P**S
Great water block! Show-grade quality, low thermal resistance, great performance for AM4 and TR4!
My desktop lives close to the bleeding edge and sees lots of changes. I recently jumped from Intel to AMD, starting with an AM4 CPU, with plans to jump to the Gen3 Threadripper later in the year.My desktop is liquid cooled so I wanted to buy one water block that would work with both AM4 (now) and TR4 (future). This waterblock was one of only a few that promised both. After some testing, my summary is: Buy it! its really that good!Pros:-Great thermal performance. I'm measuring a thermal resistance (Rth, J-A) of 0.0431 C/W! I have a 280mm x 140mm radiator with twin slow-spinning 140mm fans, and a decent pump, as a single loop with nothing else on the loop.-Beautiful. This belongs in your "show PC". See attached pic #1 (the on board LEDs are off in this pic)-Well machined and assembled... no goofed up tolerances... nothing to file down or polish.-Fits AM4 perfectly. (see picture #2). I applied thermal paste, applied the block, them removed it so I could see where the CPU sits. As you can see from the thermal paste "fingerprint", its perfectly centered.-Fits both AM4 and TR4. Future proof for AMD's platforms (for now?)-Great display! And actually useful. I've had a few things in my computer that had their own independent display, but this was the first with multiple graphing features. The display alternates between temperature range (given 2 minute sample) and a graph spanning the previous 2 minutes! No software necessary... the graphing thermometer has its own firmware.-Decent price... You get alot at $85. A half decent single socket waterblock usually costs $50-60 just to get in the game... and at that price range you won't get a show-grade block.So... that was the good... Given all the pluses, its not perfect (but doesn't impact my 5 star rating):-The included mounting mechanism is not the best solution. It comes with 4 30mm hex bolts, metal washers and a back plate, with no tension springs. The included backplate is your tensioner which IMO is not good. Anything that thermal-cycles like a CPU requires a bit more play so the motherboard and socket aren't mechanically stressed. Instead of the 30mm included hex bolts, I used four 60mm screws, four 10mm tension springs, and 4 thumb nuts to keep it down while providing expansion/flex room.Other thoughts:-Another reviewer flagged the thermometer's usage of a Molex plug. I would agree with that as well. An optional SATA power adapter would be nice. (3 pin would be bad as thats a fan power port and it can be PCM'd by the motherboard providing unpredictable power).-I can't find any reference material on the display's construction... but it looks like OLED which is great.-I'm experiencing some visible cavitation and turbulence at the in-port. I'm not losing sleep over this as it is very minor, but it may indicate some rough flow characteristics inside the block. Different people feel differently about this...some like chaotic flow inside the block (at the cost of some pump efficiency), I prefer smooth and fast flow rates.Anyways... summary: if you're looking for a great waterblock that people look at and say "wow", plus has some future proofing built in, below $100.... Hit Buy now.
E**O
Buy it if you want something other than EK water blocks
You know, there is a lot of water blocks out there that come from other places and are super expensive and don’t come with much. This is good for the price. The block is built for am4 and might be too big for the space if you have meaty heat sinks for you vrms so keep that in mine. I have meat heat sinks and took a bit to fit in. Aside that, good cooling with all the fins it has. Rgb light change and display color really well, bright no dark spots other then the center of where the window is at to see the heat sink fins. The display is well lit and everything is really easy to read. The temp read out is in celsius and switch’s between a temp number and a graph, the graph will show you a temp read out of the last two minutes and updates in real time. My only complaint is who uses molex anymore. I was surprised when the display plug was a 4 pin moles. Aside that I would recommend. Been using it for a few months and no leaks, nothing has come apart and the display reads out just fine with the temp always being accurate.
C**E
Just look elsewhere.
First, the title states that the product is RGB, but, down lower in the description in the mess, is semi-conflicting information."Features: Built in A-RGB""Parts: 1x A-RGB LED (RBW)""RBW is 5v and is only compatible with A-RGB (RBW) components. RGB is 12v and is ONLY compatible with RGB components.The title should be "W/A-RGB" and NOT "W/RGB". My fault for not scrolling down to read the details I suppose.Next issue, and this is a major one! Standard 4pin Molex is becoming scarce in modern systems, when I got this block, I was happy to see that it had a pass through 4pin connection, HOWEVER, not all four pins are present! The only ones are a single ground, and a 5v pin for the display! It's entirely USELESS as pass-through, which delayed my build. Seriously, with the cost of this unit, they could have spent the 1/10th a penny those pins costed and put them in even if they aren't wired to anything, just to pass the 12v and second ground through.This may have all been oversight, it's been 15 years since I built a water loop, guess you certainly don't get what you pay for these days (referencing the molex connection).The next thing, which is just a minor annoyance, the power and LED cables come out from the bottom... Most motherboards have RGB headers along the edge, and most cases have a hole at the top, so instead of routing the wires straight up, to keep a tidy look, you have to finagle them under the edge of the block going upwards, a waste of what might be precious wire length to get to a header that's a foot away.The mounting is also something to be desired. They send a new backplate with adhesive, and use screws that have a different thread than the stock AMD screws for AM4. I suppose that TR4 has a different thread as well, however, it would have been cheaper to just include the right threaded screws, and skip replacement backplates. I have ran into many boards in the past where those plates are already glued on. So make sure your backplate can be removed before buying this.Now that my ranting is over, time for some "pros", or what I DO like about this unit so far.1: It's very hefty, my last block was a basic all copper block with pins sticking up inside to dissipate heat, this thing is at least 3x as heavy, feels solid, and the microfins are pretty amazing compared to what was common 10-15 years ago.2: The readout, while it's only reading water temperture, it's nice to look at to see if my radiators are keeping up, but the graph is useless.3: G1/4 threads, thank god this is still standard!All in all, I wouldn't buy another Bykski/Primochill product, I will probably look at EK next time. While the block works, the annoyances don't make this worth the cost.
C**X
Crap
Crap mounting hardware unless ya like hunting down hardware that fits then take a pass go with ekwb
A**N
Used block
Be aware from buying Tyler direct that the block is used and opened but listed new..Edit: Was fulfilled and fault by Amazon, was sent new replacement for free. Updated review.
A**R
Very inefficient.
I liked the idea of the temp display in it, however it was very inefficient. The stock cooler did just as well. And I had it on a 360 radiator with push pull. I was reaching shutdown temps in P95 smal FFT. I picked up the new EK block to replace it and for right about an extra $40 over this one, it is a world of difference. I only hit 85c in the same test this block was causing the cpu to shut down at.
