heat to deal with overclocking, so went the optimus block as a possilbe upgrade since is cnc cut.

love your ideas on sound quality probably why no hi end music systems use fans for cooling in them.

Really nice videos to watch, I just bought an AMD 7900x3d and bought myself a Corsair Hydro X Series XC8 RGB PRO JTC Edition because it was so much cheaper than buying an EK block. and am really happy with the result. Corsair $110 vs EK $220 😃

Lol EK, Such a company answer: "You had something NON STOCK? Well in that case it's that thing's fault, if you tested it in a normal system it wouldnt be an issue!!!"

For the Corsair unit and skiving in general, is it feasible to anneal the workpiece afterward in order to fix the heat conductivity issue? I'd definitely be interested to see a test with the same or a similar unit both before and after an annealing process of some kind. Though I imagine you'd have to be careful not to cause alloying if it's already been nickel plated.

Question for the material science portion: Would post-scything annealing correct at least some of that 10 to 20 percent loss of conductivity?

Please compare them with EK-Supremacy EVO! You're amazing and the content is excellent. Thank you for the huge effort you're putting into these tests!

12:20 - theoretically you could restore lost performance of coldplate created by such technology by recrystallization. You could test what difference (if any) would this make - just place it in oven with protective atmosphere at 400°C for a few hours.

I haven't watched the video yet, but going to after. One of the things I've been searching for online, and others have been from my search, is a waterblock that is good for, or specifically made for the LGA 1700 socket. I know lots fit it, but they don't all do very well for the coverage. Especially since it's much bigger, as well as a rectangle. The 'best' I have been able to find is something that is good for, compatible with the LGA 2066.

I wonder if annealing the copper block after skiving the fins would improve the thermal transfer. If so, it might end up being better overall and faster to produce than finely machined fins.

the ARGB connector on the barrow is from commercial or DIY. I have 3 controllers and lights with that conector. you can get a adapter for the motherboard connector if you dont want to rewire.

Impressive. I happen to be using a Cuplex w/NEXT Vision display, the acetal top version and raw copper. Fantastic performance, I actually liked the mounting system coming from my old Eisbaer. I'm using it on a z590 though, Maximus Hero with 11900k. Pulling 290w reported in Hwinfo, my max temp thus far is 76c. Pretty regular loop, it's my first. A Nexxos 360mm and 420mm. Kryonaut of course, but not Extreme. The price here in the states for this version was $104 USD so I am extremely happy with my purchase, considering it's also made in Germany and has an integrated coolant temp sensor and OLED display with a lot of functionality. Side note: For the next version of Wireview, please make the display rotatable. I bought one and cannot use it with my Aquacomputer block w/active backplate :c Probably should have seen that coming, but I did not start my build for long after the return period so it's 100% my fault. But, a rotatable display in the future would be awesome.

I went with HeatKiller IV because it has a bracket that I (as a machinist) can change out and make to fit any hole pattern on any board. Also, it doesn't need mounted offset because the inlet is toward the chiplet side on AMD so the chiplets get the cold side and the SOC gets the outlet. Very nice feature.

@96kylar

8 ай бұрын

Agree. And did the same. The heat killer block is wicked legit

@AndrewB23

6 ай бұрын

As a "machinist" you should be able to do most of these brackets bud

@MyJapaneseLife

4 ай бұрын

And how can it help with that?

Would love to see how the modultra coldplate preforms, but it is only in a pumpblock combo.

I would love to see a comparison between Acryl version and full copper version of both Aquacompter and Heatkiller blocks. I plan to buy a Heatkiller IV full copper for my upcoming build.

I didnt know that skiving actually reduced the thermal conductivity of the metal at a molecular level. Is it possible to restore the grain size through annealing?

Hello, IT? Well, I actually own the Alphacool CORE 1 block, it sits on 14th Gen i9 in Z790 motherboad. And all I can say is, its awsome! It really is! It performs great, keeping the CPU around 60C when playing MSFS2020, which is the most demanding application I am currently using. To be fair, I must say that there is also an Alphacool GPU block on a 3090. And I have a very custom loop with 2 huge 40mm 360 radiators with legendary German Noiseblocker FANs and almost 4 liters of water in the whole loop, pumped with DDC 1T Plus pump. So, plenty of liquid + plenty of cooling capacity = cool and quite components. Great video as usual! Thank you!

@ 5:45, The 28C bios temp seems to be quite accurate. I think you meant it doesn't have the resolution you want.

I'm curious if annealing would improve performance on skived heatsinks.

I would have liked to see one of the Optimus blocks included in these comparisons due to the bold claims on their website about how much better the cooling is with one of their blocks compared to the rest (un-named) of the blocks on the market

The Corsair blocks should come with an adapter to standard A-RGB in the box, at least the one I got did.

@helljester8097

9 ай бұрын

Yeah same here they’ve been including more and more of these adapters with hydro X products.

