$21 CPU Waterblock - How Bad Actually is it? 

"I'm not going to bag too hard on the magnitude but...in terms of cooling performance though it is absolutely not worth it" 😂😂😂

Bruh's lifting, your biceps is growing like mad.

I hear Barrow is good, and their water blocks are about $35 while being better looking than the cheapo

The industry definitely needs some competition, EK is out of their mind...

I'd be interested in an EK vs Barrow comparison. Barrow makes some quality stuff.

As others have mentioned, would love to see some barrow and bykski comparisons. Maybe a full loop config from barrow vs EK, so to see price to performance comparisons

Hello Optimum, Can you make a tutorial on how to make a mesh panel like the form td1 but for the ncase m1. As well as any tips that could flatten out the front panel and make the edges smooth and clean. Thank you so much!

Price doesn't always equate to performance, as you see with the Velocity against the Magnitude. If i was looking for a CPU block, I would look for something a bit more expensive and with actual fins than the amazon one, but also cheaper than the Velocity.

i would love to see a comparison like this for every part of a watercooled loop!

I've got my aquanaut ready to go for when the 5950x drops. Looking forward to your review on it!

I recently found your chanel and now I'm fan of your video quality.🔥🔥🔥

I would love to see you test out that optimus block. It has so much hype around it :D

I'm always happy to see when builders dip there toes in the inexpensive side of things and come out surprised. Very cool to see that, while not the best, for someone who wants to get started and is on a tight budget there's still options. Very cool video!

Thanks for mentioning the Nouvolo waterblock, grabbing one while I continue to wait _months_ for the Barrow one you mentioned a while back. 😭

The "El Cheapo" waterblock 😂😂😂

DangerDen used a pin array and their water blocks worked perfectly on my heavily overclocked i7-2600k and GTX480. They did have the water hit the center of the block and then collect outside it though. Also, they used so much copper in the gpu block (it was essentially a solid piece of copper), that I made two braces for the gpu. Cheers

Thank you for this testing. I was debating the Magnitude and the Velocity. You just saved me a tonne of cash.

For a budget-mid range I can recommend bykski brand. It's honestly good for the price $25-$40 from taobao.

You should try lapping the cheap block. In my experience, $10 of sandpaper and 20 minutes of your time can be worth 3-4C.

Thanks for good videos :)

I think it's like the iPhones. You're buying EKWB products because of the brand name and aesthetics as well. I don't think I would want to put that cheap Amazon block in my already-too-expensive build!

Yooo so looking forward to the Aquanaut testing - I just picked one up. Hopefully not a poor choice!

Damn dude, I'm always blown away by the production value of these videos. Sick macros as always

Damn, didn't know how much expensive cpu block can be. For the same price as magnitude you can buy cpu water block pump combo + 240 rad + fans + accessories

Been eyeing the Nouvolo aquanaut for awhile now but since you mentioned it I'm buying it now before it goes out of stock with your next release 😆

In a world with GN, der8auer and Buildzoid, it's not easy to find interesting serious topics that haven't been talked about yet, BUT Optimum always delivers! (even if I stay with my Noctua)

Would love to see more custom watercooled builds in the future!

EK used to make a gold-plated water block because they said that gold was one of the best thermal conductors. I bought it because it was on sale and it just looks cool pretty sure gold plating is not going to make it cool any better.

Love your content, more watercooling review please!

very interesting video. really appreciated !

Please please please do optimus foundation block reviews.. Idk if there is some background sponsorship for big names on youtube or what but optimus seems to make an extremely quality product yet I never ever see reviews for them.

A Huge thanks for making this vid First-time water cooling and went with bykski, it's not the cheapest but everyone tells me I should go EK or at least Corsair. Now I can rest assured that it's not as bad as it sounds. I suspect the temps difference with EK would be more like in the range of 5C.

Ali out here thinking we won't notice his biceps getting huge video by video

I'm happy with the EK velocity line, think my last 4 blocks have all been Velocity ones. Currently on the Quantum Velocity you used here and it looks stunning in my rig. My other half now wants her pc watercooled after seeing it.

