InnovaGPU Block

Very nice GPU waterblock – Joe

SUMMARY: High performance GPU/Northbridge waterblock from Innovatek.

HighSpeed PC was nice enough to send a sample of the InnovaGPU Block (Innovatek’s site – in German; note there is a G4 version). This is a GPU/Northbridge waterblock that can be spliced in as part of the Innovatek Water Cooling Kit I tested earlier.

I have to say this block is a very nice piece of work – a solid copper base, 7mm thick, with a plastic top bolted onto the base. I found this out because I was curious about its construction and cut into the black plastic skirt around the edge:

You can see how thick the copper base is compared to the rest of the block.

It uses 8 mm tubing with compression fittings. The mounting brackets have enough spacing so that you should be able to accommodate just about any hole pattern. Included with the block are are two nylon mounting bolts (I use metal with fiber washers).

The base is flat but not finished to a high polish:

I don’t think lapping will make much difference, as there are no discernible machining grooves to the touch.

Tubing is mounted by slipping it over the fittings and screwing down the retaining rings; you have to use a wrench. It is likely that as you screw the rings down, the tubing will rotate, so plan ahead. In addition, it is high enough that if used on a video card, you will lose a PCI slot.

Overall, a very nice looking, well built unit.

To see what the InnovaGPU could do, I tested it on the CPU Die Simulator. I did this to give some comparison to a larger block that performs very well with higher heat loads – an older Aquastealth copper CPU block that I use on my test bench. I expected the InnovaGPU would test out a little worse than the CPU block.

For this test, I used the same pump, fan and radiator (Danner 1.5, Sunon 120mm, salvage radiator) – just changed the blocks.

Well this is a surprise! I retested to make sure of these results and they came out the same – the InnovaGPU waterblock, at about 44 watts, does at least as well as an all copper CPU waterblock. Considering that the CPU block has more mass and surface area, this is quite an accomplishment.

Considering that the tested heat load should be about as high as you’ll get with GPU and Northbridge chips, the InnovaGPU should easily handle anything you can throw at it. With a C/W of 0.35, a 20 watt GPU will increase about 7C over ambient. I routinely see GPU back temps in the 40 and 50s air cooled, so GPU temps in the low 30s look very nice.

If your CPU is space constrained (notebook? 1U rackmount?), this block could do a credible cooling job.

Innovatek is making some very nice products – well made, easy to use and top performance. Not cheap, but then quality never is.

Thanks again to HighSpeed PC for sending this our way.

Email Joe