Bitspower VG-NGTX980 Review – Bitspower’s Full Cover GTX 980 Water Block

Bitspower VG-NGTX980 Review – Bitspower’s Full Cover GTX 980 Water Block

In this review we’ll be taking a look at Bistpower’s after market watercooling block for the NVidia’s GTX 980 reference card – the VG-NGTX980.    This is part of our GTX 980 water block round up.  As always a big thanks to PPCs for supporting ExtremeRigs with a test sample.

Bitspower’s Box is simple with a large logo and a sticker showing the exact SKU and bar code.  Inside there was a surprise – there is a black backplate included – which was not indicated on the product description:
Everything was packed pretty well with the underside of the block protected with foam:
Laying everything out we can see the full extent of delivery:
The bag of accessories included more than enough thermal pads (2 thicknesses), mounting screws (one type only), two stop fittings, spare o-rings and an allen key to tighten the mounting screws:
Bitspower are the only manufacturer to supply spare o-rings.  While we think this is unnecessary, it is nice to have!
The block itself is nearly full cover meaning that it covers almost the entire PCB.  It’s nice to see that Bitspower also use the clear bridges rather than supplying a black one (as EK do).  Instead of the more common nickel plating Bitspower (like Swiftech) Chrome plate the copper instead.  This results in a more mirrored higher end finish, but Chrome often shows a yellowish tinge during plating on water blocks and is less uniform in color than Nickel plating it seems.

The back of the block howevere showed no discoloration and was perfect.  It should be noted that while all three of the distinct metal sections use thermal pads only 2 are actively cooled by water.  The “tail” of the block is simply passive.
Machining was very high quality and although machining marks are present they are soft and are not really that noticeable.

Like the front of the block the included backplate has a reasonably sized logo and identifier.  We’re not sure why this would be a V2 version, but that is how it’s labelled.  Unlike other backplate designs this is not machined and simply uses a sheet of metal cut to size with standoffs attached:

This means that thermal pads on the backplate must be thicker and therefore that we assume VRM temperatures would be worse.  The other part to note that unlike the block itself, this backplate is *not* full cover.  Indeed if we compare it to the separate backplate that we also asked to review it can be seen that it is about an inch short:
This is quite strange really.  So while you don’t need to order a back-plate, if you care about aesthetics, you may wish to order one to fully cover the PCB anyway.

The back-plates that come separately are packaged similarly to the included one:
This time however you get more accessories:
More thermal pads, stickers and more instructions.  None of these accessories seem necessary though given that the original block would come with enough.
Unlike EK’s Nickel backplate which has a machined finish, the Bitspower has a far smoother almost mirrored finish.  Again however there is no machining work on the thickness of the backplate:
The block is quick to take apart if you have the correct size allen key (not supplied):
Here the discoloration of the chrome plating around the cooling engine is most evident.  There is minimal machining of the copper plats themselves.  The additional plate used to seal the “choke hop” itself is stainless steel.

Overall though the aesthetic is very pleasing:

Onwards to testing!