Watercool Your Memory: EKWB Updates RAM Water Block Lineup

News
By Kevin Carbotte
published

EK Water Blocks has announced that it has released four new memory water blocks. The EK-RAM Monarch X2 blocks are designed to be a direct replacement for the passive heatsink installed on Corsair Dominator and Dominator GT memory modules.

EK-RAM Monarch X2 blocks are designed to cool two DIMMs at once, and they feature G1/4 threads, allowing them to be connected directly to a water cooling loop. These blocks mount directly to the top of the Dominator DIMMs using the same mounting points as the stock heatsinks. The company offers a heatsink for other memory types that allow for the EK-RAM Monarch blocks to be used with any brand.

EK has released four variants of the EK-RAM Monarch X2 blocks. They are available with clear acrylic tops or black POM Acetal, and each top can be paired with the option of an electrolytic copper base, or nickel-plated electrolytic copper base.

In addition to releasing four new blocks, EK Water Blocks has announced that six previous memory blocks have been discontinued, and the remaining lineup has undergone a name change.

The following products have been designated End Of Life. Once these are sold out, they will not be restocked.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Header Cell - Column 0 End Of Life Products
3831109856604EK-RAM Monarch X4 CSQ
3831109856611EK-RAM Monarch X4 - Acetal CSQ
3831109856635EK-RAM Monarch X4 - Acetal+Nickel CSQ
3831109856642EK-RAM Monarch X2
3831109856659EK-RAM Monarch X2 - Acetal
3831109856673EK-RAM Monarch X2 - Acetal + Nickel

EKWB kept one older variant of the X2 blocks that are designed to cool two DIMMs. The company also renamed five versions of EK-RAM Monarch X4 block, which can handle up to four DIMMs with one set of fittings.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Header Cell - Column 0 Old NameNew Name
3831109856666EK-RAM Monarch X2 - NickelEK-RAM Monarch X2 – Nickel (Original CSQ)
3831109856628EK-RAM Monarch X4 - Nickel CSQEK-RAM Monarch X4 – Nickel (Original CSQ)
3830046992321EK-RAM Monarch X4 Clean CSQEK-RAM Monarch X4
3830046992338EK-RAM Monarch X4 Clean CSQ - AcetalEK-RAM Monarch X4 - Acetal
3830046992345EK-RAM Monarch X4 Clean CSQ - NickelEK-RAM Monarch X4 - Nickel
3830046992352EK-RAM Monarch X4 Clean CSQ - Ac+NiEK-RAM Monarch X4 - Acetal+Nickel

EKWB said the new EK-RAM Monarch X2 blocks are readily available. The copper base blocks are priced at $34.99, and the nickel-plated versions are set at $38.99. They can be purchased now from the EK Webshop, and authorized partners.

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Kevin Carbotte

 Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years. 

8 Comments Comment from the forums
  • dstarr3
    If your memory is running so hot that air-cooling isn't enough, you shouldn't have built your computer inside a toaster oven.
    Reply
  • JamesSneed
    Yeah I'm not seeing the point at all. Memory is so fast these days its almost never the bottleneck except on APU's but I just cant fathom wanting to do water cooling and using an APU vs just buying a discret CPU and GPU combo.
    Reply
  • RedJaron
    I have to wonder what kind of system would push RAM so far that liquid cooling is necessary for it. I think this embodies the phrase, "more money than brains."
    Reply
  • none12345
    What a waste of time, spend on the money on anything else, other then water cooling ram, heh.

    Even if you do overclock the ram, you arent decreasing the latency, at best you can push the mhz up a tiny bit,or a large bit but then if its large you have to increase the cas latency, blowing away most of the increase anyway. So, utter waste of time.

    I mean i guess if you already spent 1000 on a cpu, 1000 on a gpu, and 1000 on a monitor, not to mention a few thousand on other peripherals, and water cooling for the cpu, gpu, etc, etc. If you have already dumped 10,000 into the system, i mean sure why not overclock/watercool the ram.... It wont have any significant impact on the system performance, but if you've already splurged on a buncha other stuff, why not!
    Reply
  • RedJaron
    16678688 said:
    Even if you do overclock the ram, you arent decreasing the latency, at best you can push the mhz up a tiny bit,or a large bit but then if its large you have to increase the cas latency, blowing away most of the increase anyway. So, utter waste of time.
    Not true. Remember that RAM timings are measured in clock cycles, not static time. CAS 8 at DDR3-1600 is the exact same amount of latency as CAS 12 at DDR3-2400 and CAS 16 at DDR3-3200. The potential bandwidth goes up with the higher frequencies. Now whether you want to spend extra money on faster rated RAM and whether you have software that can take advantage of the bandwidth are other questions altogether. But no, it's not an utter waste of time.
    Reply
  • allanstrings
    If you go so far as to waterblock your motherboard/processor/video cards/everything else, then you don't get a lot of direct airflow in the area. Blocking your RAM makes sense for their longevity in that situation, it's not a performance thing. It looks silly to have 5 waterblocks on and around your mobo and then have to use a spot fan on the memory.

    Also, if you do block every component it looks amazing :P
    Reply
  • monsta
    Not worth the money tbh
    Reply
  • allanstrings
    for the most part, true.
    However - when you are spending $350 for pumps/res/tubing, anywhere from $100-300 on radiators, and $300 for CPU/mobo coverage plus $120 per video card block - the extra $40 to cover the RAM and make it pretty isn't a big deal.
    Reply