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AMD Ryzen ThreadRipper Waterblocks

Aug 23, 2017

With the release of AMDs new ThreadRipper CPU, water cooling manufacturers have started to release updated waterblocks to primarily address the larger IHS (Integrated Heat Spreader). Although you can often get decent thermal performance without getting full contact of a block to an IHS, full coverage of the IHS on the new TR4-SP3 socket is good in order to spread out the mounting load as well as deliver optimized cooling.

So lets start with each manufacturer alphabetically.

Alphacool – While we don’t have any official pics of Alphacool XPX TR4 waterblock, we have a picture of something similar.

It appears that they have only changed mounting bracket but this may not be it’s final form. Pricing and availability: TBD

AquaComputer are working on a new design but it will not be ready for a while. This quote courtesy of google translating this thread:

“Of course we will bring a cooler for Threadripper on the market. Currently a solution for the cuplex kryos NEXT is in progress. This is fortunately because of the geometry of the floor plate already not so badly suitable for the threadripper CPUs. The fixing sets are changed accordingly. In the fall, a special cooler for TR4 will follow, but this will take more time, as CPU coolers have the goal to get the best possible solution and, of course, we should not miss functions like VISION. This means a lot of development work and optimization. A lot can be simulated, but many tests are still necessary.

Of course there are now many more possibilities – this begins with the size of the floor slab. It is also interesting, however, that this cooler is specially developed for a socket. This makes a big difference in the development. We will let us have some time and not a “quick shot” to the release. The pedestal will remain for a few years and it is worthwhile to work properly in order to avoid the next revision within a few months. So we will certainly not be the first supplier for threadripper coolers.

The demand is huge anyway – we get many mails every day with inquiries. So we are in the middle in the topic …..”

BYKSKI is a Chinese liquid-cooling equipment manufacturer who are becoming more well known for their budget friendly blocks. Their threadripper block comes in two color variants with optional RGB LED lighting. The blocks without the RGB lighting are available for around 58 USD, while the RGB blocks are available for 63 USD. Bykski CPU blocks can usuallyi be found at Taobao, Ebay, Aliexpress and Amazon. We dont have any information on availability yet.

EKWB have modified their Supremacy EVO waterblock with some of key changes.

The largest change is of course the cold plate in order to cover the full IHS:

We see 17% improvement in the size of the coldplate. There will be three versions:

EK-Supremacy EVO Threadripper Edition – Nickel – 68EU
EK-Supremacy EVO Threadripper Edition – Acetal + Nickel – 68EU
EK-Supremacy EVO Threadripper Edition – Full Nickel – 87EU

All pre-orders will start shipping Thursday, 18th of August 2017.

Phatheks introduced their C399a waterblock. When compared to their previous model, it has increased fin and cold plate area.

Swiftech introduced a new mounting kit for this new socket that is compatible with Apogee Drive II (any model), Apogee XL and XL2 waterblocks as well as the AIO units such as H140 X AIO, H220 X AIO, H240 X AIO, and all Drive X2 Regular and Prestige Series Kits. The new mounting kit is available for 8.99$ of Swiftechs web shop.Note that this is only a mount, but fear not – a “Threadripper Only” version of the Apogee SKF waterblock will be released “soon”, featuring a larger cooling engine that covers the entire surface of the internal heat spreader. You can see a render video here.

Watercool are developing a new version of the Heatkiller IV block specifically for Threadripper but have commented that it takes time, so I wouldn’t expect it too soon. Here’s a pic from their development bench:

Next up we have XSPC with their RayStorm Neo RGB waterblock, which like EK, has a much larger cold plate. However we believe that EK’s cooling engine is actually the same, while XSPC have chosen to maximize the usage of the cold plate to increase surface area of the cooling engine. Presumably this should enhance performance over the latest XSPC design more than we might expect.