Fullcover block for HD5870

[JD]

So I'm just wondering if there's any notable differences between the XSPC, EK and Heatkiller full cover blocks for the HD5870.

Not overly concerned about price, more so performance and compatibility. A while ago I heard of some blocks shorting out cards, so I don't want to have to face that.

[X9999]

Go with EK their Nickel plated blocks look awesome and the water flows closer to the the Voltage regulators.

[turtletrax]

Most blocks are coming with spacers now. That seemed to take allot of the stress of knowing how hard to tighten blocks and lessened PCB warping. I have had at least 10 EK FC blocks and loved them all. Especially nickel/acrylic blocks as they look slick as hell IMO

[AmuseMe]

Originally Posted by turtletrax

Most blocks are coming with spacers now. That seemed to take allot of the stress of knowing how hard to tighten blocks and lessened PCB warping. I have had at least 10 EK FC blocks and loved them all. Especially nickel/acrylic blocks as they look slick as hell IMO

+1

I have some decent shots of my EK Nickle plated 5870 in my build log - take a peak

[JD]

So you bought the last one at NCIX?

Anyways I looked quickly on XS and it seems the EK is the best performing. Though the Swiftech Komodo is decent too, but I don't like how it looks.

[Dazmode]

I like EK GPU blocks too. Those guys are fanatics of their business...

[AmuseMe]

The Komodo causes issues. I think Barbarosa had a big issue with his. "Bit by a Komodo" was the topic title.

[Babrbarossa]

Yeah- it was the pressure bracket than mounts on the back of the card which is actually a stock component- I could see how that might be an issue with any waterblock that reuses the pressure bracket without including spacers would have that issue- swiftech has corrected this supposedly and now includes spacers, but I'm sick of them.

[Levesque]

I have the EK waterblock on my 5970 for more then 2 months, and just got the matching one for my 5870. Awesome temps with those blocks. For exemple, the VRMs on my 5970 never goes over 70 celsius, even when highly OCed.

I have the EKs copper-plexi btw. :)

[JD]

I see Daz has a nice nickel plated HK one though that would go oh-so-nicely with my nickel plated HK CPU block

XSPC is definitely off the list. Terrible VRM temps since water doesn't even get close to them. Bitspower is ultra failure, don't know why they even bothered. Swiftech looks ugly, so I don't care if it performs the "best".

It's down to either waiting for the EK blocks to get back into stock, or grabbing that limited edition HK one...

@Daz, any plans to bring in EK 5870 blocks? Is there really that big a market on those 5970 blocks you have? I can't imagine many have those...