@ThunderingRoar

9 ай бұрын

i ll rather just avoid all corsair rgb products instead

Do these blocks have a specified flow rate or pump pressure given? You mentioned you tested them at 30% so I wonder if different blocks could be affected by this or if they were optimized to cool at a certain flow rate. It would have been interesting to see the comparison between 30% and 100% to see if all that extra noise is worth it or if there is a block that sees a non-proportional change in performance (ie at 30% it was 5th in performance compared to others but at 100% it was 1st.)

@arthurmoore9488

9 ай бұрын

This is the disadvantage to standardized testing. Not that the results are "wrong", but A - B testing when components are optimized for certain conditions means a poor performer optimized for the exact test will do good even compared to the good ones that work across a broader range. Interestingly, this also applies to vehicle emissions. If you don't drive your car the same way the emissions tests are designed then it is often allowed to produce far more pollution than you'd think!

DerBauer, when checking mirror finishes on your waterblocks, use a TV sharpness Test! Then you can see exactly how the waterblock is shaped.

Happy owner of Watercool Heatkiller :) Ordered directly from Germany all my watercooling components from them.

The Aquacomputer RGB adapter is 3 euros from their site. At that price it should probably be included, but it's also a nominal expense.

Would like to see an Optimus block. Not many channels talk about them.

@tomaspalkovic242

9 ай бұрын

yes i second this

@jake..A

9 ай бұрын

The alphacool core 1 is the best cpu block currently on the market, better than the optimus. I am currently using the core 1 upgraded from the sigv2 & also previously used heatkiller iv pro & ek magnitude & velocity 2 and the core 1 is the best.

@Simon_Denmark

9 ай бұрын

Maybe because their market is almost completely in the US.

I would have loved for you to test a SuperCool 13th Gen one. it really keeps my 13900KS OC cool, but I also have a chiller.

The Barrow also has an adapter like aquacomputer to change it to 'normal' argb connector Btw thank you for this test i have ekwb velocity atm so might go for one of the other ones in the future

My favourite block is the Barrow CPU-pump-reservoir combo. Elegant way to fit watercooling into SFF. I’ve also asked why they use a fan cable for their LEDs. The answer, it seems, is simply “it’s a better connector”. Which is true, anything would be better than the actual LED connector, but it feels like it’s only an excuse to sell adapter cables.

I recognize that pink paste! Looks like the Kryonaut Extreme I put on after installing your contact frame in an attempt to make my 360mm AIO able to cool my 13900k. It helped a bit, but I'm starting to think it's impossible to actually cool that chip. Lol.

@GRCDriver23

9 ай бұрын

time to try undervolting

@bluegizmo1983

9 ай бұрын

I'm running a cheap 360 AIO and it keeps my 13900K from thermal throttling. I hit a max temp in the upper 80's at all stock settings, just undervolted, which doesn't lose any performance, it actually gained performance vs not undervolting.

@420bobby69

9 ай бұрын

@@bluegizmo1983 funny you mention that, undervolting dawned on me last night as a pretty obvious thing to do. how far did you push the negative offset on yours?

@bluegizmo1983

9 ай бұрын

@bobbyp6592 I didn't use a negative voltage offset, as I followed a guide that talks about how its better these days with modern CPU's to use Load Line Calibration to achieve an undervolt. Google "Asus Maximus Z790 Extreme and Intel i9-13900k - A tuning guide for beginners." It's a long interesting read about why this way is better, but to jump right to the information, you want the second post, then scroll down to "So let's start tuning the beast !". Basically it amounts to setting the DC_LL = 1.02 and AC_LL = 0.2, that's it, it's undervolted. You can fine tune it more from there but as it says in the forum post, those numbers should be stable for just about all 13900K's

@420bobby69

9 ай бұрын

@@bluegizmo1983 LOL dude im literally reading guides about Load Line Calibration right now wondering if that's a way to optimize the undervolt for stability. I remembered der8auer explaining that setting in his 8700k OC video years ago, and how it affected the way the CPU handles 'voltage droops' or something. You have incredible timing, checking that out now. Thanks.

*This is gonna sound crazy , yet you love Itx and water cooling, would it be possible to make an Itx water cooled setup in a SFF*

@-opus

9 ай бұрын

The youtuber Optimum Tech does some decent sff builds.

I have an alphacool block on my 5800x3d, it's an Eisblock or something like that, so far it performed better than my last block which was a EK Supremacy Evo.

hows the flatness on velocity 2? have always wondered that, using one for am5 delid direct die cooling 7905x3d

Is that a keyence digital imaging system I see you are using in the flatness measurement?

Glad to see the Heatkiller IV Pro I bought in 2017 for 60€ (B-stock) still hold up. :)

@malphadour

9 ай бұрын

They got that design just right - there still isn't a block on the market that can consistantly beat it over 7 years after it was released.