Data Analysis

From the data we can see that both the new Koolance CPU-380 block and Phobya UC1-LT blocks stand apart from the crowd on all three temperature metrics. It is therefore fair to say that in this type of loop setup on a 3930K that these are the best performing blocks.

There are some surprises in here too. I was not alone in expecting the EK Supremacy to be in first place in this roundup. In fact it was beaten by many other blocks. In st0neds tests on Ivy Bridge it did very well. At first I thought this was an indicator of a flaw in my mounting, however the Indigo Xtreme tests confirmed that the data looked right. EK have since said that the bow is just a little too much to perform well on socket 2011.

It should also be noted that full copper blocks do not always outperform mixed blocks. For example the Raystorm Full Copper performed worse than the acetal version. I am not the only one to see this. Martin saw the exact same result in his testing. The bow of the block will be different when using different materials and may be worse or even improved depending on the socket. Don’t go ahead and automatically pay more for a full copper block because it may not be worth it. However the one advantage to full metal blocks is a reduced likelihood in stripping the threads of the block ports.

Quality and Mounting

These are both very subjective. Although the Phobya did well thermally, the CPU380 feels like a much better block. It looks and feels less “cheap”. The mount feels sturdier, doesn’t require access to the back of the motherboard, and requires only a few turns of the thumb screws to install. In short if I were to draw an analogy, the CPU380 feels more like a Mercedes than a Hyundai. They both may get you to work at the same time but the experience along the way is different.

Here are also some of my pet peeves in waterblock design that I hope manufacturer’s won’t repeat going forwards:
– loose mounting bracket e.g. Raystorm, NexXxos etc – why not attach it to the block? Floating around buys you nothing except something else to hold onto when mounting the block
– port spacing – making it very wide makes it much easier for me as a tester. At the least make it wide enough for 3/4″ OD compressions. The Heatkiller had the narrowest ports by far
– slow mounting mechanisms – e.g. DD, Alphcool, Phobya – You shouldn’t have to turn a thumbscrew a bazillion times to mount the block because the machine screw was too long. You also shouldn’t have to screw a machine screw from the back side of the board another bazillion times because you cheaped out and didn’t make a design that could be screwed in from the front of the board

For mounting – the EK Supremacy, Koolance CPU-380 and Swiftech Apogee were amongst my favorites.

Conclusion

Choosing the best waterblock for you depends on many factors and it isn’t as simple as just reading off the best performing block from one test. The factors you need to consider include and the weight of each will vary from individual to individual:

– CPU/Socket and the curvature of the IHS
– Flow rate/pump pressure of your current loop
– Water block restriction
– Manufacturing quality
– Ease of mount and repeatability
– TIM choice
– Aesthetics

The last I’ll ignore as you can use your own judgement!

Gold Award

The Koolance CPU-380 performed exceptionally besting every block on MX2 (nearly all of them by 1+C) while still being at the top of the heap with Indigo Xtreme. The quality and feel of the block is up to scratch too. Mount variability is good and the flow is decent too and I would heartily recommend it.

Silver Awards

The following blocks also performed very well and have their own niche uses:
– the Phobya UC1 performs very well and is also priced very well
– Swiftech Apogee HD because it performs very well and has a very nice mounting system
– MIPS IceForce performed very well and has very high flow
– the XSPC raystorm performs well and wins the value for money award!
– the Watercool Heatkiller performed very well with IX
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13 COMMENTS

  4. So let me see if I understand, I have a Koolance CPU-380i, in order to obtain the best performance should I put the ports perperdicular to the memory slots (- ||||) or in parallel with the memory slots ( | ||||) ?

  6. How much power (in W) does this (CPU – Intel i7-3930K (Unlapped) @ 4.7GHz 1.45Vcore) represent?

    Thanks a lot!

  9. […] As can be seen the best orientation of the Apogee XL is essentially the same as the older Apogee HD. We only tested one rotation of the Apogee HD because it is a diagonally symmetric block. While there will be slight performance differences in rotation, all four rotations must be tested and that’s just silly. For more details on the Apogee HD it was featured in the 2012 CPU block roundup. […]

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