Chipset Waterblocks - Foxconn vs Asus vs Gigabyte

A lot of people asked me how the BloodRage Waterblock compares to the Asus and gigabyte blocks so here are some pics :D

from the left to right:
BIG - cute - tiny
http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/5421/20714624jf2.jpg

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/3391/85522547bt5.jpg

http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/6281/87506131gk5.jpg


what do we have here asus, alu? ;)
http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/3150/85252757tb7.jpg

its the inner values that count, gigabyte! :D
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/3315/53363316nq3.jpg

http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/1...5599ym1.th.jpg http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/6...4189ha3.th.jpg


The base plate of the BloodRage QuantumStream block is made out of copper, the cover and 1/2" barbs are made out of brass.
The asus blocks base plate is made out of copper, the cover is made out of copper, and the 1/3" barbs are made out of aluminum
The Gigabyte blocks base plate is made out of brass/bronze, the cover is made out of brass/bronze, and the 1/3" brabrs are made out of brass/bronze. The whole block is covered with a thin layer of copper.

Im a little surprised and the enthusiast in me is dissapointed that asus and gigabyte both stopped offering waterblocks on their high end boards... asus at least leaves the option to add a waterblock on their board, but for a 400$ board not adding a basic 10$ waterblock is kinda dissapointing. Our block costs about double that, and the board costs only 300$... i figured its worth it and i hope you guys think so too.

For those of you who dont, hold tight, there will be a new board very soon, BloodRage GTi, without the waterblock and Ln2/Dry ice pot, and without the SAS option and it will cost even less than the current board :)

Saaya, that block is a thing of beauty when left natural. Why paint it? Glad to see the improvements on the stock water cooler for the the BR. What I also like about the BR water block is that it's one piece, with the water contained inside of it, unlike the 2 piece block on BOps that has potential to spill water / coolant on the board when the top is removed. On the BR the entire water loop plus NB block can be final assembled, filled and leak tested outside the case. That's how I would rather set-up my loop. The only draw back I see are the hose barbs. Are they threaded? If not, are the barbs 1/2 inch?

Thanks for the photos.. personally i prefer to use my own water blocks if necessary as I only have 1/2" ID tubing/pumps and no adaptors :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by saaya

For those of you who dont, hold tight, there will be a new board very soon, BloodRage GTi, without the waterblock and Ln2/Dry ice pot, and without the SAS option and it will cost even less than the current board :)

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How soon?:confused:
and whats the SAS option? probably a noob question lols:D

I have tried ASUS waterblocks before, They SUCK! So your only option with either Gigabyte or Asus is to buy Third party blocks which on X48 would have cost £120 thats why I bought the Black Ops & I have always been Impressed with B Op's NB temps.
Good to see You learned a little in the design dept Saaya, Nice simple BR block.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sailindawg

Saaya, that block is a thing of beauty when left natural. Why paint it?

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well first, the copper would start to get shades and spots and start to become darker and darker, second, that red just looks damn sexy and we wanted the whole board to look like that, blood red :D
You can always scratch the paint off if you want to :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sailindawg

Glad to see the improvements on the stock water cooler for the the BR. What I also like about the BR water block is that it's one piece, with the water contained inside of it, unlike the 2 piece block on BOps that has potential to spill water / coolant on the board when the top is removed. On the BR the entire water loop plus NB block can be final assembled, filled and leak tested outside the case. That's how I would rather set-up my loop.

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exactly :)
Ill try to find the time to write a quick guide on how to set the board up for watercooling... some people might mount the tubing onto the block when its already mounted and possibly with the board inside the case, which will be quite complicated i imagine :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sailindawg

The only draw back I see are the hose barbs. Are they threaded? If not, are the barbs 1/2 inch?

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Well adapters suck... as soon as you have one single piece of smaller tubing or a single smaller barbed block anywhere in the loop your slowing the whole loop down. on the other side, if you go from a smaller tubing to larger tubing or a larger barb set at one point in the loop, you dont lose a thing.
so i figured if we go for 1/2" barbs then thats good enough... and those barbs are really nice too imo, do you really think anybody would want to replace them? if so, why?
and yes, the barbs are 1/2" :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by eva2000

Thanks for the photos.. personally i prefer to use my own water blocks if necessary as I only have 1/2" ID tubing/pumps and no adaptors :)

