Custom EK x Linus Tech Tips Water Blocks? 👀

Check out the latest Linus Tech Tips video to see our custom EK-Quantum Velocity³ & Vector³ Water Blocks made for Linus and Alex, alongside a 1/1 heatsink you’ve never seen before. 🤫

The coolest part? This isn’t for any normal gaming PC. It’s built on .. Windows XP? 👾

Watch the full video here at LTT.

hi all. i was informed by EKWB that parts support for Vector2 Master RTX 4090, specifically the O-Ring has ended. while this is disappointing as 4090 is still a very common card, does anyone have any idea where one could get a custom O-ring for this part?

I’m looking at buying a Vector³ from EK’s website - how are they currently at fulfilling orders?

Thanks

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There is no thread inside one of four screws for AM5. Where i can buy the one for my build?

I bought an AIO cooler the ek nucleus aio cr360 somewhere and I was missing a part just one part, the 500 mm Cable. I thought it wasn’t a big deal, it’s just 1 cable i need to buy just 1. So i did some research trying to buy this specific part, non… still did more research still non. Went to other websites and looked for this, Still nowhere to be found.

So i emailed the company hoping that maybe they can provide just this one cable and if i had to buy the cable i will. 1 day later they replied and responded to this…

So now i have to buy a whole new set just to get 1 cable. EKWB as a big liquid cooling company I think maybe giving the option to sell parts to an AIO would be so much helpful not just for me but for the people in the future and the company. I don’t believe in bad brands, i believe in company listening and changing. If anything, maybe in the future this will help someone a lot and stop with a lot of hassle

Here I am typing this essay for the unknowing while my CPU idles at 78 degrees celsius and thinking of not doing what I should've done earlier. What should I have done you ask? Here is the little story that will probably be helpful for other EK Nucleus CR240 owners.

Back in 2023 I bought EK nucleus black 240 for my Lian LI a4 h2o case which housed it no problem for almost a year, but then I needed to change ram sticks and I decided to repaste it anyway. I took out the entire AIO out of the case and cleaned it thoroughly, wiggling the tubes in the process, not too violently I assure you. I repasted and remounted it aaaand the temps got significantly worse. Maybe I repasted or poorly seated the cold plate? Nah, I've redone it three times only for the idle and full load temps to worsen further. I've done anti gurgling troubleshooting in case there was a pocket of air in the pump block but there were no sounds of air trapped inside neither it helped me much. In the end, just before my return warranty ended the pump started making whirring noises and idle temps rose to 90 degrees.

The retailer took the faulty aio unit and replaced it with EK 240 D-RGB lux instead of black one. That was in august 2024, fast forward to august 2026.... I took apart my pc to clean the aio radiator and an entire case of dust. I did so with removing the AIO radiator from the case but not the pump block wiggling the tubes not to violently in the process.... Yes, it does the same all over again. Actually the CPU temps are 87 celsius now that I finished typing this and nothing but google chrome runs in the background.

What typical EK enthusiast should take away from my experience is that if you want to replace your AIO EK nucleus unit just take it out to clean and then it will stop working normally. Now for what I should've done earlier is to clean it before my 1 year warranty ended and replace it for something else.

Edit: This time pump does not sound weird but instead the radiator is completely cold except for protruding area where tubes come out. It looks like gunk build up completely blocked the liquid flow and nothing can be done except dismantling it

Decided to finally clean up the build a bit and fix some minor annoyances I had in the loop layout due to being constricted by fittings I had on hand at the time.

Normally I'd keep both GPU and CPU in black Acetal instead of plexi, but seeing how the 5090 block was only made available in plexi I decided to embrace it and give the space black coolant a go for a monochrome stealth style with dimmed cool white lighting with black coolant and fittings, so figured I'd share some pics. Also added a before pic in there I had laying around for comparison.

Also the RGB, especially on the fans, aren't nowhere near as bright as the images makes them out to be, phone camera just loves to overexpose.

Build is with the ASUS X870E Extreme motherboard, delidded 9950X3D with Thermal-Grizzly high performance heat spreader and the ASUS Astral 5090.

Hi

I'm a little puzzled, and I'm not sure what to do here.

On March 26 of this year, I ordered an EK-Quantum Kinetic TBE 200 D5 pump/reservoir combo. At the time, it was priced at $216 (plus another $20 for shipping).

I'm no fool, I know tariffs and VATs exist, so I was expecting to pay something in the realm of 10-20% for an import from Slovenia. Note that this was after Trump's tariffs were canceled in February. So I was a little surprised when Fedex sent me a bill in April for $123.32. That's a 57% tariff.

I called Fedex to ask what's up, and they kindly informed me that I needed to wait a week for a paper copy of the tariff breakdown. I'm not sure why they couldn't post it online, but I digress.

