WYP
News Guru
Demand for EK products in the EU and US has dropped faster than expected.
Read more about EK Water Blocks laying off around 25% of its workforce.
Read more about EK Water Blocks laying off around 25% of its workforce.
EK Water Blocks has laid off 25% of its staff due to declining consumer spending
- Thread starter WYP
- Start date
AlienALX
Active member
Yup. They've also had the issue of stupidly expensive GPUs and people not wanting to water cool them given they wanted them for mining.
But EK has always been more expensive than most brands and there are plenty of good Chinese options now like Barrow.
I can see a lot of these luxury companies folding over the next couple of years now that we are all back to reality.
Avet
Active member
Or you can pay the same or slightly less and get much better quality products from Watercool. They don't expose themselves with marketing like EK and Corsair because they couldn't handle massive orders. But if you know about them there is no reason to buy EK.
Barrow and Bykski are valid bang for buck options. And they have some very nice unique products.
Barrow and Bykski are valid bang for buck options. And they have some very nice unique products.
AlienALX
Active member
I can't vouch for Bykski. I have had three of their blocks. The TR block I had was pretty terrible (looked nice though) and the two GPU blocks I have had were pretty ill fitting and poor. They cooled well though. I've also seen a few examples where they have made blocks for cards (like really odd ball cards like the 2080Ti Lightning and Kingpin) only for people to find they didn't fit at all.
Totally agree on the marketing though. Water cooling is niche. You don't need to spend tons of cash to get people to do it, as people will always avoid it because they are scared of it or just don't want to spend the money.
Bitspower have really made inroads over the past couple of years. Their much cheaper Touchaqua range has been excellent, and they have gotten it into a lot of Microcenter stores and etc.
Totally agree on the marketing though. Water cooling is niche. You don't need to spend tons of cash to get people to do it, as people will always avoid it because they are scared of it or just don't want to spend the money.
Bitspower have really made inroads over the past couple of years. Their much cheaper Touchaqua range has been excellent, and they have gotten it into a lot of Microcenter stores and etc.
Dicehunter
Resident Newb
This is why Corsair are making good progress with their liquid cooling kits, Decent price and includes a 360 rad, Fans, Fan controller, Fittings, Tubing, Coolant, Tools to cut said tubing, Block and nice looking pump/res combo.
LePhuronn
New member
Bykski is a weird one. I love the way they cater for really esoteric cards, but in doing so it's like they've gone ahead and built a block just looking at pictures, not actually having a physical card to reference.
For example, I have a GTX 950 Strix which uses a custom PCB and looking to put a block on it. Procrastinated for too long to get the "official" 950 blocks, but Bykski had a block that was supposed to be for a 960 that looked like it would fit (plenty of cutouts for capacitors, mounting points identical to the 950's PCB, that sort of thing).
Bought it, doesn't fit. The cutouts for the capacitors are off my 2mm, the acrylic cover interferes with the stacked DVI, the mounting holes are 53x53 and the entire things is too long by an inch so doesn't line up with the 6-pin PCIe. Not entirely surprised because it was a punt on a block that looked to match up.
Thing is though, if you actually look up the PCB for the Asus 960 OC the block is supposed to work on, it's different in every way to how the block is laid out. Absoluely no way it would even slot into place. No clue what PCB Bykski used as reference, but it sure as hell ain't that Asus 960 OC.
But, I cannot fault the build quality. It's every bit as good as EK (take that as you will
) and honestly I don't see any reason to dismiss Bykski in favour of other vendors.
Just use Byksi's US site as a reference for what's available, going down the esoteric route on AliExpress might lead to incompatibility.
Oh, and fk Corsair with their injection-molded plastic crap.
For example, I have a GTX 950 Strix which uses a custom PCB and looking to put a block on it. Procrastinated for too long to get the "official" 950 blocks, but Bykski had a block that was supposed to be for a 960 that looked like it would fit (plenty of cutouts for capacitors, mounting points identical to the 950's PCB, that sort of thing).
Bought it, doesn't fit. The cutouts for the capacitors are off my 2mm, the acrylic cover interferes with the stacked DVI, the mounting holes are 53x53 and the entire things is too long by an inch so doesn't line up with the 6-pin PCIe. Not entirely surprised because it was a punt on a block that looked to match up.
Thing is though, if you actually look up the PCB for the Asus 960 OC the block is supposed to work on, it's different in every way to how the block is laid out. Absoluely no way it would even slot into place. No clue what PCB Bykski used as reference, but it sure as hell ain't that Asus 960 OC.
But, I cannot fault the build quality. It's every bit as good as EK (take that as you will
) and honestly I don't see any reason to dismiss Bykski in favour of other vendors.Just use Byksi's US site as a reference for what's available, going down the esoteric route on AliExpress might lead to incompatibility.
Oh, and fk Corsair with their injection-molded plastic crap.
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AlienALX
Active member
Just watched Tom's latest video.
Man, it's not a surprise they are struggling is it? they sent Tom enough gear to water cool three PCs.
I wouldn't mind, but surely it would just be better for them to stop sending out gear and spending all the money to do so and just lower their prices to be more competitive?
What I will say is this. FINALLY ! they have finally realised that rotary fittings need to be really beefy.
Man, it's not a surprise they are struggling is it? they sent Tom enough gear to water cool three PCs.
I wouldn't mind, but surely it would just be better for them to stop sending out gear and spending all the money to do so and just lower their prices to be more competitive?
What I will say is this. FINALLY ! they have finally realised that rotary fittings need to be really beefy.
