EK Full cover block problems

[Navanod]

Those who saw this thread

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=204029

would've known that I was retesting for leaks after finding some spider cracks on the full face EK block.

The thread soon turned into a "your card is bent" chit chat

As fate would have it, the card block leaked shortly after the test and killed the gfx card
I had the case on its side after the leak test (on hindsight, that was a bad idea) so the water wicked itself between the card and the block. No prize for guessing wat happened.

Here's shots of the cracks...which was also the point of tension (causing the bend) as well as the site of leakage




Apologies for the poor image as it's really hard to get a clear shot that close up. The 2 holes i'm tryng to focus on in these 2 pics had the largest cracks but I just can't seemed to get the right angle to show them properly

To make matter worse, there're no more identical cards on the local market (the non-reference cards of identical specs would not accept this block) and honestly, I wouldn't trust this FC block enough to put it on another card again anyway. It is now an expensive paper weight

I find 2 problems that EK should mull over:
1. The bending issue
2. The spider cracks around the screws (and leakage) for their acrylic covers

To quote from another regular here

"Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame on me."

I'm staying clear of FC blocks from now on as I have a 3rd issue with FC blocks (nothing to do with EK) and thats compatibility, even amongst identical card models. I know this is a DUH and everyone knows that (and treats it as a necessary evil during upgrades), but not many would consider this particular scenario, where the existing card dies and the block is not able to fit replacements of the same model. That feeling sux

coolmiester had identical issues
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...48&postcount=1

To those on such blocks, I would urge you to shine a light through it once in awhile to check for those insidious cracks and to also not overtighten the block (although I've also read someone with super high temps due to undertightening )

Well...I'm gonna grab a Dtek V2 GPU and some enzotech sinks...hopefully I'll get the beast up and running soon again

[septim]

ouch. sorry for the loss...
have you considered the delrin/acetal replacement top?...
and the other remedies that have been suggested...

i would suggest to grab a dtek gpu v2 and the appropriate mounting plate and a nice unisink while you're at it...

[Navanod]

You are learning grasshopper... Nice saying you quoted.

Your lesson should be stay away from Acrylic, it cracks.

Another saying in America is this..."Crack Kills"...

Staying away from acrylic still doesn't address the bending issue though.

"crack kills, but hash saves!" LOL

ouch. sorry for the loss...
have you considered the delrin/acetal replacement top?...
and the other remedies that have been suggested...

i would suggest to grab a dtek gpu v2 and the appropriate mounting plate and a nice unisink while you're at it...

thanks for your condolences
There's no point getting a replacement top since I can't get a replacement card that can fit this block anyway, it'll just be throwing more good money after the bad too since I'll probably be upgrading in less than a year

yes, the plan's to grab a Dtek V2 GPU and just make do with sinks. No unisinks as that's not gonna be usable for upgrades. The replacement card i've gotten also comes with sinks that can remain when mounting a GPU block so a unisink is not really a must at this point

[RickCain]

Staying away from acrylic still doesn't address the bending issue though.

Exactly and should not be lost in the focus on acrylic. My thought is a correctly machined base would result in less problems regardless of the top.

[Navanod]

Exactly and should not be lost in the focus on acrylic. My thought is a correctly machined base would result in less problems regardless of the top.

Precisely
I would even go as far as saying that the acrylic would've been fine had the base not warp this much and exert that much torque on the top...but I'm getting ahead of myself here

[Navanod]

Alright, I am officially jinxed

I got hold of a Dtek V2 GPU block and was happily mounting it when one of the 4 screws refused to turn more than a few mm into the screwhole on the backplate...took it all off again and found that the hole was all rusted inside.
Cleaned it up as much as I can by blasting with water, followed by WD40 and quite abit of rust came out...thinking I should test it, tried to screw one of the screws in and this happened



Never thought the screw would just snap like this
Next thing I knew, a sharp pain was felt



Someone's post came to mind...

ouch...

thankfully nothing was embedded and it was just a bad gash...still...OUCH!!!!

