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amoeba1126
Gawd
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2006
- Messages
- 775
Well...I been keeping an eye on the Fedex tracking since I ordered the Danger Den FC-4870-X2 so I would be lying if I told you guys that I was pleasantly surprised to find this package at my apartment complex's front office. However, I was pleasantly happy to see it.
You can see from the Fedex shipping label that it is from Danger Den. I thought I would have seen Jeremy's name somewhere but its OK!
Anyways, buried under the invoice and a ton of pink peanuts (God I hate those cursed things...they get all over the place and are even worse to clean up once they get smashed...) I found this lonely white box. The hefty weight of the box surprised me until I remembered that it had a solid piece of copper in it.
Once you open the box, the first thing you see is a bag containing the screws, thermal pad, and what appears to be a tube of Arctic Ceramique lying on thick black foam.
Upon removing the box, I found the block itself. It looked fugly in the pictures and I must admit, it is even worse in person! However, this is [H] and most of us do not care much about appearance as we value functionality over beauty.
Notice on the back, you can still see the residue of CNC milling. Why they did not polish it up, I really can't say. However, if you are concerned of how that may affect performance, don't be; it is perfectly flat. It does give off an interesting appearance of crop circles though.
As for the packaging of the block, I must admit that I am seriously concerned as a customer. As you can see, there is visible damage as the block slides back and forth while inside the box. Notice the red circles showing the damage. Now there are indentions on the other side as well, but additional pictures would be redundant.
There is also some signs of tarnish beginning to develop on the bottom of the water block as there was no type of masking tape to seal off the copper surface from oxidation. I was also not too pleased to notice that DD had left the barbs screwed into the box itself, rather than leaving them in a bag for us customers to screw in ourselves. While metal is obviously a lot tougher than nylon, I cannot imagine that the pressure and stress caused by the block moving around in the box as well as the being sandwiched between the pads to be good for the threading. Now all these issues could have easily been avoided, had Danger Den sealed off the block, wrapped it in a bubble wrap bag, and placed the barbs in a separate bag. While it is not really a big deal as the block did arrive in relatively fine condition, such attention may prove to be a deal breaker for some other customers. It also irked me that there was no form of instructions for installation included in the box. While there is a pdf file on the Danger Den website showing how to install the block, it would not server the purpose of someone who took apart their computer already and have no access to the Internet. In this regard, Danger Den has a long way to go in terms of attention to details in packaging when compared with the likes of EK and Swiftech.
It can also be noted that the acrylic covering is a slab of smoky black acrylic cut into a general shape and the logo engraved into it. I personally would rather have seen the acrylic milled on the sides to conform to the overall shape of the block, but I am sure that there are some who prefer this raw and rugged look. Again however, we don't mind too much of how it looks as long as it performs. On the note of performance, it can easily be seen that the DD-4870-X2 will have lower restriction than the EK version as the bend is a U, letting liquid flow much more naturally. While the wavy pins of the EK block may provide more surface area, the general graininess of the copper surface may compensate for it. I still can't get over this snail design...
Aside from the lack of manuals and suspect packaging, I found it annoying that Danger Den did not have the thermal pads pre-cut. Now I haven't cut up the pad yet, but considering how soft and malleable the pad is, I am somewhat scared that unless I have a pair of very sharp scissors, I might just deform the thermal pad while cutting. Of course I will not know for sure until I actually cut it to fit on the card, but for now it poses as a concern to me.
Overall, Danger Den appears to have a solid block but there is a lot of room for improvement so far in just the preliminary judging. Now I have not tested it yet and this is purely just my visual impressions. Testing will come after Labor Day weekend as I am going on a much needed vacation. As far as presentation and packaging, it would not be far off to say that I am rather disappointed to Danger Den's lack of attention to details. From residue milling marks that should be lapped away to insufficient packaging, I almost get the feeling that Danger Den was simply in a rush to get the first high performing 4870X2 water block on to the US market. I would have also liked, as an early adopter of such an expensive block, to see a T-Shirt included as well, but hey, that's not a deal breaker for me, simply icing on the cake.
