EK is announcing Modular Liquid Cooling

Oh boy! I've been waiting for this for a while now. It sounds very promising. I just hope they change the look of the products. The first gen radiators looked a bit weird with their mat black hoses and ugly grey QDC fittings.

 

This sounds cool! But I wonder why they discontinued the XLC series now already if the MLC series isn't available until Q2. Especially considering the fact that the 140/280mm series was only just released. It reached end-of-life after only being on the market for 3 months or so. Maybe there were some issues with the QLC series? I heard EK was pumping out new revision after new revision for the 280mm version.

Edit: it indeed seems there were many complaints about the 280 leaking. I think this is why they discontinued the XLC series, honestly.
Good PR move, though.

 

Nothing beats the looks of a well planned loop using hard tubing, quick disconnect fittings look hideous. A modular full kit just means MOAR quick disconnect fitting. uke2:

 

I hear you, but we're not the target audience for AIO's I guess

At least they're trying to bring more people towards water cooling, although I'm not really sure if declining hardware power draw (and heat loss therefor) and a decreased chance of getting better clocks with lower temps (Nvidia's capping) does make it a great move to try and bring in people easier. Would have been really cool five years ago when cards were getting hot and cooling them properly made a big difference.

 

True, but I'm not one for side windows for example.
I just care about great cooling and not the fuss of making it look great. I just want it to work as well as it can with minimal fuss.

At the moment I have a Define R5 (which is essentially a thick black monolith, which I like), with room to spare for some large water cooling radiators.

 

Same here: I have a Thermaltake Suppressor F51 (a Define R5 clone) with no window.
Currently my 4790K is cooled by a Kraken X61 AIO and my GPU is air cooled but I want to watercool my GPU too. I almost buy a Predator 360 but I decided to build my first custom loop with silence focused components (big low fpi radiator, low RPM fans).

 

Well thats stating the obvious, isn't it? Quick disconnect is meant of ease of use.. not everyone has the time, money, will, or desire to sit there with a heat gun bending tube for a week and refilling their loop over and over. That's the whole point of the AIO kits.. they could never possibly look as good as custom loop, so I fail to see what point you're trying to make.

Precisely why I use the Predator 360. I actually don't mind the look of the QDC at all, think it looks nice. Obviously not as nice as hard line tubing, but nothing looks as tidy as that, and QDC is not meant to compete with that whatsoever.

For functionality and ease of setup, the predator & qdc takes best prize all day. Its super easy to run, and for quiet and cool operations, its pretty exemplary.

 

@EdInk
you gonna build mine? for free (labor)? no??

EK aio here i come....

 

^ This , well said ScoobyDooby !

 

My loop is ugly....but it's effective. I considered an EK AIO, but found I could assembly a loop on my own for considerably less money.

 

And here I was thinking to get me EK-XLC Predator 240.. that 169€ looked ok now:nerd: I wonder what kind of pricing will this MLC have.. would be great if it were the same, but kind of doubt it.



At their page its very mysterious atm
https://www.ekwb.com/shop/aio/ek-mlc

when I looked for XLC 240 it already got a status end of life

 

I've been living with my EK 360 for a year. I would go with them again in a heartbeat. Even if I had to kneel inside my case to install it as I suspect I would. Again.

 

QDC's are good for changing a GPU on a custom loop, saves you loads of time draining and refilling the entire loop. That is all there good for.

 

As someone who has a the EK-240 1.1 AIO - I've been very happy with it. No problems and cools my CPU & GPU no issue.

Would certainly use them again - don't trust myself with making my own, ever since I wiped out a 6990 back in the day

 

I've been trying to get my hands on a EK-XLC 140mm for since last year and the webpage has had them listed as out of stock. Now EK says they are no longer being sold and that the EK-MLC series will be released sometime in Q2-2017 with no hard release dates provided. EK's marketing people need to understand that people don't appreciate being misinformed about their products availability. Honesty isn't just the best way, it's the only way.

 

Where do you live? I'll build a custom loop for you. I enjoy doing it so much I'll do it for free. You pay for the parts of course.

I agree with EdInk, quick disconnects are ugly. Convenient but ugly.

 

They're also good for case options. Many cases are difficult to build out an entire custom loop in if they aren't big enough. You can get similar cooling performance from an AIO as a full loop and fit it in smaller cases. It also takes all the guess work out of ordering the parts to create a loop. Again, ease of use makes it way way better than a custom loop from that perspective. So no, just GPU block is not all they're good for.

I could say the same for many custom loops. Big silly reservoirs, half the case stuffed with tubing and radiators.. beauty is in the eye of the beholder after all

 

No, you cannot. Never. No way. Nada.