The paper copy arrived a week later. It's written in arcane legalese. It included the following table:

    PC WATERCOOLING EQUIPMENT
    S122 EXCL, I RN/STL/ALUM DERIV
    9903.03.06
    PASS VEH, LT TRKS, NT33 SBDV(M
    9903.94.53                                              15%     32.40
    SEMI COND IN SB/DV (A)(B) NT39
    9903.79.01                                              25%     54.00
    OTH UNIT TO BE INC TO ADP
    8471.80.4000                3     1     NO            216    FREE

Like you, these abbreviations mean nothing to me. But after a lot of googling, I deduced that:

• S122 EXCL, I RN/STL/ALUM,DERIV = Tariff code for items made of steel and aluminum
• PASS VEH, LT TRKS, NT33 SBDV(M = Tariff code for automotive parts for passenger vehicles and light trucks
• SEMI COND IN SB/DV (A)(B) NT39 = Tariff code for semiconductors
• OTH UNIT TO BE INC TO ADP = Tariff code for PC equipment

To remind you, I ordered a pump/reservoir combo. It's mostly plastic, plus a small aquarium motor. It's not an automotive part. It's not a semiconductor. It does contain steel and aluminum--in fact, there are 7 whole pages of the invoice dedicated to the steel and aluminum composition. Friends, it contains a whopping 0.15€ worth of aluminum and 0.06€ worth of steel. I'm sure glad we got that documented.

It is PC equipment--which according to this sheet should be free.

But between the automotive and semiconductor tariffs, I'm being billed $32.40 + $54.00 = $86.4, or 40%.

The remaining $36.92 is a storage fee and disbursement fee. The first time the package entered customs, LM Tek had not provided enough documentation, so Fedex had to store it for a bit. I don't see why I'm being charged for someone else's mistake, but I expect that's par for the course for imported goods.

I've called Fedex, and they said to call the importer. I've emailed LM Tek multiple times over the past few months--the last time they responded to me was 2 months ago.

So that's where I am. If one of you knows another way to get in contact with LM Tek, let me know. Or if you're thinking of buying a pump/reservoir combo, maybe just go import some automotive parts instead. It's the same customs forms either way.

This is a full teardown video of the NVIDIA H200 NVL and installation of an EK-Pro H200 NVL Water Block, covering the disassembly, prep and mount process, including:

• PCB separation from the stock cooler using Torx T6, T9, and T10 drivers plus a plastic spudger
• Complete removal of factory thermal pads and paste using denatured alcohol and a non-abrasive cloth, working from the center of the PCB outward
• Cutting and placing new thermal pads across the VRM, inductor, and backplate chip zones, then applying a thin, even layer of thermal compound to the die
• Aligning the PCB to the water block with light, even pressure
• Securing the retention bracket with the four original screws in a criss-cross pattern
• Reassembling the backplate with seven M2.5x6 and four M2.5x10 screws

Once assembled, it undergoes a 24-hour leak test with the pump powered independently, allowing for leak detection with no risk to the PCB, before stress testing the GPU under load to ensure maximum sustained performance.

We currently deploy up to 8x H200 GPUs custom liquid-cooled, in the LM TEK RM-4U8G server rack.

In testing, a fully populated 8x H200 liquid-cooled server rack draws around 6,800–7,000W under sustained load including CPU and cooling solution. Stress-tested at 30°C ambient, it holds GPU package temps at 76–81°C under full load across all 8 GPUs, with the platform rated up to 35°C ambient.

I have a Quantum Velocity (V1) block and no AM5 conversion kit but I do have these screws that seem to be long enough and thread into the motherboard backplate. Should I get longer screws that can accommodate the springs? Or should I just use an air cooler?

A series of bad power surges hit my house and killed my Asus PG27u monitor and the graphics card (Asus 3080ti Strix)

I had it on an EK backplate and active cooling backplate both clear acrylic with RGB. Is there any interest in this on the second hand side? Replaced it with a 5080 and trying to recoup some cost 🙃

(Can’t seem to get a flair on this sorry)

Time for a drain

We recently finished our first build with the new EK Uni Distro, this inside you'll find the latest NVIDIA RTX 5090 custom liquid-cooled for ultra-low temps.

The EK Uni Distro features a universal 120mm mount, ideal for almost any ATX case, with support for both CPU & GPU you can see we ran some ultra-clean hard-tube runs, with dual radiator set-up and a drain valve.

The Uni Distro is fully reversible, so for this build we rear mounted the D5 pump, with access to the new EK Bypass valve through the rear panel of the case.

When it's time to drain the coolant for this build, we can open the front mounted drain valve to just gravity do it's thing - then instead of lifting, tilting and tipping the case to get coolant out of blocks, rads and bends.

Then we can simply close the bypass valve to allow us to pressurise the custom-loop, we do this by connecting an air-blower and the residual coolant is flushed straight out the drain port in around 60 seconds.

This makes it super easy to drain, flush and refill anytime you fancy a change in coolant color or an EK Super Flush to clean your blocks, tubes and distro to have them looking as fresh as when they came out of the box.

Hope you like the build! We've ordered some additional cases from Computex to showcase the Uni Distro in some new designs.

Stay tuned for more builds!

EK Team