List GTX 970 & 980 water block finds

Hellbent88

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 25, 2006
Messages
309
Thought I would start a thread for 900 series water blocks . list your links on blocks coming out or in stock.

This is what I found so far.

Heatkilller GPU-X3s 970 Link

Ek site Link

Koolance Link

Post any problems that you have installing your block.
 
I've got an EK-FC670 GTX block and am considering pulling the trigger on a GTX 970 and reusing my full cover block.

For people who have older waterblocks are are considering reusing them, here's a compatibility chart. But it's a useful guide not just for EK blocks as it indicates which GPU manufacturers have stayed with the old GTX 670 reference design. These have a good chance of being compatible with other older waterblocks (not just EK) made for reference design GPU's.

http://www.coolingconfigurator.com/waterblock/3831109856482
 
I've got an EK-FC670 GTX block and am considering pulling the trigger on a GTX 970 and reusing my full cover block.

For people who have older waterblocks are are considering reusing them, here's a compatibility chart. But it's a useful guide not just for EK blocks as it indicates which GPU manufacturers have stayed with the old GTX 670 reference design. These have a good chance of being compatible with other older waterblocks (not just EK) made for reference design GPU's.

http://www.coolingconfigurator.com/waterblock/3831109856482

was wondering if all the custom 970 cards had the same boards, nice find
 
Only 1 of those 3 I'd touch would be the heatkiller. Koolance has gotten pretty shady as of late with their nickel plating bs just like EK. If you dont use the "right" coolant your warranty is voided. No thank you.
 
If you don't like nickel plating, don't buy nickel plating? It's like saying I hate all Ford cars because the Ford Pinto sucks. Plenty of other blocks to choose from. Never understood the appeal of nickel plating or any sort of plating.
 
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I have no problems with nickel plated blocks, its the fact that if you have any issues with the nickel plating with Koolance, they will tell you to shove it. Here is a reply that I saw on another forum of a guy using only distilled water and Koolance block.

"Hello,

We don't cover corrosion at all. We strongly recommend our liquid to help slow down any corrosion. Note that corrosion can occur under almost any circumstance (see http://martinsliquidlab.org/2012/01/24/corrosion-explored/), even with a copper/brass loop.

We've never heard of nickel plating coming off when customer is using our liquid. We recommend changing our coolant every two years, or if any color change is noticed."




So basically, you are fked regardless of what you do if you have a Koolance block.
 
LoL. They all say that: use coolants with anti-corrosives else it's your problem. And people still ignore it and go pure distilled water cause it's "hardcore".

And then blame EK, XSPC, and Koolance for bad customer service. So yeah, if you completely ignore what they say and get corrosion, sure they'll tell you where to shove it. It's expected. EK is especially direct and vocal about this - they'll tell it to you straight: use straight distilled water and silver coil purely at your own risk, and they'll always recommend against it and strongly advise to alway use anti-corrosives.

Every few years I get my doubts after scanning the forums and listening to a new hardcore crowd of experts talk convincingly about the virtues of distilled and silver coil, and contact companies like EK, but they've always been consistent and send me their research backing up their views, and I figure why take the chance. They don't even bother to push for EK products, just use "any" fluid from a recognized supplier that contains anti-corrosives. And no distilled water + silver coil.

Whether they're right or wrong isn't the point - they're making a clear, direct and unambiguous recommendation and if you ignore it, really it is your problem. Not that the hardcore crowd actually pay any attention until it's time to complain about corrosion and ask for a refund. Now whether this reflects bad customer service for not compensating people who deliberately and repeatedly ignore their advice but blame them anyway is debatable. Although it looks pretty clear cut to me but that's just one opinion.
 
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Im most likely going to get the copper heatkiller just not sure if it fit's the 980 yet. And yes, I'll be going the "hardcore" route with my 99cent gallon of distilled water.
 
Pretty cool that you can use older blocks for newer cards. Hope they use the same layouts for newer cards in the future so we can reuse our gpu blocks
 
GTX 980 block - Swiftech KOMODO-NV-GTX9 Block - Fits reference Nvidia PCB. Still waiting on Heatkiller to release their block :mad: Thinking of going with the Komodo or should I wait on the Heatkiller? Is the Komodo worth the Price compare to the ek or Kolance blocks? It does come with the backplate.
 
LoL. They all say that: use coolants with anti-corrosives else it's your problem. And people still ignore it and go pure distilled water cause it's "hardcore".

And then blame EK, XSPC, and Koolance for bad customer service. So yeah, if you completely ignore what they say and get corrosion, sure they'll tell you where to shove it. It's expected. EK is especially direct and vocal about this - they'll tell it to you straight: use straight distilled water and silver coil purely at your own risk, and they'll always recommend against it and strongly advise to alway use anti-corrosives.

Every few years I get my doubts after scanning the forums and listening to a new hardcore crowd of experts talk convincingly about the virtues of distilled and silver coil, and contact companies like EK, but they've always been consistent and send me their research backing up their views, and I figure why take the chance. They don't even bother to push for EK products, just use "any" fluid from a recognized supplier that contains anti-corrosives. And no distilled water + silver coil.