You always make the most useful content :) Thanks man!

silly question... _all_ links in the chain matter equally. If the waterblock plate is not good, the heat transfer from cpu to waterblock will suffer and thus the whole cooling system. If the waterblock fins are inadequate, the heat transfer from waterblock to liquid will suffer and thus the whole system. If the pipes are too narrow, if the radiator is small, if the pump is weak, if the airflow is bad... etcetcetc.

Love this video! Really cool to see the difference between budget and enthusiast option!

My first cpu waterblock cost me around 15$ and I'm gonna get a 35$ one xD

Lapping is a pretty simple way to improve a cooler: would that improve the cheapo block? I'm guessing a not insignificant amount of the inefficiency comes from the copper not being very flat?

Almost one and a half years ago, I decided to take off the stock aftermarket cooler of my RX-470 which is not only loud as heck but pretty warm as well. My gaming temps usually runs around 75c at least and I've seen it go as high as 80+ c during midday. Since I'm already running a cpu loop, I bought a $12 generic gpu block and connect it to my existing loop to cool my RX-470. And I'm telling you, it's probably the best 12 usd I spent ever as my gaming temps improved to around 45c-50c. One thing I've added though to make the set-up flawless. I bought one of those fan brackets you can attach on the pci bracket attach a 92mm cooler on it directly adjacent to the VRM area of my card. Without it the card will heavily throttle on full load. It did add a bit of noise but definitely not as loud as the stock gpu cooler and my card is happy. So yeah, don't underestimate those generic gpu or cpu blocks.

Awesome video. I’ve always wondered how bad those cheap cpu blocks are at cooling a high end Cpu

For anyone wondering what blocks to buy, here is a guide : You have unlimited budget : ek quantum magnitude or techn (techn is cheaper, performs better but is more flow restrictive (not a problem if you have a good pump like a DDC or D5) and taller) You have a good budget : Watercool HEATKILLER IV Cheap : byski or barrow should do ok

The $21 CPU block can easily be bought for $10 in Asia regions, Barrow blocks are around $25-35 here.

I just finished building my rigid tube machine...thank goodness I had the instinct not to waste money on the magnitude block. The Velocity 2 is equally good but half the price. There are other super cheap CPU blocks with jet plates for less than $50.

I love your videos. Straight to the point and not 1 hour long.

Snagged a Velocity from EK for about $65. I was curious what I sacrificed by going with the cheaper block but after seeing these results I am 100% happy with my purchase.

Now show us your lifting routine 😂

Oh man, glad I already ordered the nouvolo, no desire to play the f5 game for a cpu block

Interesting. It would be useful to see comparisons based on same copper weight or metal weight

If you go to 6:19 you get a clear shot of the Magnitude's base plate that displays some ugly tooling marks for the price and expected performance! You can see the turn marks where it was machined flat on either a CNC lathe or Mill-Turn CNC when it should have at the very least been decked with a fly cutter at a nice slow travel speed, high RPM and low depth of cut. There are also pretty extreme end mill tooling marks inside the base water channel cut outs which could be old tooling, poor speeds and feeds and or a issue with the milling machine itself. For the price I want hand scraped and multi stage polishing and then you might see a large difference. As for the $20 plate, the base surface actually looks better than the Magnitude but it's missing a jet plate so thats likely where the 10C difference stems from. Also, the CNC mounting mechanism isn't new. I believe XSPC's Raystorm Pro block was one of the first to utilise a CNC'd plate on their Intel block kits.

The only main thing missing from this test setup is a measure of how flat the blocks are and the difference between them at stock and lapped.

Perfect. I think you should do more videos like this. Comparing exorbitant expensive computer parts with the affordable ones.

I have a velocity, works pretty well for me, idle see temps of 35-45C while playing games can get up to 60C but I turned the fans and pump down a fair bit to reduce noise. My loop is currently res/pump -> Titan RTX -> Ryzen 9 3950X -> Rog Formula VIII VRMs -> radiator -> res/pump. But I made a mistake months ago and didn't order enough fittings, there is a second radiator sat doing nothing at the minute and need to wait til I move house to be able to set-up an area to fix it once I get more fittings. Still as Jank as my build is, it works pretty effectively.

In case anyone is thinking of buying the cheap block, I have had one running on a 2600k at 1.4v for about a year and I really have no complaints. I do have a EK 360 rad with Vardar fans though (but only 1 fan is usually on because of crappy splitters). It even managed to successfully cool the 2600k at 1.6v without any throttling under load but that is not worth the risk as my daily. They can be had for a fair bit less than $21 as well. I think I saw them as low as £8 which is about $10 these days?

