Ek 1080 ti aorus water block not touching cap. Bank, Concerned??

H

hitched

Limp Gawd
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Jan 12, 2011
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Just got a beautiful hunk of nickel plated copper today for my 1080 ti and the install went great (or so i thought) I followed every single instruction... but as I am inspecting all the pads from the side I am finishing up and inspecting everything I notice a gap between the capacitor bank and the water block. Everything else is touching except this... I am pretty disappointed to say the least...
 

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I think I found a solution... I took all the excess padding (thank god Ek always sends more then needed) and was able to double up on the thermal padding for those capacitors.. that has to be better then a loose thermal pad..
 
Uhm... I'm a newbie and my only experience with full cover blocks is having one preinstalled on a Gigabyte 1080... though I did install my own Alphacool GPX on a 970. So forgive me if this is a dumb question.

Are you positive the block is supposed to make contact with the caps? I thought it was just supposed to be core, VRMs and memory.

Edit: I'm scared for you to power that thing up. If you followed the instructions to the tee, like you said, and you had to add two thermal pads to make the block touch the caps, I don't think they were meant to be touched.

The outsides of capacitors are often not electrically insulated. I doubt the thermal pads are especially conductive, but man... Something doesn't feel right here.
 
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VanGoghComplex said:
Uhm... I'm a newbie and my only experience with full cover blocks is having one preinstalled on a Gigabyte 1080... though I did install my own Alphacool GPX on a 970. So forgive me if this is a dumb question.

Are you positive the block is supposed to make contact with the caps? I thought it was just supposed to be core, VRMs and memory.

Edit: I'm scared for you to power that thing up. If you followed the instructions to the tee, like you said, and you had to add two thermal pads to make the block touch the caps, I don't think they were meant to be touched.

The outsides of capacitors are often not electrically insulated. I doubt the thermal pads are especially conductive, but man... Something doesn't feel right here.
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I can only say they are capacitors from buildzoids youtube "teardown" of this pcb... I honestly have no idea what they are... I will attach a picture of what I could see was not touching the block. The instructions say to put a pad on them. There were 2 separate pads, a thin one for these "capacitors" and the chokes, and the other one was noticeably thicker but it showed to use those on the actual vrm modules.

I was afraid to swap the thin for the thick because I know the vrm is probably the most important on that side of the card.
 

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hitched said:
I can only say they are capacitors from buildzoids youtube "teardown" of this pcb... I honestly have no idea what they are... I will attach a picture of what I could see was not touching the block. The instructions say to put a pad on them. There were 2 separate pads the a thin one for these "capacitors" and the chokes and the other one was noticeably thicker but it showed to use those on the actual vrm modules.

I was afraid to swap the thin for the thick because I know the vrm is probably the most important on that side of the card.
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Ah, okay. Disregard my paranoia then. =)
 
Normally I think EK's blocks are pretty ugly, but that nickel backplate makes it. Nice work!
 
I would contact ek and ask. Those vrm chips are going to run hot, and two thermal pads stacked might insulate more than they transfer heat.
 
hitched said:
Just got a beautiful hunk of nickel plated copper today for my 1080 ti and the install went great (or so i thought) I followed every single instruction... but as I am inspecting all the pads from the side I am finishing up and inspecting everything I notice a gap between the capacitor bank and the water block. Everything else is touching except this... I am pretty disappointed to say the least...
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Don't mess around with new ideas, just follow the instructions to the letter. If something is not cooled that means its not cooled. Btw, caps don't need to be cooled.

mnewxcv said:
I would contact ek and ask. Those vrm chips are going to run hot, and two thermal pads stacked might insulate more than they transfer heat.
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Those are not the vrms. The vrms are on the right of the chokes.
 
hitched said:
I can only say they are capacitors from buildzoids youtube "teardown" of this pcb... I honestly have no idea what they are... I will attach a picture of what I could see was not touching the block. The instructions say to put a pad on them. There were 2 separate pads, a thin one for these "capacitors" and the chokes, and the other one was noticeably thicker but it showed to use those on the actual vrm modules.

I was afraid to swap the thin for the thick because I know the vrm is probably the most important on that side of the card.
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The components circled in red are capacitors. The gray components next to those are the chokes. Neither of these components requires cooling.

To the right of the chokes are a series of flat ICs. These are combined VRM FET modules, and it is these components that require cooling. The instructions that came with the block should tell you which thermal pad goes there.
 
If found out what happened on the instructions the way they have it printed it looked to me (and still does) like I was supposed to use the #2 set of pads which is .5mm but after contacting ek I was supposed to use the #3 set which are 1mm thick... so user error as usual and I bought some new fujipoly thermal pads the proper thickness to put on the card
 
Have a look at watercool.de and their blocks. Heatkiller-IV is superior to all what EK sells, and to most if not all others too but the Kryo by aquacomputer.de. Those are the TopDogs made in germany
 
BitMaster said:
Have a look at watercool.de and their blocks. Heatkiller-IV is superior to all what EK sells, and to most if not all others too but the Kryo by aquacomputer.de. Those are the TopDogs made in germany
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Wow those are some awesome companies and I'm definitely bookmarking there websites! Only problem is that so far ek is the only people that I have seen that make a water block for the aorus 1080 ti... I'm really wishing I would have just went with a founders card since that is what everyone is making water blocks for now...
 
