EKWB Fluid Gaming A240 Liquid Cooling Kit:Pluses and Minuses

Liquid cooling systems become more and more popular. Gradually, there is no independent assembly of such systems, and modern integrated models have won in efficiency the best air coolers. One of the unspoken leaders in the market of liquid cooling is the Slovenian company EK Water Blocks, which produces both separate components and kits for self-assembly,

 as well as expensive high-end integrated SZHS. Almost always, they use pure copper, which, among other things, provokes high cost for EKWB products. But the company decided to compete. For this purpose, a new brand was created - EK Fluid Gaming. Let’s see the main features of the reviewing device.

 
Specifications
Radiator Model - Alustream SE 240
Thickness - 25mm
Width - 120mm
Length - 280mm
Weight - N/A
Fins per Inch - 22
Material - Fins and tubing - H90 Copper, Aluminum core, end chambers, and frame
Coolant Capacity - N/A
Waterblock Model - Supremacy MX
Base Material - Aluminum
Intel Sockets Supported - 1150/51/55/56, 2011-3
AMD Sockets Supported - AM3, AM4, (775, 1366, FM2+ optional)
Misc - X
Fan Model - F3-120
Max RPM - 1850 +/- 10%
Fan PWM Range - 20% - 100%
Max Air Flow - 107 CMH
Static Pressure - 2.24 mmH2O
Rated Noise - 29.5 dBA
Bearing Type - Double-ball bearing (50,000 hrs MTBF)
Fan Connector Cable - 4-pin PWM
Pump Model - SPC-60A
RPM - 2500
Flow Rate - 450 LPH
Head Pressure - 3.2m
Wattage - 6W
Pump PWM Range - N/A
Pump Connector Cable - 4-pin PWM
Tubing - 13/10mm PrimoChill
Reservoir - 125 mL
Warranty - 2 Years
  
Closer View
EKWB considers that the main advantage of products made by new brand is the combination of the flexibility of modular water cooling systems with the price which is close to the non-separable integral models. The statement that every player has the right to enjoy the quietness of his gaming platform sounds wonderful. But, of course, no manufacturer will work at a loss, so let's figure out what the developers from Slovenia have saved. First, FOSS, sold under the brand Fluid Gaming, is incompatible with the more expensive EKWB systems, and this is alarming by itself. Secondly, although the Fluid Gaming A120, A240 and A240G kits are expandable, copper there is replaced with aluminum not only in radiators. For cooling the processor is responsible for the aluminum version of the water block EK-Supremacy AX.
 
This is a logical solution, since the combination of copper and aluminum in the liquid cooling circuit will give a galvanic pair and the microchannel structure of the water block will soon be completely clogged with the products of the chemical reaction. The company believes that the systems of the Fluid Gaming series outperform any integrated FMS of other manufacturers, but we still have to verify this statement in practice. The first two models in the series are quite common, except for the use of aluminum even in a water block. Model numbers mean the size of the radiators, which, incidentally, are equipped with proprietary Vardar fans. Thank you, though EKWB decided not to save on this: these fans are rightly considered to be one of the best for use in FOSS due to the high static pressure developed by them and the low noise level. The A240G is more interesting - the water block for NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards is compatible with GeForce TITAN X / Xp, as well as reference versions of GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, GeForce GTX 1080 and GeForce GTX 1070.
 
The prices are really uncharacteristic for classic EKWB products: the youngest model in the series is estimated at $150, for a radiator of size 240 it is necessary to give $10 more, and the most efficient model costs only $240, which is a little for the kit, capable of cooling not only the CPU, but also a graphics card. At Computex 2017, the new Fluid Gaming cooling systems are demonstrated in cooperation with In Win, a popular manufacturer of low-cost, but quality enclosures. Foreign colleagues from the resource The Guru of 3D have already managed to get the Fluid Gaming A240G kit at their disposal and published the test results. EKWB did not manage to achieve the championships: with the cooling of the Core i7-4790K processor, the new product gave way to such unattended models with a closed loop, like the Corsair H110, NZXT Kraken 62 or DeepCool Captain 240 EX, and in the overclocking mode even some air coolers, for example, be quiet! Dark Rock TF.
 
In other words, for the refusal to use copper in the circuit, developers had to pay a serious price in the form of reduced cooling efficiency. Even in the field of noise characteristics, Fluid Gaming A240G did not become a leader, losing a whole range of air coolers and integrated FGDs. But with the combined cooling of the processor and video card GeForce GTX 1080 the novelty could cope, showing temperatures of 64/53 degrees Celsius (CPU/GPU) in normal mode and 75/53 degrees Celsius in the overclocking mode. In the latter case, you should blame the frankly mediocre thermal interface between the processor cover and its crystal; when replacing with "liquid metal", the results, for sure, would have been much better. We can say that it turned out that it was possible to create an inexpensive expandable SZO from EKWB engineers, but here the announcement of the primacy was clearly premature. New solutions can not be called bad, but the customers wishing the given device should remember that combining copper and aluminum in one circuit is extremely undesirable - and this is perhaps the main disadvantage of Fluid Gaming systems.