As the backplate's essential and there're no extra screws included, I'm more of less screwed
Luckily, I had bought a SPARE block and the backplate on that works...took a screw from there too

Now that I've made a sacrifice in blood to watever higher powers that watches over watercooled rigs, PLEASE LET IT WORK THIS TIME~~~!!!

PS: Mental note, write a strong worded letter to Dtek to protest about sloppy backplate and ask for a replacement for it (and the screw too!)

[Hondacity]

was the block not flat at all before installed?

[Kayin]

Precisely
I would even go as far as saying that the acrylic would've been fine had the base not warp this much and exert that much torque on the top...but I'm getting ahead of myself here

And this is the real culprit. torsional stress coming from a flexing block will crack acrylic, and can damage delrin. Polycarb would have even went under that. I've got a clear polyvinyl that could handle it, but you know, it should never have to.

The issue is getting clouded here, folks. A manufacturing process that needs work will cause all sorts of attendant problems, and this is one. Symptom here, not cause.

[Navanod]

was the block not flat at all before installed?

It was (at least I couldn't tell) but the addition of the black piece of alu cooler thingie on the side and mounting it somehow cause the entire thing to warp

And this is the real culprit. torsional stress coming from a flexing block will crack acrylic, and can damage delrin. Polycarb would have even went under that. I've got a clear polyvinyl that could handle it, but you know, it should never have to.

The issue is getting clouded here, folks. A manufacturing process that needs work will cause all sorts of attendant problems, and this is one. Symptom here, not cause.

I wouldn't wanna come across as EK bashing as I think they make wonderful stuff and their plating is simply unmatched compared to the likes of Koolance.
However, its sad that a design flaw would cause me enough pains to be put off one of their main line of products

Would a backplate have helped?

[NaeKuh]

I wouldn't wanna come across as EK bashing as I think they make wonderful stuff and their plating is simply unmatched compared to the likes of Koolance.
However, its sad that a design flaw would cause me enough pains to be put off one of their main line of products

Would a backplate have helped?

no.

The flaw is simple. If you look at all the other companies, they have something called standoffs.

Why doesnt ek have them? because it takes more machine time to make them, and i think EK thought it would be pointless. Well its not.

What company uses them?

Danger Den, eVGA, Koolance [ROFL nice when koolance has better machining then EK huh?]

You ever hear of one of those blocks warping your card or shorting it out?

Answer: No..
Reason: Standoff's.

What are standoffs? The stubby things the screws go inside on so it prevents warps as shown here:



And how long have i been telling people this?
About 3 months, but what is the result?

EK fanism blinded the entire forum. Because everyone is hooked on EK Nickle.... OK!

Nice, gotta love XS huh?
Thankfully im a member of XSPITA!

I make a bigger statement here:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...7&postcount=17

In short, kill fanism, or we get stuck with junk products.

[2low4u]

You are learning grasshopper... Nice saying you quoted.

Your lesson should be stay away from Acrylic, it cracks.

Another saying in America is this..."Crack Kills"...

Deff stay away from stressed acrylic being tortured to death by screws! lol

The EK block with the metal holding the acrylic is sweet but anything else stay away from what? lol

[Eddy_EK]

Hi!
This is some strange problem.
We did not have this king of problem reported before.
Did you disassemble the block before?

We can send you replacement top if you wish.

Eddy

[twwen2]

Eddy i think the issue here is that the copper base is flexing, placing stress on the acrylic top. That's based on what i'm reading above.

[Jiangxue]

From what I understand from the OP, he has been replaced with a non-reference version of the card after he sent it for RMA due to the fact that the reference versions are very much extinct over here already. That means he will not be able to use the block anymore as the card layout is different. Thus a replacement top would be useless to him.

[Navanod]

Hi!
This is some strange problem.
We did not have this king of problem reported before.
Did you disassemble the block before?

We can send you replacement top if you wish.

Eddy

Wow! Nice to hear from the man himself

This issue is not new, but they prob escaped your notice
see these threads

Coolmiester's
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...48#post3317048

NaeKuh's
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...0&postcount=19
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...67#post3347767

Glad to see you personally responding to this issue. 3 person's problem may not be alot, but when it requires special (and unknown) techniques to mount the blocks (See this vendor's suggestion)
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...0&postcount=19
then something is not right

Hi!
Did you disassemble the block before?