Whether they're right or wrong isn't the point - they're making a clear, direct and unambiguous recommendation and if you ignore it, really it is your problem. Not that the hardcore crowd actually pay any attention until it's time to complain about corrosion and ask for a refund. Now whether this reflects bad customer service for not compensating people who deliberately and repeatedly ignore their advice but blame them anyway is debatable. Although it looks pretty clear cut to me but that's just one opinion.

The research has already been done on this subject.
There is NOTHING wrong with plain distilled and a silver coil.
The damage that was identified in EK blocks a few years ago had to do with inferior plating and poor surface preparation by EK.

The "research" done by EK was from a shill.

Everybody has an opinion on this. Me I say why buy nickel plate when the block is on the side of the GPU that you never see.......but that's just me.

I use distilled and coils, my blocks are made by Watercool (heatkiller) and I've never seen any corrosion. That said, I just buy the solid copper ones.
 
You guys still on that :D I run distilled and silver coil in both my rig and my sons, never had a problem.
 
There is NOTHING wrong with plain distilled and a silver coil...I've never seen any corrosion.

That's good. I too have never had corrosion either. I'm indifferent if distilled and silver is good or bad - meaning I don't care. I'm neutral about the whole thing and don't have an emotional attachment to either.

So if a vendor says they don't recommend it, and you decide their opinion is worthless, feel free to say so. Distilled might be the greatest thing since sliced bread, anti-corrosives might be an evil gimmick - these are just opinions. Perfectly fine to have an opinion - it's your right and it's harmless.

However if you buy their product, and decide to action your opinions in the form of not only totally ignoring the vendor recommendation, but doing the complete opposite, and your block falls apart from corrosion, then you're at fault. Zero sympathy. And yes, people get all emotional about it when customer service tells them to f-off even though it's the obvious and expected result.
 
That's good. I too have never had corrosion either. I'm indifferent if distilled and silver is good or bad - meaning I don't care. I'm neutral about the whole thing and don't have an emotional attachment to either.

So if a vendor says they don't recommend it, and you decide their opinion is worthless, feel free to say so. Distilled might be the greatest thing since sliced bread, anti-corrosives might be an evil gimmick - these are just opinions. Perfectly fine to have an opinion - it's your right and it's harmless.

However if you buy their product, and decide to action your opinions in the form of not only totally ignoring the vendor recommendation, but doing the complete opposite, and your block falls apart from corrosion, then you're at fault. Zero sympathy. And yes, people get all emotional about it when customer service tells them to f-off even though it's the obvious and expected result.

You can go over to RealRedRaider.com and invest some time in the research they did on this subject.
My "opinion" is based on solid real world results.
I could care less what people put in their loops, but I get tired of people putting out FUD.
The problem with nickel plating is the plating process, not the fluid used in the system.

If I do something against a manufacturer's recommendation and I break it, I'm not going to go whining about their product. If I fucked something up....it's on me.
If the manufacturer makes a shitty product and then tries to blame me, that's a different story.

If anyone is interested..............Watercool says it will be the end of November until a Heatkiller block is ready for the 980.
I guess they are about to release a new generation of CPU blocks and that is taking more time than they anticipated.
 
If anyone is interested..............Watercool says it will be the end of November until a Heatkiller block is ready for the 980.
I guess they are about to release a new generation of CPU blocks and that is taking more time than they anticipated.

Awesome. Thats the whole reason I came to this thread.
 
Awesome. Thats the whole reason I came to this thread.

No problem.
I've been checking their website frequently.
That info was directly from their forums, right out of the mouth of the guy who handles all the stuff for their retail sales.

On that same note......Watercool.de has a web store. I've purchased directly from them a couple of times.
The blocks will be available from them directly way before they reach the US.

They also now use FedEx for their shipping, so things will get here a lot faster with fewer hassles than in the past when they used DHL-Germany and the USPS.:D
 
I ordered my gtx 680 block directly from them.

I was checking the forums every so often, but the last I had heard was "soon".
 
Does anyone know if the Heatkiller GPUx3 core universal block will fit the MSI 970 gaming? Got a crazy deal on a MSI 970 gaming from my friend who decided to get a 980 instead , so had to jump on it because im on a GTX 480 (yea that old) currently, and couldn't handle it anymore.

I see that EK is making a full cover block for this custom layout PCB but it looks like it's nickel plated only (f that) , so I am looking into other options. EK also has a thermosphere block in copper that say's it would fit on their webpage, but I'd like to avoid EK unless I have to which lead me to the universal heatkiller block (heatkiller is my fav brand also). I also see that the MSI gaming has ram on the backside, so wtf is the point of getting a full cover EK block for $60 more when its not going to cool all the ram.


This is the block im talking about.
 
Still no word from Watercool.de about when the Heatkiller GTX 980 blocks are you going to hit. I'm about to say screw it and buy an EK block.
 
Christian left a comment on Watercool.de forums (German side) saying no Heatkiller GTX 980 block until January at the earliest, the HK4 Cpu block supposedly has priority as they seem to be having issues with production.
 
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