BitMaster said:
Have a look at watercool.de and their blocks. Heatkiller-IV is superior to all what EK sells, and to most if not all others too but the Kryo by aquacomputer.de. Those are the TopDogs made in germany
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What's better about them? I have two Aquacomputer blocks, and they look nice and work well, but I can't really tell that they're significantly better than anything else in any obvious way.

Edit: The reason I go with Aquacomputer blocks, ironically, is that they're $10 to $30 cheaper than EK generally.
 
RazorWind said:
What's better about them? I have two Aquacomputer blocks, and they look nice and work well, but I can't really tell that they're significantly better than anything else in any obvious way.

Edit: The reason I go with Aquacomputer blocks, ironically, is that they're $10 to $30 cheaper than EK generally.
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I've read that basically, any full-cover block will perform within a couple degrees of any other, all other things being equal. Once you've gone full-cover for your GPU, your only purchasing decisions are aesthetics and price.
 
Currently the card idles at 29c and at load sits at 35c so I am definitely happy with the block and love how it looks
 
VanGoghComplex said:
I've read that basically, any full-cover block will perform within a couple degrees of any other, all other things being equal. Once you've gone full-cover for your GPU, your only purchasing decisions are aesthetics and price.
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That's a good summary though I would say that ek is THE market leader and everyone else plays catch up. Personally I really dislike the heatkiller and aqua product ranges lol. The german aesthetic and design principles doesn't sit with my design tastes. I recently tested then returned an acool eisblock xpx, it came scratched up and the design made it incompatible with my existing vrm to cpu block interface. Basically they, acool design shit how they see fit and don't care how things will work in the wild, like for those having to fit this block into an existing loop plumbing scenraio. Thus if their block is an extra inch taller, the ports will then be an extra inch taller meaning the existing loop layout will have to be re-done to accommodate said block. Now I might entertain that pain in the ass task if it brought along with it something positive, but it doesn't. The extra height was for acryllic and led bs/nonsense lol. I used to use an acool xp3 light and that was a fine block if you put aside its glaring design flaw lmao. The port design on the block's top combined with the milling meant that the affected port only had a few threads to hold said fitting on. Thus if you even pushed on the fitting wrong it would leak, lol. Putting that aside it was a darn good block. Gotta love german designs.
 
thesmokingman said:
That's a good summary though I would say that ek is THE market leader and everyone else plays catch up. Personally I really dislike the heatkiller and aqua product ranges lol. The german aesthetic and design principles doesn't sit with my design tastes. I recently tested then returned an acool eisblock xpx, it came scratched up and the design made it incompatible with my existing vrm to cpu block interface. Basically they, acool design shit how they see fit and don't care how things will work in the wild, like for those having to fit this block into an existing loop plumbing scenraio. Thus if their block is an extra inch taller, the ports will then be an extra inch taller meaning the existing loop layout will have to be re-done to accommodate said block. Now I might entertain that pain in the ass task if it brought along with it something positive, but it doesn't. The extra height was for acryllic and led bs/nonsense lol. I used to use an acool xp3 light and that was a fine block if you put aside its glaring design flaw lmao. The port design on the block's top combined with the milling meant that the affected port only had a few threads to hold said fitting on. Thus if you even pushed on the fitting wrong it would leak, lol. Putting that aside it was a darn good block. Gotta love german designs.
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Your problems with having to redo the (hard?) tubing seem like more of an issue with you than the block design. As far as I'm aware, there isn't an industry-wide standard for where the ports on a GPU block are supposed to be located, although it wouldn't surprise me if EK has standardized theirs somewhat. It's not really fair to expect the block manufacturers to standardize that anyway, though, given that every graphics card vendor has at least two or three different PCB designs of different heights and lenghts, even for cards with the same GPU.

Example:
I have these two cards in my Ethereum mining machine. The first one is 3/4" bigger in height and length than the second, but they're both Asus cards. That smaller one is not a reference PCB, meaning Asus has at least one more.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814126109
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAD7H5EX1409


I'm with you on not digging Alphacool's block designs, though. They look cheap, to me.
 
RazorWind said:
Your problems with having to redo the (hard?) tubing seem like more of an issue with you than the block design. As far as I'm aware, there isn't an industry-wide standard for where the ports on a GPU block are supposed to be located, although it wouldn't surprise me if EK has standardized theirs somewhat. It's not really fair to expect the block manufacturers to standardize that anyway, though, given that every graphics card vendor has at least two or three different PCB designs of different heights and lenghts, even for cards with the same GPU.

