EKWB Outs MSI 10-Series Gaming X Water Block, Teases RX 480 Block

EK Water Blocks launched its full-cover water block for MSI’s GeForce GTX 1080 and 1070 Gaming X 8G cards. The company also showed the first image and details of the forthcoming RX 480 full-cover block.

Earlier this month, EK Water Blocks changed its approach to GPU water block release scheduling. Rather than leaving the public in the dark about projected releases, the company revealed its planned 10-series GPU blocks along with a vague launch schedule. The company had so far lived up to its promises by releasing the EK-FC1080 GTX Strix for the Asus GTX 1080 and 1070 Strix models and the EK-FC1080 GTX G1 for Gigabyte’s G1 Gaming 10-series cards. EKWB had also promised to launch a block for the MSI Gaming X 8G 10-series cards, which was revealed today.

For The MSI 10-Series Gaming X

The EK-FC1080 TF6 is a full cover water block, with somewhat less than full coverage. The term "full-cover" generally means that the block actively cools all heat-producing components, such as the GPU, memory and VRMs. The block for MSI’s cards does cool all of those parts, but unlike the other recent releases from EKWB, this block doesn’t extend to cover the remainder of the PCB and components. These block are much shorter than the cards they fit on. Furthermore, the clear block doesn’t offer a full window. Nearly half of the surface is nickel-plated electrolytic copper, just like the base of the block.

Despite the departure from EKWB’s typical aesthetic design, the internal construction of the water block still features the company’s central inlet split-flow cooling engine that directly cools the three active components.

EK Water Blocks is offering two variations of the EK-FC1080 TF6. You can get it with a half-clear acrylic top, or you can get it with a half-Acetal top. You can order the blocks today for $140.99, but they are still awaiting assembly, so they likely won’t ship today. EKWB didn’t specify when these would ship to customers, but the previous two blocks shipped within days of being launched, so we expect shipments to start tomorrow or early next week.

AMD RX 480 Block Sneak Peak

Speaking of next week, EK Water Blocks also revealed a sneak peek of a full-cover block for AMD’s RX 480. This comes as a bit of a surprise because EKWB has shied away from the mid-tier for some time. The company did not release blocks for the R9 380 series, and it skipped Nvidia’s GTX 660, 760 and 960 cards. Seeing a block for a $200 GPU is indeed a surprise, but a welcome one.

We don’t know exactly when the EK-FC RX-480 will launch, but EKWB said the block will be available in four different variants. It seems the company is bringing back bare copper for the red team.

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