4090 Water Blocks

[Celeron_Phreak]

Has anyone else blocked their 4090 yet? I haven't found much information about it on the interwebs, and I think it's just because the limited availability of 4090s and blocks at the moment, probably will see more in march once manufactures start shipping again (post Chinese new year).

I have an EKWB ABP set coming, whenever it ships, ordered two weeks ago.

For now I have a Phanteks G40 block that was readily available, It will be interesting to see the temps with the 13900k.

 

[EarthDog]

I've got a 4090 Suprim Liquid X. FPS are limited to 165 on 2560x1440 monitor, and temps never broke 60C. 13900k is on a 360 aio and in a hyte y60 reaches the low 70s on some of the P cores.

 

[Celeron_Phreak]

@EarthDog
thanks for the reply, I have general idea of what to look for now. Currently the GPU is bypassed in my loop (D5 pump with 2x 55mm 360 radiators). 13900k sits around 60-65 after a few hours of battlefield 2042 or CoD:MW2. Currently the 4090 Gaming X Trio sits around 72-77 after the same amount of time. I'm hoping to at least keep both CPU and GPU under 65.

 

[EarthDog]

With that amount of rad, you're in good shape. I also don't have great airflow in y60. The rear is intake and there two more 120mm intake below the gpu. Thr aios exhaust.

 

[Woomack]

My 13700K hits ~100°C (on ASRock mobo it was even 105°C without throttling) on 360 AIO and 288W PL1/2 (ASUS, Deepcool) in AVX stability tests. On custom wc, 2x280 rads, it's about 90-92°C. In games with RX6800XT in the loop, it's about ~80°C max on the CPU and ~40°C on the GPU. These CPUs run hot no matter what you use, so I would expect much lower temps on the GPU, but not so much on the CPU. You will see when you put the whole loop together.

 

[Celeron_Phreak]

So I was able to get the Phanteks block installed yesterday, and wow was it simple! In comparison to installing EK blocks on EVGA cards, the disassembly and installation of the Phanteks block and backplate onto the MSI X Trio was a breeze! At least, in comparison to the half dozen EK blocks I have done previously. We will see how the EK ABP set will go whenever that arrives.

I run my fans at 85%, at the temperatures that I am now hitting full load, where previously the fans would shoot to 100% because of temps. all of this with a water temp of 31.5c - 32.7c This is important for my now current temps.

Without under volting the CPU, the now blocked GPU was hitting 57c core, 52c memory, and hot spot temp of 71c.

Now, with the 13900k under volted by .091v, the GPU is hitting a maximum of 53c core, 46c memory, and hot spot of 61.5c.

I was really surprised that under volting the CPU had such a drastic effect on the GPU temps!

I'm very satisfied with the loop at this point. I may be able to go a tad bit lower on the CPU voltage, but I do not think I will see any insane differences in the overall temperatures. While I was reconfiguring the loop for the GPU, I was wondering if I might need to add a third 360 rad, to keep the noise levels low and the temps acceptable with the lower noise floor, but the system is already running so well and quiet, that idea is gone!

And of course, having a decently sized GPU again is always a positive thing

 

[EarthDog]

Looks awesome, man!! Clean build!!!

 

[Woomack]

It looks like the installation was quick and simple. I agree with EK, I was installing a block on my ASUS RTX3070 today, and I wasted so much time cutting all thermal pads, not to mention the pain of removing the protective foil from one side of the pads Alphacool gives all measured, watercool.de as I remember did too. EK gives 3 sizes, and for the backplate, at some point, you have to put 2 pads (1mm and 2mm) on each other as they are not giving 3mm pads

I'm not sure if you see the expected difference with a third 360 rad, but you can always try when there is enough space. I see it's usually scaling well up to 2x 280/360 rads, above that, not so much as even 2 rads have like 600W+ thermal capacity. Maybe you can reduce fans' speed. I guess you won't know until you test it.

 

[Celeron_Phreak]

@EarthDog
Thanks!

@Woomack
I think that was probably half of the of the ease of installation of the Phanteks block. There were only two different thickness pads .5mm and 1mm, both pre cut, but not overly difficult to remove the protective film from. Every time I do an EK block, I hate having to cut each pad out, hoping I will have enough in the end. I have resorted to keeping extra thermal pad material of varying thicknesses on hand because of this.

I was not aware that EK is only supplying one thickness of pads. I am a little surprised they are doing this, as it is probably a cost saving measure, but with the price of EK parts, I would expect otherwise.

I may try doing a third rad at some point in the future. I have some slim PrimoChill 360mm radiators that I got with a bundle of water cooling parts a few years ago (only a few hours on the radiators), at some point, maybe this summer, I may give it a try on the side intake of the O11 XL. I may be moving everything from the O11 XL to a Thermaltake Core X71, which is a lot nicer to do a triple-rad setup in, but I would be moving to soft tubing at that point as well.

 

[Woomack]

I was not aware that EK is only supplying one thickness of pads. I am a little surprised they are doing this, as it is probably a cost saving measure, but with the price of EK parts, I would expect otherwise.

