EK recently announced more overhauls of their pumps. However not content with that they are also launching a limited edition X4 reservoir made with glass.
Finally – in fact we’re quite amazed it took EK this long. AquaComputer released their sexy glass reservoirs a few years back, then XSPC launched their photon a year or two after that.
The reservoir has built in LEDs as well as 5 ports on the bottom and 3 ports on the top. One of those top ports is oversized 3/8 for easier filling which is quite unusual for EK. Normally we see that only from XSPC. There are two optional mounts free standing as above and what I like to call the bicycle waterbottle holder for mounting to a chassis:
I’m not a huge fan of the free standing mount. It looks like it would easily fall over. It’s also unclear how the glass is sealed. AquaComputer used a central metal tube to screw the top and bottom closer together effectively clamping the glass. This has no central tube, or external clamp and EK have confirmed that the glass is not threaded. So it must be magic, or maybe a lip on the glass that gets clamped with a lock ring much like the D5 pump would be in the latest EK top.
Lastly note just how fat the reservoir is – this is the 250mm size and that little anticyclone looks a bit lost inside of the 80mm tube. Because the anticyclone hasn’t been scaled up in size to match we’d be a bit worried about it’s effectiveness. It’s also quite expensive – $155. Compare to the photon 270 at $65 while AquaComputer’s Aqualis starts at $72 and goes up to $131 and the latter version has a fill level sensor, nanon coating and a built in fountain effect.
EK aren’t the only one launching a reservoir though. Raijintek are expanding into watercooling. Their reservoir is however plastic but does include a waterfall effect presumably similar to AquaComputers:
In addition they’re launching a whole product lineup including a block very similar to Watercool’s awesome HeatKiller IV:
Given how good that block looks, the universal GPU block looks a bit sad:
This one reminds me of a block that I just can’t think of. Although it looks like it’s not copper, it is supposed to be copper.
XSPC also teased more shots of the Raystorm Pro:
It has a new aesthetic from the early beta sample we played with a while back. Some of our criticism of that early sample was aimed at the look and the mounting mechanism which were identical to the previous raystorm. This update not only tackles these but also should improve thermal performance:
Lastly XSPC are also bringing a tube bending kit to the market to go alongside their hardline fittings:
The tube bender is a different take to others designs and we will have to see how well it works. Threading heated tube though the tool may be difficult.
CaseLabs has announced a streamlined ordering system. Previously demand was outstripping supply such that a heavily customized order could take 1-2 months to be manufactured. This sometimes lost sales. To combat this CaseLabs had previously reduced options – reducing colors and in some cases EOLing some SKUs. Now realizing that amongst the myriad of options there are some that are simply way more popular CL has decided to offer a preconfigured version of the SMA8 and the STH10 that will ship in 2 business days. You also get a reasonable discount on the price when you do this ($60 on the SMA8). Other cases will be offered soon also.
Lastly ModMyMods now carries Barrow’s line up of products. Barrow is well known for their knock-offs of Bitspowers fittings:
Traditionally they’ve struggled to get into US resellers because of this. However Barrow are starting to more of their own designs now which bodes well including this glass reservoir for only $42:
What exactly is sad about Raijintek’s GPU block?
The aesthetics, looks like it was from 10 years ago.
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