We are proud to have worked on a unique “case kit” collaboration with EK that we hope will bring more people successfully into the world of water cooling. While water cooling kits have been available for some time, there is no guarantee that such a kit will work with a particular case, nor that it is optimal. Therefore EK partnered with ExtremeRigs to choose the best components from their line up and test installation of the kit on specific cases. We are also producing installation videos to go along side each kit.
The first such kit will be for the CaseLabs S8 which is a fantastic case that we already reviewed. The first kit will comprise of a Supremacy EVO CPU block, D5 PWM pump and combined cylinder reservoir, compression fittings, plasticizer free ZMT tube, 2 x 360 radiators and 1850RPM Vardar fans. GPU blocks are not included because there are so many options – however the kits are designed with adding GPU blocks in mind. We hope that these kits will not only encourage more users to safely transition from air and AIO’s to the joy of “real” water cooling but do so in a way that doesn’t cost them more in the long run by buying sub standard parts. Even for an experienced user these kits offer the peace of mind that you will not waste money by ordering too much of something and not enough of something else.
In addition at 460 euros while not cheap you do get a good discount – the individual parts in the kit add up to 570 euros. It should be noted that EK have also independently made a kit for the In-Win D-Frame Mini – we were not involved in that kit design and therefore there are no installation vidoes for that product.
As a review site though the biggest concern is of course bias or the appearance of it. In full disclosure then we do get a small cut of the sales to reflect the value of our brand and the work we put in to the kit design and videos. However we will not be reviewing these kits or claiming that they are the best possible solution as we believe that is a conflict of interest. Indeed we will shortly be releasing our own “non-denominational” universal 360 kit comprising of the parts from any manufacturer that tested the best in our reviews to also alleviate any concerns on this front. Because the partnership is also non exclusive we are also open to working with other manufacturers on similar projects. One of the nice things about working with EK for so many years on reviews has been that even when we review them negatively that they continue to support us. They take our feedback and work to improve things. In other words you should not worry that we are afraid to be negative in our reviews if needed. If you’ve been a long term reader you’ll have seen this in action. This also helps to alleviate our own concerns that EK might use this partnership to leverage us. We hope all of this seeks to reassure both you as readers and other sponsorship partners that this will not affect our reviews. If anything the worry of appearing biased is more likely to make us harsher on EK products going forwards!
So with all this being said if you want to buy or find out more about the kit – you can find it at the EK store here, it will also sell at Performance PC’s as well as at CaseLabs (drop shipped by PPCS). Installation for S8 Kit videos below:
Extreme Rigs, EKWB and CaseLabs in the same sentence is just outstanding! I own a Caselabs Merlin ST10, have used Extreme Rigs as a recommendation source and my ST10 is a showcase for EKWB.
As highly as I regard my ST10, the Mercury S8 is the perfect chassis for my needs and CaseLabs is a given for me. Being able to put my computer chassis on my big oak desktop is a perfect situation. My ST10 sits aside the desk currently, it looks awesome, but is a tad out of place. At this point, I am too invested in my current rig to make a move, but this article fed the fire.
The videos were fun to watch and on the money.
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