EK Issues Apology For Threadripper Waterblocks

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rgMekanic

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Manufacturer of custom watercooling equipment EK issued an apology yesterday for it's AMD Threadripper waterblocks. The EK-Supremacy EVO Threadripper Edition CPU water blocks were "not up to EK standards so action had to be taken." EK has come up with a new cold plate for Threadripper processors, which has a larger fin area than the old one.

We first discovered this problem in October 2017 when reviewing the EK Supremacy-EVO for our Threadripper Water Block Roundup for 2017, and noticed the performance of the EK fell quite short of all other Threadripper waterblocks we tested. Our very own Kyle Bennett did a video showing this design flaw being the cause of the poor performance which can be seen below.


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As far as we can tell, our review of the EK-Supremacy EVO Threadripper Edition is the only one on the web, so I'm not quite sure why EK felt the need to pluralize "reviews." Even other reviewers who were directly sampled the Supremacy EVO Threadripper block (we bought ours), never fully reviewed it. What happens if you purchased one of these blocks for between $78 or $99 depending on trim that had a serious design flaw? Well the quote below says that you can contact EK for a $25 coupon code, that I would assume is to purchase one of the new and improved blocks, with no release date and an unknown price. If you would like to purchase a defective block, they are still on sale for $52.99. Thanks to cageymaru for the story.

Everyone who purchased EK-Supremacy EVO Threadripper Edition CPU water block before the 24th of November 2017 is entitled to a $25 coupon code. Everyone who can provide proof that the purchased was made before the 24th of November 2017 is entitled to the partial refund of $25 in a form of a coupon code. All you need to do is contact EK support team at www.ekwb.com/support and arrange the coupon code.
 
TL;DR

If you bought our newer block based on a design which has been proven to be shit, we marked it up enough to give you a "free replacement".
If you bought the original block, you're SOL; here's $25 "discount" so you can throw money at a new one (which has already been marked up).

*Edited to reflect bad design rather than actually being defective.
 
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Maybe they'll sell just the new base to exchange with the old one for ~$30...nah.
 
Where's that nasty EK rep who was being smug with Kyle? Somebody invite him in here to eat some crow.
 
My EK Ryzen 4 block seems to be doing a good job.

I don’t know what to think about other so called review sites, just so much fail in reporting or testing. Something as important as CPU cooling on a new platform was totally lacking, so haphazardly done by everyone except by Kyle.

The worst reviews, most unscientific, glib ones have been the YouTube ones where putting a good face job was more important than the accuracy of what was being tested.

Unless Kyle did what he did in accurate comparisons, I believe we would still have a shitty EK solution.
 
Doesn't fix the crap Evo block that's sitting on my shelf. Can take that $25 gift card and shove it up your bums, EK.
 
First the nickel plating debacle, now this. The only reason EK is popular is because they throw so much money at sponsoring builds, unlike companies like Corsair, which built their businesses on catering to the customer.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
So, will we be seeing a test of the new version?
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They do not have production yet. They offered a TR4 monoblock, which I do not even want to entertain. Hard enough getting a good mate on the IHS alone, much less a bunch of other surfaces. I think it is a bad idea overall.
 
That is a shitty move from them. I guess they believe sales were low enough that no lawyer would go through with a class action lawsuit. Still they should know this would hit their brand name pretty hard. They should know better. Hell knows no fury like a nerd scorned.
 
I'm pretty upset with the performance of my ek mono block on my Asus maximus x hero. 5.1ghz 8700k @ 1.42v delidded and it idles in the 30s but jumps into the 50s and 60s under moderate load, full load will go into the 70s. My evga 1080ti hydro copper at 2050mhz pushed as hard as possible never passes 45c anywhere, that's over all 9 sensors.
 
Tsumi said:
First the nickel plating debacle, now this. The only reason EK is popular is because they throw so much money at sponsoring builds, unlike companies like Corsair, which built their businesses on catering to the customer.
Click to expand...

Yes, the nickle plating problem was blamed on the customer for some time until the guys at RealRedRaider put the block to scientific testing.
I can't recall the outcome exactly.....I know Sidewinder refunded all the customers that bought EK plated blocks, but I don't think EK ever made it good.

This 25 dollar coupon thing is pure bullshit.
EK needs to suck it up and replace the cooler straight up.
I have purchased a few GPU blocks from EK in the last couple of years, but I'm giving up on them. They just seem to not care about the customer much.

I'll stay with Watercool Heatkiller products from now on.
 
Imagine the smug face of the executive who came up with this "solution"!

Hey we'll just give them a discount coupon towards a replacement, we make more on them than the discount anyway! And most purchased a replacement already, but those who didn't we'll make even more money off of! Am I a genius or am I a genius?
 
I had not watched the video before. By the time Kyle was placing the actural-size cutouts on the die printout I was in stitches.
Recall or refund the purchase price, a $25 gift certificate to Chuck E Cheese just don't cut it.
 
I was looking at a Threadripper Build ..... well at least I know ONE company to stay away from.
 
Replace or Refund, the only decent options when you make bold marketing claims that your products are the best and they completely fail to compete with cheaper alternatives. I tend to keep water away from my electronics, but if that should ever change I can guarantee you EK won't get a cent from me.
 
pendragon1 said:
piss off EK! anyone with one of these should get a free replacement, no questions asked. thats the correct solution.
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You are absolutely right. There should be an uproar and threat of class action lawsuit. Then those asses will send out free replacements.
 
I'm not sure i understand. They made a waterblock that performs worse than other waterblocks?

Did they lie about something? Is something defective?
 
they rushed and adapted a design that is ineffective for TR just to get something on the market.
 
Basically, they skimmed the article and copy-pasta'd a reply without first checking whether it was really appropriate, because it had worked well before.
 
Definitely won’t be getting my new GPU block from EKWB.

That rep just comes across like a turd.
 
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