Swiftech & EVGA Classified GeForce GTX 590 Water Block Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
Swiftech & EVGA Classified GeForce GTX 590 Water Block Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
2011-09-05
today I have kind of a special unboxing
from well I don't know I don't know who
to tell you it's from because this is
more of a collaborative effort between
two different companies I've actually
got two of them but i'll only be doing
an overview of one so the first thing we
see when i open it up is a backplate so
this is an EVGA back plates as geforce
gtx 590 on it okay so we got some gaps
in the back for cooling the various
components we've also got all the places
for screws to mount on it this is like a
brushed aluminum look looks just
outstanding on the other side of it
we've got thermal pads for all the
memory spots that need to be covered
which leads us to a piece of styrofoam
and then finally well not really finely
it didn't take that long the EVGA
classified geforce gtx 590 water block
sorry about that so why don't we have a
look at the accessories that are
included first we've got to study one
half inch fittings right there so these
go into the g one quarter threads you
can arrange them any way you want
whether you want them both on this side
both on the opposite side or you can do
one one way and one the other way
whatever works best for the way your
tubing is routed next we've got a couple
of stalkers so you take those Stoppers
and you put them opposite where the
fittings are so you go like this so that
doesn't just go straight through the
card and spray all over your motherboard
got some mounting hardware got a couple
little lock washers got some little
screws there so you'll need that in
order to mount the block finally some
thermal compound so the thermal compound
will only in a case like this before the
GPU locations themselves and not for all
of the memory and vrm and other
components that are on the PCB of the
video card so let's have a look at the
construction of this product overall and
so far I've only gotten to the EVGA part
of the collaboration but as soon as I
remove this piece of plastic right here
it will become more apparent who these
other co-conspirator is
in creating this product see they're
powered by swiftech so that is machined
into the delrin so this is a very very
durable block for a couple of reasons
many water blocks over the past as long
as people have been water cooling are
constructed from a copper base so here
you can see this is a copper base plated
with nickel nickel is not harmful to
your water cooling loop because it is
close enough to copper that you're not
going to have problems with corrosion
okay so what that basically means is it
is safe to mix a loop with nickel blocks
and copper blocks whereas it is not safe
to mix a loop with copper blocks and
aluminum block so remember that you guys
okay also on the top instead of using a
plexi top which is a clear top swiftech
has opted to go with a delrin or asset
i'll top which means that the odds of it
cracking are basically nothing with
plexi especially around the fittings
like around here sometimes if people
crank the the barbs in too tight for
example you know that just tighten that
down really hard what can happen is you
can have little micro cracks form around
it from the pressure delrin is a very
very durable material and I would be
floored if you could actually managed to
damage eight delrin back delrin top to
water block that way I'm going to go
ahead and I'm just going to take a part
of this because I don't want to make too
much of a mess of these before I'm ready
to install them on the cards now
normally you can only get a block like
this with an EVGA classified 590 card
but because i already have cards right
here five 90s I asked d vga to send me
just the blocks for this particular
showcase so i'm going to show you guys
the mirror shot check that out I mean
look how reflective this thing is very
very beautiful surface machined on there
so how does the technology actually work
here well Swift acts been making blocks
for pretty much as long as anyone's been
making commercial grade blocks so the
design is very simple but very effective
so now with a single GPU card the design
of a full
blog is fairly simple it needs to get a
little bit of a water flow over the vrm
components which are generally at the
back of the card it's a little bit you
know not not a huge deal you go away
thank you so a little bit of pooling
there because those components do get
hot under air cooling going to water
cooling so it's a breeze it's no big
deal and then they need to route the
water around to the center of the card
and then i'll be out the outlet so in
the inlet around to the center of the
card where the GPU is located and then
out the elder now with a dual GPU card
it's a little bit more complicated so
the water path in this particular block
goes in one and it doesn't really matter
which in one goes through a pin matrix
of very tight pin matrix here which is
around one of the GPUs okay which
actually has a like a blocker on the
delrin top in order to accelerate the
water as it flows around the GPU itself
then it widens out again okay so it
flows quite easily here and then it goes
under another another tight a tight
covering from the top through another
pin matrix and then out the outlet so
why does swiftech do this the reason is
that cooling performance is dramatically
better when you restrict the flow of the
water so it flows faster over the parts
that need to be cooled the most so why
don't they do it throughout the entire
block well that's a smart design design
decision as well what that would mean if
they had the entire block restrictive
and impinging and jetting the water onto
the surface of the water block to cool
the card would make this block very
restrictive so it mean in order to run a
couple of these blocks with dual five
90s in a loop you would need like a
couple pumps in order to just get the
water through there at a reasonable
velocity last but not least we've also
got a glowing EVGA logo up here at the
top so that's going to look pretty good
when it's installed in my ultimate
machine which I will be building over
the next little while and that is lit up
by using the fan header on the PCB
itself so we got a little cord there I
don't know if I mentioned this already
but on the back you can see all of the
RAM cooling spots as well as thermal
pads to cover the vrm portion of the
pool
on the back so thank you for checking
out my unboxing and overview the EVGA
classified gtx 590 block don't forget to
get one of these you will have to buy an
EVGA geforce gtx 590 classified
water-cooled edition card thank you for
checking it up don't forget to subscribe
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