You know what, companies sometimes make mistakes and cover them up. Others you have to applaud, for being open and transparent about it. EK belongs in that last category. They just posted a huge apolo... EK Openly Apologizes about Supremacy EVO Threadripper Edition Mistake
Their original threadripper CPU blocks barely covered all the cores, the fin area wasn't large enough (you can see the difference in the pictures of the article). The performance was significantly worse than competitor blocks. https://images.hardocp.com/images/articles/151460117490s2ycebe7_1_1.png I don't know why they designed it that way in the first place but I think they are handling it well.
I'm surprised it makes that much of a difference. But considering the product wasn't faulty (just simply "sub-par") I would definitely agree they are handling it very well.
It was faulty(inferior) in that it did not do what those buying it expected. But yes, they are handling it as they should.
It's nice that they're owning up to their failures and trying to make up for it. I didn't really know how it compared to the competition, and simply assumed EK would make a good product (guess I was wrong). I've contacted EK about a coupon, as I bought the block in August. To be frank, I didn't notice overly high temps on my system (running 24/7, computing on all cores), but I don't overclock or do anything extreme. Maybe on my next major overhaul I'll think about replacing the block.
Even HSF designed for threadripper compared to normal versions on those Noctua heatsinks made a significant difference; normal versions didn't cover all the cores.
I'm sure they did. It's not like their design didn't work, it just wasn't as efficient as it could be. I guess EK just underestimated the importance of taking advantage of TR's entire surface area. After all, there are higher-wattage CPUs than the 1950X with significantly smaller dies, so if I were them I'd also assume "meh, we probably don't have to cover the whole thing".
They may have felt rushed to get something out, which by no means is a correct thing to do if so. They are trying to make amends, hopefully not too many were troubled by the fault.
The block actually does cover the entire IHS, it's just that the fin area inside the block is too small. They most likely just adapted their existing line with a bigger contact area, thinking that would suffice. I think they failed to realize that the design of TR is significantly different from any other CPU and/or didn't want to spend the money on a redesign. As an avid EK customer (my rads, pumps, fittings and blocks, both CPU and GPU, are from EK) I can't help but be a bit disappointed. Then again, I didn't really know there was a problem until this apology was made (never looked at any comparisons before). Probably won't affect my relationship with the company, but I'll definitely take a closer look at the performance of their products in the future.
Sadly this has been expected, they simply screwed design of this block and who bought this block usually replaced this block for Bykski or Heatkiller or XSPC which is cheaper and better than this block from EK Best block for ThreadRipper are XSPC, Heatkiller or Bykski Personally I have run their EVO block on my X99 5960x and replaced for Aquacomputer Kryos NEXT with which I have gained around 6°C on PKG Hope this helps Thanks, Jura
they were indeed rushing to push out a TR block & did not revamp the channels within...just sort of crammed the existing AM4 design inside & hoped the block would dissipate enough heat by virtue of the blocks mass, it seems over the years, EK has been intermittently plagued with QC problems & some questionable cost-saving measures that give their customers the short end of the stick. that being said, their official responses have improved massively. giving out replacement plates & partial refunds is a very solid move towards banking good will.
This shows basically the internals of the cooler which lets you understand why it performs so badly for Threadripper.
I'm glad that they admitted their mistakes and they are fixing it at no additional cost to the customer. Nice job guys.
yikes. the guys @[H] are absolutely eviscerating EK over this. i dont recall them reacting like this when the EK AIO units were leaking, or had defective pumps...maybe my memory is just fuzzy. anyway seems like they feel the PR response is less "good will" & more "lip service"