There were 3 thicknesses of pads - 1, 1.5 and 2.0mm. However, at some point 3mm was required so I had to use 1+2mm together (it was described in the manual). This is pretty bad, but since it's for a backplate then still no problem. Also, my card is V2 LHR, and even though it's compatible, then the manual included 2 spots where pads were not required (there were no ICs, only clean PCB) and one where I had to use it and it wasn't marked in the manual.
I connected it to a 240mm rad and I had about 60°C after 1h of FFXV benchmark in the loop. Hwinfo was showing up to 260W on the card. I didn't know this RTX3070 has so high power limit at stock. I'm planning to use it with 7800X3D in the loop in the ITX PC ... once the CPU will be released. I will probably set lower power limit as the performance won't be much different.

I may try doing a third rad at some point in the future. I have some slim PrimoChill 360mm radiators that I got with a bundle of water cooling parts a few years ago (only a few hours on the radiators), at some point, maybe this summer, I may give it a try on the side intake of the O11 XL. I may be moving everything from the O11 XL to a Thermaltake Core X71, which is a lot nicer to do a triple-rad setup in, but I would be moving to soft tubing at that point as well.

One thing about EK that I like are their fittings. Recently I do everything (not review related) on EK fittings 10/16 and their black rubber soft tubes. I just like how they look and everything fits perfectly. AM5 CPU block arrived yesterday too. I just don't have the CPU yet, as I mentioned. I guess that every water cooling brand has its good and bad products. It's sometimes hard to find a perfect mix. I already told Alphacool that their product line is a mix of various products, but not everything matches. There is no problem with radiators, but when you want to make a whole set of blocks that look the same and are not transparent, then the only option is EK. All other brands release new CPU blocks in one style, and GPU blocks almost only transparent/plexi.

I didn't like my Lian-Li O11 Dynamic/Air. I already sold the Dynamic one, but air is still standing in the corner. At first it was great, but in time I was missing space for water cooling or some other things were not perfect. Even at the beginning, 360/30mm rads were barely fitting and on the bottom were blocking part of the mobo and first PCIe slot. Sure you can install larger water cooling loop, but who picks a large PC case and then want to fight with tight spaces. For that I can use ITX (and I do, but that's other thing). I have to rebuild one PC in Hyte Y60 (my brother will get it) and Hyte Y40 just arrived, so I will probably make a setup for AMD tests soon. Maybe Hyte cases are not perfect but feel like an improvement over Lian-Li O11. They are actually designed to be a better option than the O11.

 

[Celeron_Phreak]

I am still waiting for my 4090 EK block, and in the meantime trying to decide if I will be vertical mounting or not.

The EK block for the MSI Gaming X Trio does not come with a 2-slot IO bracket, from everything that I have heard/read, and I see no mention of it on EK's website. From what I can tell this is because MSI mounts the cover to the card, and many other AIBs mount the IO bracket to the ports, or the stock cooler itself.

Now the concern comes up with vertical mounting. If I don't want to use a huge vertical mount bracket, and block off all of my rear radiator fan on the bottom of the case, I need to use something like the Phanteks Gen4 bracket. Then the issue moves to the fact that the MSI X Trio's stock IO bracket is a 3-slot, and does not mount properly to a 2-slot vertical mount.


Has anyone thought about possibly using an MSI 3090 Suprim X 2-slot IO cover, which seems to be very available on ebay?

 

[Railgun]

Years ago I went so far as to desolder two DVI ports on a card and cut the I/O bracket to make it a one slot setup

I really wish companies took this into consideration when making water blocks. Doesn’t help anyone when you still have a 4-slot bracket with a 1-slot cooling solution.

 

[Celeron_Phreak]

Removing unused ports on the GPU really sounds like something I would have done back in the day, so I can't blame you!

I guess their website had it listed that it came with a two slot IO cover, but then they changed it shortly after launch. I cannot find any pictures of the blocks installed on cards, that close to the release date, so I can't say for certain if they did come with the IO cover or not.


I know the barrow block comes with a replacement IO cover, I just find it baffling the Phanteks or EK blocks do not....

 

[EarthDog]

I really wish companies took this into consideration when making water blocks. Doesn’t help anyone when you still have a 4-slot bracket with a 1-slot cooling solution.

Agreed... but don't most? I vaguely recall the blocks I've put on (which, maybe 3 or 4?) had the same size (like 2-slot) or single slot IO plates to use. Small sample size, lol, but I swear many do.

 

[Celeron_Phreak]

Agreed... but don't most? I vaguely recall the blocks I've put on (which, maybe 3 or 4?) had the same size (like 2-slot) or single slot IO plates to use. Small sample size, lol, but I swear many do.

Maybe this is something with this new generation, where block manufacturers are beginning the cost cutting for margin increases?

 

[Railgun]

Agreed... but don't most? I vaguely recall the blocks I've put on (which, maybe 3 or 4?) had the same size (like 2-slot) or single slot IO plates to use. Small sample size, lol, but I swear many do.

I’ve had Koolance, EK, and Aquacomputer blocks and never have they shipped with a different IO plate. I’ve only really started down the water path since 2010, but in that time, nada.

 

[Celeron_Phreak]

Three months later and my EK block has shipped. Any leads as to what shortages/issues are causing delays for EKWB?

 

[Railgun]

The same as everyone else at a guess

 

[Celeron_Phreak]

So, is that a copper shortage, labor shortage, manufacturing setbacks or delays, or something else?

 

[FoldingAddict]

Which block did you order? My 4090 block shipped from EK in 20 days back in January when I ordered.