What I'd really like to see is someone boxing up an old copper zalman fan heatsink and running liquid through it lol, you could trim it down a bit as the ends would be cold but it would look so pretty and work so well. Maybe I'll go fk jay-2 cents or whatever his name is head with the idea 😂

when I built my system I could choose between parts from china and ek, I chose to buy the barrow d5 pump and ek fittings and block (supremacy evo) that were on sale. The price didn’t change much at the time, because the supremacy, which came out of line was much more affordable, but I think the confidence that ek’s pieces pass through was worth it

Been using Bykski and Barrow for all my watercooling. It's at worst 1-2 degree worst off to usual EK stuff. The money saved is phenomenal. Don't knock it till you try it and I'm glad I did.

TBH it's well known that CPU water blocks are one of the parts that you don't need to really need to overspend on. Fittings on the other hand, can't cheap out on those.

I enjoy your videos man! It a solid source of information you deserve more sub's one day it's gonna pop! just keep cranking!

Problem with barrow delivery time anybody else knows fast delivery. Great video

It would be interesting to see a retest including the newer EK Velocity²

Still rocking a Supremacy EVO in my loop. Been running like a champ for a few years now.

I have almost exactly that waterblock, maybe even less fine grid, but i'm totally happy with it so far. For me the onliest reason to pay a lot for a Block is because it's for example custom manufactured for a specific part (mobo or graphics card) or if it looks very crazy (for rgb stuff or so). I also have some blank blocks without any finns, and they don't perform bad at all. And if I wanted I could machine a bit of a fin array myself with a cnc router. But I'm not the master of gcode and already ruined a lot of workpieces because the router just rocked right over it without any foreseeable reason (like "now I go diagonally back above all I've machined so far, to Beginn ad another position") and I don't want to ruin my blocks at first try. I think I'd rather machine a Coldplate from scratch...

This is a well done comparison, I have only so far used sealed systems but I am not using highly overclocked CPUs, a 5820k at 4 gig and a Xeon E5-2690v3 that runs all cores at 3 gig, both using a Deep Cool Gammaxx L240 v2 and thrashing either at 100% they barely exceed 50c. I have not yet tried a system of the type you have compared but I could be tempted if I can flatten the temperature rise under maximum load. Thanks for the review.

Yep sounds about right. I use a cheapo block like that in a few of my systems, for cost and partially (in my testbench) for compatibility, since the mounting is basically universal (esp if you get a Variant that has more holes to pass screws through that account for more socket types than the one shown here). I used to use EK, but once I got into AliExpress, I realized how expensive they really are. They're a great company, and I do still shop from them sometimes, but great value just isn't why I do. Customer service, no-worries shopping, fast shipping, etc are what they are great at. Regarding "what if I want a better cpu block than the 10 dollar one (you can get em about that cheap on AliExpress)", barrow and bykski on AliExpress can sell you fancier blocks for half or even less, sometimes, vs companies like EK. I recommend giving them serious consideration if you wanna save some money, and can wait for shipping.

I would love to see something comparing a few price tiers of air and water cooling head to head to see what you're really getting for your money

Nice video! It would be nice to compare EKWB with popular Asian brands like Bykski or Barrow. On Aliexpress they have very competitive prices.

If different materials are used, then we can see noticeable difference in the rate of heat transfer from the CPU to the Heatsink. That will be interesting.

Considering the price difference, i would not go with the premium option. Also that pin like array will not clog up as easily...

WE NEED MORE VIDEOS FROM YOU THERE GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm still rocking the EKWB Velocity but i'm thinking on swiching the cpu block, pump and reservoir for that borrow AIO that you've shown. What do you say? Didnt see you use it anymore, not the cpu/pump dream anymore? Cheers!

Swifttech apogee skf, can be had for 50 bucks. I've used their all in one with it and it never ceases to amaze me.

I guess you never got around to testing the Nouvolo water block? Searched your channel but got nothing.

How do you always make videos on things I was just wondering xD

Hey dude, as always, impeccable quality and delivery on the video - cant find a review on the nouvolo aquanaut. After I saw your review on the barrow pump block combo I sought to buy one and then I found that. It seems easier to buy for the US.