Eddy

I did open it to clean once but would that crack the block? No alcohol was used, only distilled water and some diluted soap

Hi!
We can send you replacement top if you wish.

Eddy

Thank you for the very kind offer. Let me try to find a reference card first? I would prefer a non-acrylic replacement top this time too. It makes me really sad to have that shiny nickel plated block just sitting there. Will pm you

I can mail that top back to you as well if it'll help you in finding out the reason for the cracks?
Here's the picture of my block, showing the bending of the card


Now that Eddy's aware of this issue, I'm sure he'll improve things. Perhaps just providing small plastic stand-offs may be good enough if machining is too much of a hassle

[Sparky]

Perhaps just providing small plastic stand-offs may be good enough if machining is too much of a hassle

That's really all it would take, something to set the gap correctly so it couldn't be overtightened and would prevent warping.

[migueld]

Hi!
This is some strange problem.
We did not have this king of problem reported before.
Did you disassemble the block before?

We can send you replacement top if you wish.

Eddy

Eddy have you considered using polycarbonate instead of acrylic? Acrylic is just a time bomb eventually it cracks, it's just not reliable. Have you given thought to that? Polycarbonate would give the best of both worlds: durability and looks.

[DeathWalking]

How about clear PVC? That's pretty indestructible in terms of flexing and cracking, though it can do some weird stuff with the more hazardous chemicals (READ: don't use it with a volatile phase change system. You'll get cancer. We don't like cancer. It's bad. We're crunching to kill cancer. Just don't do it, okay?).

[RickCain]

The last three EK FC blocks I owned all had the same problem (3870X2, 3870, 8800). My Koolance and AquaComputer FC blocks tightened down perfectly with no bending of the card. It is clearly a problem with the design.

[Navanod]

The last three EK FC blocks I owned all had the same problem (3870X2, 3870, 8800). My Koolance and AquaComputer FC blocks tightened down perfectly with no bending of the card. It is clearly a problem with the design.

Did they get so bad that it leaked?
Don't wanna start a scare here...

It's really hard to find a reference card that's NOT Powercolor around here (its an FC3870, means PC reference cards, which happened to also be the cheapest, will not fit either)...I guess its RIP for my poor block

Anyone know if it'll fit any non-reference cards?

[xb1]

no.

The flaw is simple. If you look at all the other companies, they have something called standoffs.
____

What are standoffs? The stubby things the screws go inside on so it prevents warps as shown here:

Can't you just make your own standoffs from something?

[evil-98]

Can't you just make your own standoffs from something?

of course but we shouldnt have to.. im working on making standoff for the 4870 ek block, but my cards so warped i cant accuratly measure the distance anymore

also thats 2 4870s..

sorry about your top bud, sort of scare about mind too.. even though its new

[NaeKuh]

of course but we shouldnt have to.. im working on making standoff for the 4870 ek block, but my cards so warped i cant accuratly measure the distance anymore

also thats 2 4870s..

I lost 2 HD3870's,
Both shorted out after time.

So i feel your pain. Even now when i sold my HD3870's i made sure they went with blocks. Cuz i did get the perfect mount on one, and theres no way in hell anyone is gonna reproduce it.

[twwen2]

of course but we shouldnt have to.. im working on making standoff for the 4870 ek block, but my cards so warped i cant accuratly measure the distance anymore

also thats 2 4870s..

sorry about your top bud, sort of scare about mind too.. even though its new

Huh, evil my 4870 is fine with the EK block! Well i haven't actually turned it on, but it's not warped at all...

[evil-98]

Huh, evil my 4870 is fine with the EK block! Well i haven't actually turned it on, but it's not warped at all...

did you have memory contact issues? i removed the block after both installs and some had really good contact where others had very poor contact

so i tried increasing the pressure and "warp warp warp".. i mean its straight now but most all screws are looser then my liking