AMD Threadripper CPU Block Review Round Up

Bitspower Summit ELX Threadripper

It always takes a while to find out about Bitspower’s offerings.  Their website is far from user friendly, and if the part isn’t on Performance PC’s then I usually assume it doesn’t actually exist.  Luckily Bitspower helped me out with the part number and it arrived promptly:

Simple packaging.

No instructions were included in the box.  However the block was sealed and shrink wrapped.

The accessories include an allen key to open the block and a spare o-ring.  Bitspower always seem to include a spare o-ring which is awesome, it’s not uncommen to pinch an o-ring during reassembly after cleaning and render a block worthless.

The allen key was a little bent, but still functional.  Opening up the block we see a 4 pin header for the built in RGB LEDs.  More and more motherboards now offer a 4 pin RGB terminal which is awesome because it means you can sync the block lighting with the motherboard.

Surprisingly even though the block is quite large we can see that not that much of the block is actually dedicated to the cooling channels.  In addition we see that the design is quite simple and basic.  There is no jet plate to increase local coolant flowrate, and even the orientation of the channels seems unoptimized.  Bitspower have amazing fittings, but we have yet to be able to recommend their CPU blocks which always seem to be a few generations behind thermally.  Hopefully this block is not continuing that trend, but so far things look bleak.

We always like some protection for the mirror finish, and Bitspower’s plating is top notch:

Manufacturing quality is great:

The mount consists of a stand off, a thumb nut which can be tightened as tight as you’d like, a spring and a plastic washer.

After testing was complete the block was opened for these photos.  Not that the 6 screws used to assemble the block thread into the acrylic, which means over torquing is likely to either strip the thread or, more likely, to crack the acrylic top.  Luckily the thin allen key makes over-torquing hard to do as it will bend under high torque.As there is no o-ring or jetplate to seal the plexi to the cooling channels then there may be some coolant flow that bypasses channels.  Restriction data will tell us whether that is likely or not. 

The cooling engine is quite small given the size of the block and the channels measure ~41mm long and 27mm wide.

Bitspower are definitely not maximizing the surface area that they could be out of this base.

Mounted on the board, the block does look good though:The mount is also relatively unobtrusive:

Bitspower has made an unusual block here – physically large yet with some obvious mis-steps that should waste cooling potential.  Thermal data will tell us whether our assumptions are correct.