Alphacool Eisblock GPX: A Waterblock with Vertical and Horizontal Connectors
by Ian Cutress on June 25, 2018 4:00 PM EST
One of the unexpected discoveries on the showfloor at Computex this year was a waterblock from Alphacool. As part of the Eis (‘Ice’) family, the Eisblock GPX is a waterblock for the biggest cards from NVIDIA and AMD, but features one important action: the ability to adjust the waterblock from connecting vertically or horizontally.
When connecting GPU waterblocks, the direction of the connectors will assist in the total volume that the build can take, or when connecting multiple regions into a single loop, will assist in also keeping the bulk down. Up until this point, users had to buy waterblocks with the direction of the pipes fixed to each block, meaning that the type of block had to be planned in advance. With the Eisblock GPX, Alphacool is hoping to make that a thing of the past: buy one block and it can do both.
The section here with the in/out holes for tubing can be replaced such that the water flow going in and out can be in line with the card (horizontal) for best flow, or perpendicular (vertical, as shown) for when multiple cards are in the same loop. To add to everything, the block has RGB LEDs for when a user peers in to the case to see the water flow.
At current, the Eisblock GPX is only built for Titan-level and Vega cards. There are no plans to bring it down to the GTX 1070/1080/Ti level, despite the market being considerably bigger for those GPUs. The GPX-N version for Titan cards currently retails at $163.
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12 Comments
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jvl - Monday, June 25, 2018 - link
What. I'm an engineer and I don't get what this is supposed to mean. I am guessing you're trying to convey something about parallel vs. in-line flow, but the wording is so out of place I can't be sure.If directionality plays such a big role (a tradition with Watercool to be sure: I've had an Alphacool SP back in 2005 or so), the whole volume dependency makes even less sense. And so does the text :>
MrTeal - Monday, June 25, 2018 - link
If you look at the top picture, there's a removable plate with two G1/4 holes that allows you to have the connectors come out normal to the plane of the motherboard, rather than parallel to it. I think he's saying picking the direction that best fits your loop will allow you to minimize the amount of coolant needed in the loop.douglaswilliams - Tuesday, June 26, 2018 - link
Yes, the description is confusing. A simple picture showing both setups would have made it clear.Check out the pictures in the Amazon link. While not great, you will get the gist of the difference.
DanNeely - Monday, June 25, 2018 - link
I'm pretty sure the 980 waterblock I used a few years ago had multiple openings on each side of the connection block so I could connect tubes to any of the 5 exposed sides of the block (4sides for in, and 4 for out). Other than the frag harder lights and having to fiddle with a module instead of just uncapping a different pair of ports I'm not seeing anything new here.DanNeely - Monday, June 25, 2018 - link
Found the block. Looks like it only connected on 4 sides not 5 (no option to start a tube aimed directly at the back of the case); but that's still vertical, horizontal, and 1 of the two sides.jtd871 - Monday, June 25, 2018 - link
I guess the adapter block is relatively seamless with the main block. The multiple photos didn't do much to convey the idea the article was trying to get across. A photo of the actual adapter block from multiple angles and the base block would have been much more illustrative.koaschten - Tuesday, June 26, 2018 - link
That's what I was thinking too, talking about the connectors, showing 5 different colors. *golfclap*PeachNCream - Tuesday, June 26, 2018 - link
Given the madcap blitz-run Ian and the other editors probably made through Computex this year the photography is excusable even though it doesn't help articulate the main point of the article's text. Chalk it up to, "Oh shiny RGB!" and forget about it. Very few people are likely to purchase this thing anyway given the small number of computers using liquid cooling so the configuration options if offers are a trivial matter for the vast majority of even Anandtech's readers.ibnmadhi - Monday, June 25, 2018 - link
I don't understand what's special about this block. My 7950 has water flowing in parallel to the PCB and out perpendicular. Have I been doing something wrong with my loop for six years?boozed - Monday, June 25, 2018 - link
I prefer eisbock