News EKWB shows off new 'Magnitude' CPU block and updated product range

All this funky new watercooling stuff makes me want to get back into it, but my wallet. My wallet says no.

 

The price of watercooling has got silly since I used to be, pardon the pun, in the loop - I remember a DDC pump costing £35~ and a D5 with a top costing £60-65... Now a DDC costs best part of £50 and a D5 with a top will go into triple figures!

D-Tek Fuzion V2 cost £35 according to Bit-tech's own review, and they also said this:

Now you'll be lucky to get a cheap Chinese knock-off block for £35...

 

Right?

I also remember it being much, much, cheaper to do W/C stuff. Hell, I did it on an unemployed college student budget back in the day - Multiple times!

****, I used to run multiple loops - A half inch OD for the CPU and a piddly little 8mm loop for the X850 with one of those Koolance wrap-around cooler jobbies.

Not to mention the various block changes I made when fiddling with things.

I must have had a kilo or two of copper in my W/C collection when I gave up and went back to air. God knows how many radiators, and heaven knows how many reservoirs. Off the top of my head I can remember six different reservoirs.

..Hell, I even butchered one of those Thermaltake Aquarius 3's for doing a 360 W/C project in the standard case.

 

The good old days, eh?

I'm pretty sure it cost me less than £300 to do a full dual loop setup in my Mountain Mods case with 2 PA120.3's, 2 18w DDC's and EK blocks in 2007-2008!

 

Thats interesting that EK and Der8auer both show off single block watercooling systems the same year...

 

Indeed!

Although I'd have killed for the non-conductive fancy fluid back then. It was just coming into mainstream use as I got out, so I missed it.

I was all about distilled water, additives to impede corrosion and a myriad of UV reactive dye colours.

Edit, just checked what I think was my last W/C order;

1/2" Tygon tubing, Thermochill universal block, DangerDen Bay res, Thermochill HE120.2, A Criticool PowerPlant II Pump Relay Card (I think that was for an Ehiem or however that brand was spelt), and some barbs, all shipped for the whopping total of 145 quid. Block was a stunningly expensive 25 quid.

 

Most people use distilled water still! The non-conductive fluid becomes conductive over time, so is a waste of money!

I remember doing a full custom loop, pump tops and all, for £500. Now you're looking at £700-£800...

 

Oh. Well that's kind of pointless then.

I feel like I'm sat here on a rocking chair going "something something, get off my lawn"

 

360 as in Xbox? You have a link to a project log, by any chance? Intrigued...

 

Unfortunately I've never been one to have project logs (I might have tried once or twice, but since I was never as good as everyone else I lost interest in doing it) - Back then I didn't even really take pictures, as my best picture taking device was probably the V3 RAZR. While I love that phone, it never really progressed beyond "phone" feature wise.

From what I remember it was only ever good in the horizontal position.

I gutted the Aquarius 3 because, having had one before, I knew it had a combined pump/res with a very small footprint. Chopped it down so heightwise it'd fit in the 360 chassis, I think I went behind the DVD drive or at least next to it.. Then I used the universal block from the same, and the pipes internal to the Aquarius (perhaps even the ones supplied with it?) had stainless things running through the middle of them to enable really tight curves without collapsing the tubing. Looked like long pen springs.

If I remember rightly the radiator was also pulled from the Aquarius because it was slim and fairly low profile, and that was stuffed in where the stock heatsinks would have been and the top chassis that had the shielding crudely hacked up to make clearance. I cant remember if I drilled holes in the plastic, or prayed the fans in the back of the console would work with the slightly jaunty angle the radiator was at, and the factory plastic air guide would do the job.

I think the biggest letdown for me was I could never make the transition between the external body and the res look good. I know I used it until I sprung a leak, and owing to the lack of non-conductive cooling, killed the Xbox - But whether the temperatures were any better, I can't say. Might even have been worse! My modding back then was rarely well thought out. Often born of "not enough sleep" hairbrained ideas.

 

I loved In-Win's prototype wood-finished cases too, I hope we see more natural finishes in the market. But have you seen EK's pre-order prices for this stuff? Utter ridiculousness...

 

tj07

 

It is already 158 Euro for a regular EK 2080TI block, so how much can the premium really be? 30? Maybe 50 if they make it more desirable by artificially crippling supply?

*goes to have a look*
*collects jaw from floor*

Nope, its 194 Euro (£171) extra for the Walnut version bringing the price up to 352 Euro (£310) and just for reference, you can buy a freaking Walnut Desk for £147.

(correction, price of the desk is before VAT, but even if you add that in it still only costs around the same as the premium over the regular block)

 

In this thread, old people complaining about the price of stuff that’s considerably better made than things used to be and in a world where things just more more in general...

 

I wish people would stop using this as justification for things being 50-100% more expensive than they used to be... inflation alone is what, 30% over the past 10 years?

It's like when old people say younger generations complain about getting a mortgage, yet they bought a house "when they earned £5 a week!"... yeah I bet you did, but house prices have gone up a hell of a lot quicker than wages have - before you even factor in the rising cost of living.

 

That seems unfair. The technology behind "more surface area causes more heat dissipation" hasn't changed since danger den was king of the water-cooling world.

Remember when Koolance did gold plated blocks for better heat transference and it reviewed like crap because it made no difference for being more expensive?

I do.

Copper has become more expensive, yes, but more expensive enough to justify the absurd price leaps in water-cooling - most of which is not copper? I don't think so.

Incidentally, the solvents needed for gluing acrylic together haven't magically tripled in price either. Nor has aluminium or brass...

 

Aqua Computer begs to differ.