Cooling New Asetek Blocks!

http://www.asetek.com/nyhederPro/visnyhed.asp?nyhedid=254&DatabaseID=1

If this comes out at or around the new DYO pricing levels I would be tempted.

 

I was wondering how long before this got posted here.

There is a rather heated thread regarding this block over at OCAU, based on this being a blatant copy of the white water.

Shame really. I thought we might have seen some innovaations from ASETEK, but I guess the economic aspects of copying a successful block were too much to resist.

8-ball

 

Sure it does look a bit familiar. Though there seem to be a few others with similarly 'inspired' models.

However from my point of view, if it comes out at a good price and is designed for my chosed connection system (10mm OD and pushfits) then its a more attractive proposition that the WW.

 

"Where one person leads, others follow"

 

I know that, it's just a shame that with so many waterblock manufacturers, so few are coming up with anything new.

Guess that's business for you. Why spend money on R&D when you could just copy someone else's design.

That said, the market for Cathar's blocks will always be relatively small due to their cost. But he will be at the forefront of watercooling for sometime to come in my opinion. I guess it depends where your priorities lie.

Cathar is one of the few waterblock designers who's main focus is performance. Everything else is secondary, and he knows enough people will still buy his blocks to cover the manufacturing costs. It's a shame that someone who has given so much to the community gets so little out of it.

He does the innovating and everyone else makes money off his back.

[/rant]

8-ball

 

I presume he didn't patent the design then.

I was wondering how long it would be before Asetek brought out a new waterblock design, the waterchill design is so pants.

Looking forward to giving it a run up against the waterchill

 

They're up on their webshop.
http://www.asetek.com/Webshopfolder/webshop/default.asp
EUR68 as DYO kit
EUR82 assembled.

Prices inc VAT and worldwide shipping.

Mind you these can be undercut by other resellers if they have the stock.
In particular www.thecoolingshop.com is a bit better for some parts.

 

shameful really IMO... I agree with 8-ball, I think he'll be at the forefront of watercooling technology for as long as he wants to be.

 

I don't think it is shameful, I think I would be proud to see well established manufacturers basing their new blocks on a design of mine. If Cathar wanted the design to be exclusive he would have taken the necessary measures to see that it couldn't be copied.

 

not to mention that he is (i'd say) a water cooling celebrity. his designs have inspired lots of other designs, sparked a ton of interest, and anyone who has even heard of water cooling has heard the name Carthar. I respect him for all the designing and testing that went into the block, but what do you expect when you come up with just about the best waterblock design(s) that are physically possible? the economy will crush you in favor of cheaper methods and slightly better or cheaper products. it has always happened

 

I know what it's like to have a design stolen from me (my major A Level Design and Realisation project), and I had to put an absolute **** load of work in to the project to make it as unique as possible.

Ok this quite possibly wasn't stolen, but they've used his idea and he as is said earlier in the thread, he doesn't get an awful lot of credit for the awesome work he does for the watercooling community and industry. I felt the same when my Design was "pinched" from the development part of my project, meant I had to spend a lot longer on development than I needed to. I got no credit for doing the other persons work for them (in simple terms).

 

I didn't see this sort of moaning when the DD RBX was released, or do they plaster Cathars name all over it?

 

mmmmmmmmmm i want one... they look good, i wonder how their performance is...

 

Probably because that was done (AFAIK) with his agreement same at D-Tek.

As for Astek? NO #$%^*#@ COMMENT.....

 

definitely didn't have his agreement - and there was plenty of moaning from people then also iirc

 

I stand corrected. But I do know there is SOME arrangement with D-Tek.

Well I suppose it is up to enthusiasts like us to support people like Carthar, because sure as hell the big boys wont!

 

D-tek licensed it i believe

 

As I understand it, Cathar is just a little disappointed that with the exception of a few companies, the majority seem to think that innovation is not necessary. Why bother developing your own blocks when you could let someone else do the hard work, change the external shape of the block, while leaving the internals exactly the same, give it some silly tradmarked name, and make a load of money from it.

At least the RBX wasn't a direct copy of the white water as has been produced by asetek. The RBX is "based" on the white water and the cascade, but they have put some thought itno it and developed a new block. No one can argue about it's inspiration, but at least they have used cathar's work as inspiration and not as a blue print!!

The problem is that there are too many companies getting involved in watercooling without a single thought toward the performance of the kits they make. It is very easy to make a kit that performs OK, and sell it for an extraordinary amount of money, taking advantage of the young and naive computer enthusiasts who don't really know better.

THAT is the problem. If there was some actual research behind the designs of some of these companies, then you may feel justified in paying the prices they demand, but in too many examples I can think of, that simply isn't the case.

Much respect to SWIFTECH for remaining as one of the few companies happy to do their own thing, despite their head of research and development playing a large role in the development of the cascade in particular (though this was before he started at swiftech).

8-ball

 

This was a point that I was trying to get across, if people get inspired from a design, fair enough, but to blatently copy it is a nono

 

For someone so famous, a lot of people still don't know his name.

Cathar.

not CaRthar.