The XSPC Raystorm Neo Metal probably has a crazier mounting frame especially on the AM4 and TRX versions.

You should do a comparison with Barrow/Bykski blocks.

How about the Alphacool XPX Aurora you've been using?

I have this block on a AMD 3700 and it doesn't go above 55C with prime95 all core. 65w CPU vs 125w CPU which explains the difference, but I am happy with the results.

So, how is that Nouvolo Aquanaut review coming :)

fun fact the fittings he put on the block are the same price as the block it self.

Having just ordered a velocity, this is reassuring. Hopefully fine on a 5950x given its such a reasonable power budget. I guess maybe on Threadripper size CPUs youd see better gains of larger more expansive blocks.

I have a cheap block from amazon for my 5600x. Temps were 63c on my 2700x @ 4.2 1.425v My 5600x sees 64-65c @ stock settings boosting 4.7. This proves that I was thinking the cheap block is rather hindering my temps. My 6800xt wont push over 43c with an EKWB block. I have 240 and 280mm rad with corsair pump/res XC7.

That little block is pretty nice. I'll probably be upgrading to the R5 5600. Have been debating water cooling but couldn't justify the price. This seems like a sloid options for a inexpensive water cooled system.

You should test similar Chinese universal water blocks for GPUs to name brand full cover blocks, I think some of the former blocks actually have more surface area over the core than the full cover blocks as they are just repurposed CPU blocks.

Thanks you for video!

Would like to see similar testing with Bykski, Barrow and EK. 110 for wb is still quite much. You can get waterblocks that are similar to EK for 30-50 usd.

Thank you for your Video. Great channel!! IMO it would help the „all other things equal“ methodology to measure water temperature in addition to pump speed as it would allow anyone to compare the delta T.

Did you ever get a chance to study that Nuvolo block/pump option? Would love to hear how it stacks up to something like the Barrow... Thanks for all the great content! I've been building PCs since the 486 days, but lost interest in anything "custom" over the last 10 years. Your channel has revived my enthusiasm and I'm looking forward to my first ITX build later this spring! I just need those Zen 3 chips and GPUs to get to a better stock level... :-P

would love to see you compare liquid cooling gear (pump/res combo, water blocks and radiators) from Bykski/Barrow versus EK/Alphacool/Hardware Labs. I often see the Chinese brands selling their stuff for half the price of EK and I'm curious to know if there's a significant difference in performance

Use the Watercooler Heatkiller IV! 🤪😁

EK is a great brand, but their products are just too expensive (given their reputation and popularity, it's understandable, but still not optimal). Alphacool makes CPU blocks that at least as good as the EK blocks, and significantly cheaper. I bought an Alphacool XPX Aurora for around $70, and it has all of the features you'd want from a medium tier CPU block. It's got a specific inlet and outlet, flow channels, a super thin and dense fun array that covers a quite decent portion of the cold plate, and an injection plate (that razor looking thing), plus extras like nice clear acrylic, aRGB all around it's perimeter, easily controllable via motherboard (no controllers needed), and it even has end-caps to cover the mounting screws. Oh, and one thing I really like, it only has their Logo, model names, like some EK products. I do believe that this isn't a case of (you get what you pay for), at least not in the medium range of blocks. I'd say the XPX Aurora compares quite nicely with the EK Velocity.

I wonder if the Magnitude would widen the gap versus the Velocity on an HEDT chip where there is a bit more surface area on the IHS. That being said, the difference probably would not be worth the extra cost unless money is no object in your PC build.

This channel deserves WAY more subs. Great content as always!

You can get that waterblock in Aliexpress for less than $10

It's all about BUILD QUALITY. Cheapo will definitely ruin your rig sooner or later. Check the bottom plate for any inconsistent build, ie. there is a gap between the plate and the body, that means you can see the o-ring wide open from the bottom side! :(

I have an old EK supremacy from 6 or 7 years ago that i bought 60 euro... EK is going crazy.

would be interesting if you could test the cheapo radiators - the ones that are 20 usd odd.

I'd love to see some tests of the popular barrow and bykski watercooler stuff from aliexpress!

EK hardly compares to Optimus cooling wise. In person quality of the Optimus is very high as well. Not sure why you'd get EK besides easy ordering.