You can see from the Fedex shipping label that it is from Danger Den. I thought I would have seen Jeremy's name somewhere but its OK!
Anyways, buried under the invoice and a ton of pink peanuts (God I hate those cursed things...they get all over the place and are even worse to clean up once they get smashed...) I found this lonely white box. The hefty weight of the box surprised me until I remembered that it had a solid piece of copper in it.
Once you open the box, the first thing you see is a bag containing the screws, thermal pad, and what appears to be a tube of Arctic Ceramique lying on thick black foam.
Upon removing the box, I found the block itself. It looked fugly in the pictures and I must admit, it is even worse in person! However, this is [H] and most of us do not care much about appearance as we value functionality over beauty.
Notice on the back, you can still see the residue of CNC milling. Why they did not polish it up, I really can't say. However, if you are concerned of how that may affect performance, don't be; it is perfectly flat. It does give off an interesting appearance of crop circles though.
As for the packaging of the block, I must admit that I am seriously concerned as a customer. As you can see, there is visible damage as the block slides back and forth while inside the box. Notice the red circles showing the damage. Now there are indentions on the other side as well, but additional pictures would be redundant.
There is also some signs of tarnish beginning to develop on the bottom of the water block as there was no type of masking tape to seal off the copper surface from oxidation. I was also not too pleased to notice that DD had left the barbs screwed into the box itself, rather than leaving them in a bag for us customers to screw in ourselves. While metal is obviously a lot tougher than nylon, I cannot imagine that the pressure and stress caused by the block moving around in the box as well as the being sandwiched between the pads to be good for the threading. Now all these issues could have easily been avoided, had Danger Den sealed off the block, wrapped it in a bubble wrap bag, and placed the barbs in a separate bag. While it is not really a big deal as the block did arrive in relatively fine condition, such attention may prove to be a deal breaker for some other customers. It also irked me that there was no form of instructions for installation included in the box. While there is a pdf file on the Danger Den website showing how to install the block, it would not server the purpose of someone who took apart their computer already and have no access to the Internet. In this regard, Danger Den has a long way to go in terms of attention to details in packaging when compared with the likes of EK and Swiftech.
It can also be noted that the acrylic covering is a slab of smoky black acrylic cut into a general shape and the logo engraved into it. I personally would rather have seen the acrylic milled on the sides to conform to the overall shape of the block, but I am sure that there are some who prefer this raw and rugged look. Again however, we don't mind too much of how it looks as long as it performs. On the note of performance, it can easily be seen that the DD-4870-X2 will have lower restriction than the EK version as the bend is a U, letting liquid flow much more naturally. While the wavy pins of the EK block may provide more surface area, the general graininess of the copper surface may compensate for it. I still can't get over this snail design...
Aside from the lack of manuals and suspect packaging, I found it annoying that Danger Den did not have the thermal pads pre-cut. Now I haven't cut up the pad yet, but considering how soft and malleable the pad is, I am somewhat scared that unless I have a pair of very sharp scissors, I might just deform the thermal pad while cutting. Of course I will not know for sure until I actually cut it to fit on the card, but for now it poses as a concern to me.
Overall, Danger Den appears to have a solid block but there is a lot of room for improvement so far in just the preliminary judging. Now I have not tested it yet and this is purely just my visual impressions. Testing will come after Labor Day weekend as I am going on a much needed vacation. As far as presentation and packaging, it would not be far off to say that I am rather disappointed to Danger Den's lack of attention to details. From residue milling marks that should be lapped away to insufficient packaging, I almost get the feeling that Danger Den was simply in a rush to get the first high performing 4870X2 water block on to the US market. I would have also liked, as an early adopter of such an expensive block, to see a T-Shirt included as well, but hey, that's not a deal breaker for me, simply icing on the cake.
I dont get it, your upset that the block put a dent in the box? lol
