GPU blocks stock vs aftermarket

Light1984

Gawd
Joined
Dec 31, 2004
Messages
615
Ladies and Gents,

I'm building a new rig soon, first time water cooling, etc. You've read that a million times, lol. Anyways, my question has to do with full cover blocks. I think I'm going with the eVGA 680 and I was wondering if the stock full cover water cooling solution provides any benefit over an aftermarket solution (warranty aside). The stock card is $700 dollars while an air cooled card with an aftermarket full cover block would probably total around $625. Is there anything to warrant the $75 difference.

Thanks,
Josh
 
In terms of performance, no, there's not really any significant difference. I believe most of the price difference is due to the fact that the block is preinstalled.

One thing I don't like about the Hydrocopper blocks is that water only flows over the core and not the RAM and/or VREGs. This may have changed, though, as I haven't seen any photos of the internals since the GTX 480.

Also, regarding the warranty, I could be wrong but I think at least EVGA allows the installation of aftermarket coolers - including water blocks - while still honoring the warranty.
 
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Reason the 680 Hydrocopper is more expensive compared to the last hydrocoppers is that you get 4 swiftech compression fittings, a high flow bracket, and a backplate with it, and it looks to be compatible with a water-SLI bridge so you can run them in parallel. Past hydrocoppers were 150$, so the 200$ price premium factors in the 20$ backplate, the ~$20 of fittings, and the 10$ bracket.

In the past, the hydrocoppers have been the best performing as well as the most restrictive blocks on the market, the latter issue likely a result of the block being 1 pci slot wide, so you could fit it within a tiny amount of space. That perk is of course negated by the size of the 680's mounting bracket which needs the second pci slot for the second DVI port.

Bundymania - a member on our forums - has a bunch of threads reviewing waterblocks here, and recently did one with the 580 Hydrocopper as well as other blocks. Search up his username for some good info. He's quite the expert on everything WC.
 
You can alternatively get a stock 680 and buy the EVGA waterblock for $160 and backplate for $20 if you can't find the hydrocopper in stock.
 
All fullcover waterblocks use up one PCI slot.

I believe EVGA uses Swiftech for their blocks.
 
As an addendum to the best performing... that is generally on GPU temperature. The factory installed full cover blocks tend to be a bit warmer than custom solutions for other parts of the card.
 
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