EK Water Blocks’ Asus ROG Strix 1080 Ti Water Block Features A New Terminal Block Cover

By Kevin Carbotte
published

EK Water Blocks recently revealed its roadmap for GTX 1080 Ti water blocks, which included the Founders Edition followed by custom cards from Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, and EVGA. Today, the company revealed the Asus GTX 1080 Ti water block, and it has an interesting new component on it. 

EK Water Blocks is easily the most active water cooling company around. Seldom a month goes by without a new product announcement from the company. EK Water Blocks likes to stay ahead of the curve with new innovative ideas; sometimes those ideas are functional, such as the rotary terminal blocks the company launched earlier this year. Sometimes the changes are simply cosmetic, such as the addition of the terminal cover that you’ll find on the top of EKWB’s newest GPU block.

The EK-FC1080 GTX Ti Strix is a full cover nickel-plated copper water block that’s offered with a black Acetal top or a clear acrylic top, as is typical of EK Water Blocks. The acrylic top option includes milled holes for 3mm LEDs so you can light up the surface of the block if you wish.

Those features are standard fare for EKWB GPU blocks, but the terminal shroud on the top of the block is something altogether new. It doesn’t appear to offer any material function, but it helps add a little flair to your build. Instead of looking at a rectangular block (or acrylic if you upgrade) terminal block, you get to peer at an aesthetically pleasing shroud with the name of the graphics card listed in bold letters, making it easy for a passersby to identify what hardware you have in your build.

EK Water Blocks is taking pre-orders for the EK-FC1080 GTX Ti Strix water blocks and plans to ship them on Wednesday, April 26, 2017. It's also offering the full cover back plates in black- or nickel-plated. The GPU blocks sell for $150, the black back plates are $27.36, and the nickel-plated back plates cost $44.

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. 

5 Comments Comment from the forums
  • n0ns3ns3
    it would be much more fun if those terminals would feature RGB lighting that can be connected to the video card led/rgb header.
    Reply
  • JackNaylorPE
    How long I wonder before vendors stop focusing ONLY on adding bling and get back to actual performance and usability improvements.
    Reply
  • n0ns3ns3
    there is not much left to improve on performance side.
    and they probably don't want to make "universal"/"modular" blocks for business reasons.
    Reply
  • JackNaylorPE
    1. We have been building PCs for 25+ years and improvements have been made consistently. The new Supremacy for example had better thermal peformance than the old one. Whereas back in the day it captured the CPU cooling title only on some CPUs sockets, other brand blocks did better with others. The current one, took the title across the board.

    Like CPU generations, these go thru periods of marginal improvement but w/ water blocks, performance has improved slightly generation to generation and usability do improvements occur.... things I'd like to see:

    a) Better cable connection options, accommodated by the blocks.
    b) Feedback control of pump / radiator fan speed
    c) GPU, VRM, Memory, Coolant temp outputs to digital displays like the Reeven Six Eyes, the backpate, terminal block or a software utility
    d) More MoBo Mono Block options
    e) Better dual card terminal block connectivity options

    2. I see no real purpose for a "universal" GPU block that does half the job and leaves VRMS and memory uncooled. Might as well get a hybrid or CLC. However VGA Universal Blocks have existed since the birth of EK.

    Reply
  • n0ns3ns3
    most of the things you listed are on the USABILITY side.
    Cooling performance wise, there are little to no improvements in recent years since we already using copper with microfins with decent flow/turbulence.
    And I'm not talking about those "universal" blocks. those are simply blocks.
    this is what i call universal http://i.imgur.com/ee7ylSt.jpg that GPU block can be mounted on most nvidia cards from 480 to Titan Xp and 1080Ti. the thing is that connecting it to VRM block is tricky/ugly/bulky/messy. Given enough tools (CNC machine) I'd be able to figure something.
    another example of modularity is this D5 top: https://www.singularitycomputers.com/shop/watercooling/protium-d5-pump-top-frosted-acrylic/
    it can be both connected to tubes or to tube res. greedy f..s at EK don't do it though they definitely can. They even went as far as making their own thread on tops so it can be used only with their parts.
    Monoblocks ? there is no big enough market for this and realistically very little need as modern VRM on decent MBs (not MSI, Asrock, Biostar) is more than cool enough even with passive cooling. For most people, slapping 500$ on a cooling is way to much. People don't do the GPU liquid cooling as it is 100-160$ single time investment. Universal/modular blocks would reduce the cost per card and more people would by it.
    Cost and ease of use is the reason people buy asetek/coolit crap.
    Reply