waterblocks

[sup3rcarrx8]

When will the price of waterblocks actuallly go down? I'm looking to buy a DangerDen Maze 4 hopefully. When do you guys think it'll drop? Thanks.

[JML]

The Maze4's price will come down when the Maze5 comes out ;)

The price of a waterblock only goes down when its successor comes out.

Why not just get a Maze3? From what I hear they are as good as a Maze4, and they only cost around $40 + shipping. You should also keep your eye on the forum's classified section for a used block (properly cleaned and lapped, just as good as a new)

[NeoMoses]

they'll go down when cheap, low quality imports flood the market. Of course, the good ones will still cost the same, but there'll be the "celerons" of the WC world for those who just want watercooling for bragging rights, not cooling power.

If you actually knew how much it took to design and machine a quality waterblock, you might not ask the question. Just price a CNC machining center (~$20,000-$500,000), tooling($20-$500/endmill), supplies(~$5-$20/WB), rent(~$2000/mo.), employees($30,000/yr.), insurance($$$$$), Testing costs ($$$), Development costs, Advertising, etc... Now, figure out how many waterblocks you'll have to manufacture at $40 or $50 to break even. If you think the market is over-priced, you always have the right to hop in and make a better product at a cheaper price. :)

[fafnir]

but do remember, mass production does lower costs


say we're making nothing but cascade SS's (with cathar's blessing of course)


e.g. cast/forged/stamped instead of cnc'ed


$5,000,000 for the stamping machine, $200,000 for the tooling, $10,000 for the rent, $30 for the silver per block (en bulk), another $10/3 for a titanium/stainless top (not that that would actually help), $500,000/year for the 3 employees (you, me, and cathar; president, vp, and the ceo), and then we run this jig in india or some ****, so - $9500 for the rent, and then we hire about a hundred workers for 5 bucks a month to do nothing but lap them blocks=~$500, use a russian built stamping machine - $3,000,000, rejig the cascade so it uses less silver, e.g. shrink in size and then just make the top bigger - $10 per block (jets/plates still the same size..etc), and then produce en mass like thermaltake,...


and behold, two million silver/titanium cascades w/built in 1/2 barbs shipped oem for only $36 a piece and we've still got enough money left to split 5 million dollars 3 ways...

oh yeah, can't forget about them workers we hired can we?

$5,000,000 - $500

and not, about 100 indian under-aged workers are happy because they have what they consider to be an easy well-paying job


try that on for size



edit: and then after about five years we cash out, sell the machines we started with, pay the workers we're laying off about a year's worth of pay so they're really happy, even to go, and then with the money left over, we can still proally buy out swiftech or something

(i'm sure for $30mil they're sell, well 51% ownership is good too, at least stockholders/joint ownership, and then cathar carries over hit patents at the time, and behold, a cascade ss - made in the u s of a)

[sup3rcarrx8]

Ok i guess you guys are right. I'll just go ahead and buy the Maze 3 or 4 when i save up enough. Thanks. :p

[unix_foo]

You get what you pay for.

[sup3rcarrx8]

I also seem to forget the answer to this question, but which options should i get when purchasing the waterblock? Dangerden gives you like 5-7 options before buying the waterblock. Thanks.

[Soja]

The only important ones I see are what kind of top and barbs you want. Go for polypropylene barbs if you're going to choose the lucite top. Any barbs if you choose copper. Everything else is up to you since they are mostly extras and aren't required.