Waterblock Test – Joe
SUMMARY: An attractive, well performing, low-moderate pressure drop waterblock.
The good guys at EK Water Blocks were nice enough to send a sample of their EK Wave (AMD64/P4 S478) Waterblock to try out. This is a copper base waterblock, acrylic top, with ½” or 3/8″ barbs (user choice). The sample I tested was with ½” barbs.
Key Features
- Base of electrolytic copper, lapped and polished to +/- 0.0007 mm flatness
- Acrylic top
- Eight waved channels
- Low pressure drop
- ½” or 3/8″ barbs
A close shot of the base shows the “waved channels”:
The base appears flat, using the Poor Man’s Flatness Test
Parts ship with the unit for mounting to the motherboard’s holes:
Overall, build quality and finish appeared very good.
The EK Wave was tested using the CPU Die Simulator and Waterblock Test Rig.
| Waterblock | C/W | Pressure Drop – psi | Pressure Drop – inches H2O |
| EK Wave | 0.15 | 0.42 | 11.6 |
Unrounded data: 0.147 C/W with 0.0011 std dev.
Test Results indicate that the EK Wave’s pressure drop (or head loss) across the waterblock is low-moderate; flow resistance such as this means that the EK Wave requires a moderate waterpump to maximize performance, depending upon how restrictive other components are in system.
I found that reducing flow to 0.5 gpm resulted in a performance decrease of about 0.8ºC and increasing flow to 1.5 gpm resulted in a gain of about 0.8ºC.
For a comparison of the EK Wave’s performance to other waterblocks tested to date, see Overclockers.com Waterblock Test Results.
Overall, the EK Wave is an attractive, well performing, low-moderate pressure drop waterblock.
Thanks again to EK Water Blocks for sending this our way.
Disclosure: Joe Citarella has a financial interest in a company developing thermosyphon products for electronic chip cooling.
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