Example:
I have these two cards in my Ethereum mining machine. The first one is 3/4" bigger in height and length than the second, but they're both Asus cards. That smaller one is not a reference PCB, meaning Asus has at least one more.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814126109
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAD7H5EX1409


I'm with you on not digging Alphacool's block designs, though. They look cheap, to me.
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My expectations are exactly the barometer that I go by. If their designs make my life tougher, then I don't need it. That is exactly why I am sharing this account of it and really am not sure what it has to do with you and your gpus? For ex. there is ONLY SO MUCH SPACE above the vrms on any given board/case combination especially if we have a rad/fan combo above the motherboard. If their block sticks out two inches above the bracket, that means you will not be able to plumb it into a vrm block w/o getting very tricky with it. Think in the context a rad with fans limiting what space we hope to have to run vrm block with cpu block. In my case just above my vrm block is a 120mm fan mounted on my radiator. This limits the height of the vrm block, which dictates that I have to plumb straight across to a cpu block. If the cpu block sits an inch higher, well you are SOL then. And as i wrote before, this block would have to be something freaking special to bring with it these annoyances, yet it is not. Thus its not worth the hassle to get medieval on the plumbing just to make it fit.

In the pics below you can't tell but the height of the fitting on the vrm block is limited by the fan above it or next to it depending on your pov. Almost all blocks are not a problem in this orientation, I've had ek, acool xp3, xpsc raystorm, etc etc all w/o issue. The XPX sits so high that it cannot connect to the vrmat all w/o resorting to a bunch of 90s to snake it up, over and across.

For ex. w/ ek block, no issues

3Q9e3Lfl.jpg


acool xp3 light, no issues

9AKQqy1l.jpg
 
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I went with an xspc ex360 on the top for the cpu monoblock because I was afraid of clearance issues of I went with anything thicker but on the bottom I have a thicker rx360 for the video card

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hitched said:
Holy crap I bet that was fun trying to figure out exactly what to do!
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Yea, true that. You have to keep a decent selection of fittings around for that reason, never know what hurdle you'll have to overcome. Monoblocs sure make short work of this issue though.
 
RazorWind said:
What's better about them? I have two Aquacomputer blocks, and they look nice and work well, but I can't really tell that they're significantly better than anything else in any obvious way.

Edit: The reason I go with Aquacomputer blocks, ironically, is that they're $10 to $30 cheaper than EK generally.
Click to expand...


Which Aquacomputer block did you look at ? They sell from 64,-€ to 284,-€ depending on the features you want with it. I am not aware that EK has an LED Display on their blocks yet, or Stirling Silver Edition or Vario edition.


Not that I own one or even want one, I am real happy with my pure copper Heatkiller-IV block that beat each other block in any test I have found but the newest Cuplex Kryos from Aquacomputer which is again 1Kelvin better and the coolest Top Dog block you can aquire.

Personally, I like Watercool.de cause I can call them up, talk to the guy and get answers to my questions and I am not shelling out 284,- for an All-In Cuplex Kryos Vario Next with Vision LCD, not for 1k°Klevin difference. But the least I would consider is EK.


In all tests I have found the HK-IV is 4-5°K better in temps then the EK (Evo) blocks that were tetsed along the HK-IV. I wouldnt mind if it was 1°K, but 4-5°K is quite a difference. In reviews this is Hell or High Water, top or bottom of the pack in simple words.

Take this review as an example: http://www.reviewstudio.net/2409-wa...er-ni-review-the-deserved-cooling/temperature


Maybe Kyle can one day make a comparison among those blocks. I would accept his final judgement.
 
BitMaster said:
Which Aquacomputer block did you look at ? They sell from 64,-€ to 284,-€ depending on the features you want with it. I am not aware that EK has an LED Display on their blocks yet, or Stirling Silver Edition or Vario edition.
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I just have the regular copper ones. One is for a 290X, the other is the Pascal Founder's Edition, which I have on a 1080. They're bare copper with dark acrylic lids. As I said, they were both about $20 cheaper than the EK equivalent.

You'd have to be a sucker to spend 284 euros (is that about $350?) on a water jacket.
 
RazorWind said:
I just have the regular copper ones. One is for a 290X, the other is the Pascal Founder's Edition, which I have on a 1080. They're bare copper with dark acrylic lids. As I said, they were both about $20 cheaper than the EK equivalent.

You'd have to be a sucker to spend 284 euros (is that about $350?) on a water jacket.
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The incredibly expensive ones are so because they're build with pure silver integrated into the block as a biocide, and have onboard temperature and flow monitoring with an LCD readout right on the block.

Whether those features are worth it is subjective, but it's not just an overpriced block. =p
 
VanGoghComplex said:
The incredibly expensive ones are so because they're build with pure silver integrated into the block as a biocide, and have onboard temperature and flow monitoring with an LCD readout right on the block.

Whether those features are worth it is subjective, but it's not just an overpriced block. =p
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Do they still make those? Their website doesn't show them, that I can see. Just different models of the regular ones.
 
RazorWind said:
Do they still make those? Their website doesn't show them, that I can see. Just different models of the regular ones.
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I saw some for sale recently while checking out different blocks. They caught my eye because of the price. It was either at ModMyMods or Performance-PCs.
 
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