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our block is 1/2" george ;) :D
And yes, i wanted it to be compatible with third party blocks and heatsinks too, but thats just too messy cause there are no real standards out there... there are 4 mounting holes and there is a lot of space, so all it takes is some good old DIY spitir and people can create your own waterblock or heatsink hold down clamp and mount whatever block or heatsink they want :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Goreg

How soon?:confused:
and whats the SAS option? probably a noob question lols:D

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cant tell you exactly, id imagine its a couple of weeks away.
So if you dont want to switch now and dont want to use the waterblock and ln2 pot, and dont care about sas, then just wait a bit and you can get BloodRage GTi and save 30$ or more :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Attached_SCSI
sas is scsi and sas merged, so its basically professional/server sas. its not that much faster than sata, but it IS faster and the prices for SAS drives are pretty good :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RAYTTK

I have tried ASUS waterblocks before, They SUCK! So your only option with either Gigabyte or Asus is to buy Third party blocks which on X48 would have cost £120 thats why I bought the Black Ops & I have always been Impressed with B Op's NB temps.
Good to see You learned a little in the design dept Saaya, Nice simple BR block.

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thanks man :toast:

Sailindawg, i dont know if the barbs are bolted or threadded, in either case, its not easy to remove the barbs... i scraped off the paint and tried with all my fource and they wouldnt move at all... so, sorry the barbs are probably not removeable, then again, knowing they are almost impossible to remove means there wont be any leaks caused by the barbs budging or coming off :D and again, its 1/2" barbs, what more could you want :D

TOOK THE BOARD OUT TODAY, LOVE IT! :up:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by saaya

Sailindawg, i dont know if the barbs are bolted or threadded, in either case, its not easy to remove the barbs... i scraped off the paint and tried with all my fource and they wouldnt move at all... so, sorry the barbs are probably not removeable, then again, knowing they are almost impossible to remove means there wont be any leaks caused by the barbs budging or coming off :D and again, its 1/2" barbs, what more could you want :D

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From your pics, it looks like the hose barbs are soldered in place. Excellent that the barbs are 1/2". You guys really did your homework and listened to our input from the BOps. I hope Foxconn can continue in this vain with enthusiast boards. Excellent job! :up:

yep, many improvements over the blackops, but improvements aren't always enough, as long as customer support stays top notch you'll keep my business.

Can't wait to see the AM3 boards, be glad to ditch intel once and for all (always hated intel)

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Originally Posted by saxile

be glad to ditch intel once and for all (always hated intel)

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I'm a performance mercenary. What's ever the best performance for the $$$, I'll go with. Ran AMD for the past few years, but AMD still hasn't caught up to Kentsfield. We'll see how they do over time. At least Intel is putting out decent product for <$500, unlike years past.

Is it possible to change the waterblock supplied witht the Blood Rage for a different aftermarket block?

I'm going to buy this MB anyway, thought it just would be interesting to now. The block looks great though. Much better than anything ASUS ever made. :)

It's made out of copper? Or brass? 1/2" connections? :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LockBreaker

Is it possible to change the waterblock supplied witht the Blood Rage for a different aftermarket block?

I'm going to buy this MB anyway, thought it just would be interesting to now. The block looks great though. Much better than anything ASUS ever made. :)

It's made out of copper? Or brass? 1/2" connections? :)

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I don't see why you couldn't, the block is completely removeable

Well I mean for something like Swiftech made as a replacement for the Fuzion block for ASUS? :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LockBreaker

Well I mean for something like Swiftech made as a replacement for the Fuzion block for ASUS? :)

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The bolt pattern looks similar, but looking at it, I'd say that the BR water block ought to perform as well as any. It would be easy enough to change it out as configured, but it ought to perform just as well. The BOps stock water block cooled very well. I don't see why the BR's shouldn't either. It doesn't seem very constrictive.

I think that barbs staying in place kinda sucks, at least for me, I would perfer to use my own barbs such as bitspower, I know a lot of others would too a lot of people use compression fittings now instead of having ugly clamps on the hose.

The Blood Rage water block matches the board, is more than adequate to cool the IOH and add to the power, and makes the Blood Rage one of the least expensive OC boards. I am writing this because I am debating whether or not to press the checkout button on NewEgg as I write this.

It is unbelievable that Gigabyte would copperplate their poorly documented water block. It would appear it was done solely to deceive customers.

It definitely seems Foxconn has given water cooled OC'ers really good setup.

They should really make a revision of the board that comes with a G1/4 threaded waterblock, dont even need barbs i dont think i would cost anymore