Alphacool GPX Eisblock Unboxing and Experiences @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

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Alphacool GPX Eisblock Unboxing and Experiences

Alphacool has always made a great showing when it comes to water cooling our hot video cards. The company has recently updated its Eisblock series of GPU water blocks to include models made for NVIDIA's RTX series of cards featuring the Turing GPUs. We show you these new blocks and tell you about our first experiences with those.
 
Dang I was excited to see the temps for this bad boy. Looking forward to the follow-up.

I've been using Graphite Thermal pads with my setup, so I probably wouldn't have noticed the lack of contact. I've been assuming I'm making even contact. A benefit of thermal grease I sadly didn't even think of.
 
Will a water block keep the 2080 Ti FE from failing? That's assuming that the space invaders are caused by high temperature, to begin with. I was tempted to order a 2080 Ti but I'm afraid of pulling the trigger. I got a 2080 FE right now, however, I'd like the Ti :D
 
Solhokuten said:
Dang I was excited to see the temps for this bad boy. Looking forward to the follow-up.
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Ditto. I've been using an EK block for my GPU, and temps have been great, but it would be interesting to see how this performs.

They seem to suggest that this is a Nvidia problem due to height inconsistencies of the RAM chips, but I wonder if that is just an excuse. That said, it wouldn't surprise me considering all the issues with Nvidia's boards this time around.
 
PhoenixGenesys said:
Will a water block keep the 2080 Ti FE from failing? That's assuming that the space invaders are caused by high temperature, to begin with. I was tempted to order a 2080 Ti but I'm afraid of pulling the trigger. I got a 2080 FE right now, however, I'd like the Ti :D
Click to expand...

Same here. I'm on my 2.5 year old Pascal Titan X. I wanted to go 2080ti in order to more consistently get 60+fps at 4k ultra settings, but I balked when all the failures started to get reported, and now I wonder if I waited too long. My take is you have to buy modern high end GPU's immediately at launch, otherwise it's way too much money for way too short of a time using it.
 
PhoenixGenesys said:
Will a water block keep the 2080 Ti FE from failing? That's assuming that the space invaders are caused by high temperature, to begin with. I was tempted to order a 2080 Ti but I'm afraid of pulling the trigger. I got a 2080 FE right now, however, I'd like the Ti :D
Click to expand...

I'm running a 2080ti FE with an EK block, I have had no problems, but I've wondered the same thing myself... if I had left on the stock cooler and gone air would the card be dead? My card is definitely colder than stock between 45-65* in a loop with my 2950x. I also kept the stock bios on the card, mostly out of fear that I would ever need to RMA and also thinking that the extra heat from a 360 / 380w bios might be enough to trigger space invaders.

The whole situation is just like the earlier 1080 I had from EVGA, it was from the batches where the VRM cooling was suspect leading to a few pics and videos online where EVGA 1070s and 1080's burst into flame. I tore the card apart and applied the EVGA remediation thermal pads but still never trusted the card to handle a serious OC again (n)
 
PhoenixGenesys said:
Will a water block keep the 2080 Ti FE from failing? That's assuming that the space invaders are caused by high temperature, to begin with. I was tempted to order a 2080 Ti but I'm afraid of pulling the trigger. I got a 2080 FE right now, however, I'd like the Ti :D
Click to expand...
From our testing, most likely no.
 
That water loop in/out adapter looks interesting. Looking forward to more information on its effectiveness, and hopefully another video showing it in both configurations.
 
IKV1476 said:
That water loop in/out adapter looks interesting. Looking forward to more information on its effectiveness, and hopefully another video showing it in both configurations.
Click to expand...
I was checking it out and how it works. Pretty simple stuff actually. That is what the two O-rings in the kit are for. Will do a quick followup for it as well.

Amazon just delivered an empty envelope that was supposed to be thermal pads. Of course the empty package showed up in just enough time for me not to be able to drive to Microcenter to pick up a replacement. Will head over in the morning so we can continue the Eisblock build.
 
Oldmodder said:
Cant you just file ( or mill if you have that option ) a little of the contact points for the Vram ?
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Uh....no. I am not going to start "filing" VRAM modules on a $1200 video card because the thermal padding is too thick.

Oldmodder said:
How about a test assembly without the Vram pads just to see what kind of contact you are getting on the GPU.
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One of the first things I did. Perfect GPU mating with no thermal pads in place.
 
Hehe better not touch those. but don't the block have some raised points where the Vram ( pads ) touch ( not familiar with this kind of block as i have never tried a full cover GPU block )

I use to glue air profiles in ALU or copper on the ram modules and then put a 92 or 120 mm fan below the GFX card to take care of air flow over those.

For sure i will go full cover on what ever GFX card i get later in the year ( if block is available for the GFX card i get, otherwise i will go H2O later on )
 
Oldmodder said:
Hehe better not touch those. but don't the block have some raised points where the Vram ( pads ) touch ( not familiar with this kind of block as i have never tried a full cover GPU block )
Click to expand...
Well, just by the way the VRAMs are actually attached to the PCB, it is nearly impossible for those to ever actually be truly flat. This is why you see pads being used. Given the tolerances, as described above, this is why we do not see direct VRAM contact blocks being produced. It would simply be impossible to pull off. Hence the thermal pads.

Hehe, GPU cooling from 20 years ago. How far we have come. :)
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If the vram can be of differing heights, why didn't the kit come with multiple set of differing-thickness pads, plus instructions on how to determine which height should be used?

All these years, I still haven't tried watercooling.

I doubt he remembers but ages ago Kyle raffled off what was probably the very first water cooling kit for a cpu back in 2000 at a CPL. Friend of mine won it, who gave it to me since 1) he would never use it and 2) he had opened the back of his SUV, and let my pc fall out onto concrete and got a big crunch on the corner ( old beige tower case, opposite corner from the psu which was completely empty, so luckily it was only cosmetic damage ). So he gave me that kit rather than buy me a new case. Kyle was all skeptical, "you will be putting Water, in your pc.. so do this at your own risk.." lol, now everyone watercools.. anyway, I turned right around and sold it to someone there and used that to buy a new case.
 
Really glad I read this. About to install a heatkiller block on a 2080 ti and will be sure to do a test fit first.
 
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