Phanteks, a company that produces cases, CPU coolers, and fans has unveiled its first GPU cooler in the form of a full cover water block for Nvidia's GTX 1080 Founder's Edition (and any partner PCBs that use the reference design) graphics card. The PH-GB1080-X is a full cover nickel plated copper block with acrylic top and black (aluminum?) accents on the edges of the block. There are two ports for inlet/outlet on both top and bottom (so users could SLI multiple cards and water cool in series or parallel). Phanteks allegedly uses Dupont Viton for the gaskets which is a "high-performance seal elastomer" for the aerospace industry (and overkill for the temps that will be seen in a PC water loop heh).
In addition to the acrylic top, users can plug in three (1mm) RGB LEDs into the bottom edge of the card to add a glow effect. Oddly, Phanteks shows the LEDs using three individual cables that then go off to a reported proprietary power adapter that can plug into RGB motherboards or Phanteks' cases. Having the LEDs running off of a single cable (or bundled together) coming of the back edge of the card closest to the motherboard would have been helpful to cable management!
Phanteks' new water block is available for pre-order now for $129.99.
Using a water block on the GTX 1080 should allow users to easily achieve above 2000 MHz GPU clocks and have the card clockspeeds be much more stable than on air. Gamer's Nexus tested their GTX 1080 with an EVGA all in one cooler and managed to crank the GPU clockspeeds up to 2164 MHz and the memory clockspeeds up to 5602 MHz. That 2164 MHz clockspeed is quite the overclock and while it was only a bit above what they achieved on air, the clocks were much more stable and actually able to be maintained during long gaming sessions unlike on air. A custom water loop and a water block like the one Phanteks is selling should do just as well as Gamer's Nexus' results if not ever so slightly better.
If you already have a water loop in your system and have been waiting for a block to go with your GTX 1080 you now have another option!
Also read: The GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Founders Edition Review – GP104 Brings Pascal to Gamers
I wish Phantek (or anyone
I wish Phantek (or anyone else for that matter) would come up with a nice clean way to have the LEDs either run off the LED connector on some boards, or at the very least, the 12V connector. Running 3 pairs of wires to power these LEDs will just make the motherboard look ugly with all those wires running across it.
The water block is
The water block is constructed from the following layers; a nickel-plated copper cold plate, an acrylic top, and a sandblasted cover plate. The construction is both effective and pleasingly to the eye.
The Glacier G1080 water block
The Glacier G1080 water block is manufactured from military standard Viton O-rings rather, which usually are manufactured from standard silicone O-rings due to their heat resistance and stability and durability. The Glacier G1080 water block is composed of a nickel plated copper cold plate, an acrylic top and a sandblasted cover plate. The design is very effective and beautiful.
this does fit gtx 1070
this does fit gtx 1070 founders edition correct?