Full coverage GPU blocks. Opinions Appreciated.

[barthalamoo]

In my search for waterblocks for my two EVGA GTX 580's I originally picked the EK Nickel plated blocks but have read some very discouraging posts from all over the web about them.
So now I am stuck between these choices:
-EVGA Hydrocopper 2
-Koolance VID-NX580
-Heatkiller GPU-X3 580
I am leaning more towards the Heatkiller for performance but I really like the look of the Koolance.
I am a noob to the watercooling scene so I'll say I have an Apogee HD CPU block and I have been reading that mixing metals can cause some serious problems. I'm assuming it's just certain metals.
Please give me your opinions and experiences!! (any and all discussion about computers makes me happy )
I don't know many people in my city that have watercooling builds so be expecting to hear from me a lot over the next few months!

 

[jacknhut]

In my search for waterblocks for my two EVGA GTX 580's I originally picked the EK Nickel plated blocks but have read some very discouraging posts from all over the web about them.
So now I am stuck between these choices:
-EVGA Hydrocopper 2
-Koolance VID-NX580
-Heatkiller GPU-X3 580
I am leaning more towards the Heatkiller for performance but I really like the look of the Koolance.
I am a noob to the watercooling scene so I'll say I have an Apogee HD CPU block and I have been reading that mixing metals can cause some serious problems. I'm assuming it's just certain metals.
Please give me your opinions and experiences!! (any and all discussion about computers makes me happy )
I don't know many people in my city that have watercooling builds so be expecting to hear from me a lot over the next few months!

Have you look at aquacomputer gtx 580 waterblock yet? Aquacomputer block usually outperform other blocks and its very nice looking too.

 

[barthalamoo]

I have not. I am looking at their radiator tho. It seems very well built and efficient.

 

[rubix_1011]

AquaComputer or EK (non-nickel) blocks would be my choice for full-cover.

 

[barthalamoo]

I saw a post of you (rubix_1011) having the Heatkillers if I am not mistaken

 

[rubix_1011]

No, I run 2 Swiftech MCW60 universal blocks...been using the same blocks on about 6 different card models... 6800 GT, 7800 GTX, 8800 GTS, 9800 GTX, GTX 260, GTX 560 Ti. I have just bought a couple different $8 brackets for both blocks over the course of 5-6 years....oh, and replaced RAMsinks a couple times, but they are easily re-usable if you are careful.

 

[boiler1990]

I had two EK nickel blocks - one pre-corrosion and one post-corrosion. They were actually great blocks; the machining of the contact side left something to be wished for, but overall the appearance was nice and the blocks cooled very well.

I had issues with EK's handling of the new EN-plated blocks, since they believe that even plain distilled water is the cause of the corrosion issues and (according to their pamphlet) officially recognized only certain premixed coolants.

I have since switched over to a Swiftech MCW82 universal, and probably won't be investing more money in EK for a while. I like the look of the Heatkiller blocks (especially the "Hole edition") much more than any of the other ones, and they cool exceptionally well.

Keep in mind that most of these blocks cool within 1-2C of all the others, so at this point it's really appearance and cost that drive the decision.

 

[cyansnow]

I use a heatkiller on my newest graphics card, but i used to use the EK full copper blocks with acetal tops, i prefer the look of heatkiller blocks over the EK but neither is better than the other. Aquacomputer has some good looking blocks as well, but are on the pricey side and availability is sometimes scarce.

 

[scopey86]

In defense of the EK blocks, I've been running my 580 SLI on EK Nickel blocks for coming up on a year now with no issues whatsoever in terms of corrosion or otherwise, not to mention temps still stay ridiculously low. They had some issues before but they've addressed them.