Test Report: EK D5 X-Top Rev.2

[nikhsub1]

Great review skinnee! Very smart design too Eddy!

[Scubar]

Is the D5 with this EK Top better than the DDC3.2 with EK/XPSC/Petra top ?

[hotdun]

Great job Skinnee I still like the Detroit a bit better but the information you supply is invaluable.

P.S. - I know Martin tested 24V vs. 12V with the D5 and didn't see much of a performance increase. I wonder if these new tops would show more? Food for thought, thanks again....

[mattkosem]

Nice report! It looks like it edges out the DetroitAC top slightly at high flow rates, but is very similar everywhere else.

--Matt

[N19h7m4r3]

Oooh very nice!

I might get that to use with my D5 I have boxed somewhere

[skinnee]

P.S. - I know Martin tested 24V vs. 12V with the D5 and didn't see much of a performance increase. I wonder if these new tops would show more? Food for thought, thanks again....

Well, I did perform some informal tests just to verify Martin's findings. And...he's still dead on. There is no real benefit to running the pump over 12v, the slight gains are not worth the added heat dump IMO.

[Eddy_EK]

They bought one, and...erm...theirs now looks and performs very similar

frustrating

Hi!

I have to admit the interior looks very much the same, which and was a product or our intensive tests. I have to say I did not see your top interior before releasing our top, as you did not show any pictures of it over the forums. Which brings it that we have very similar way of thinking. I saw your interior when skinnee tested it.

Also, we did not bought a top from you for direct comparison. Can you please explain your statement?

To be honest I expected a little better results, but overall satisfied with the product.

[Bojamijams]

Great review Skinee.

As an owner of the original X-top and seeing its piss-poor performance it gave and at that cost I wish I waited and bought DetroitAC's version

[DetroitAC]

Also, we did not bought a top from you for direct comparison. Can you please explain your statement?

Sure, I can explain

Someone with the eBay ID: eddy_ek from Slovenia bought a pump top from my eBay store on Nov 11th ,2008 but never paid for it, so the transaction was cancelled many weeks later. My assumption was that this was you?

Then on Nov 13th someone named Peter Stampfel of Ljubljana, Slovenia bought one pump top with expedited shipping to Ljubljana, Slovenia.

EK Waterblocks lists their physical address as Ljubljana, Slovenia. These are just remarkable coincidences you will say?

To be clear, you have done nothing illegal or even contrary to normal business practice in my view. You have, however copied my work and this forum is a unique place, with an actual community in contrast to the "normal" commercial marketplace. I worked very hard to refine my pump top, and I hope the members of this board will choose to support innovators rather than hacks.

[Sadasius]

+1 Until an apology comes up from Eddy he lost a customer. Told him that I was disappointed in him and asked for him to cancel my account on his website. Never thought I would see Eddy do this.

[Bojamijams]

Sure, I can explain

Someone with the eBay ID: eddy_ek from Slovenia bought a pump top from my eBay store on Nov 11th ,2008 but never paid for it, so the transaction was cancelled many weeks later. My assumption was that this was you?

Then on Nov 13th someone named Peter Stampfel of Ljubljana, Slovenia bought one pump top with expedited shipping to Ljubljana, Slovenia.

EK Waterblocks lists their physical address as Ljubljana, Slovenia. These are just remarkable coincidences you will say?

To be clear, you have done nothing illegal or even contrary to normal business practice in my view. You have, however copied my work and this forum is a unique place, with an actual community in contrast to the "normal" commercial marketplace. I worked very hard to refine my pump top, and I hope the members of this board will choose to support innovators rather than hacks.

EPIC FAIL!

Great.. now EK joins the likes of TFC.

Indeed, everyone, support the inventors, not the ripoffs.

I still can't believe I payed $40 for the POS that was the original EK X-TOP

[alejo]

http://ekwaterblocks.com/shop/produc...roducts_id=316

Says "This product was added to our catalog on Monday 10 November, 2008."

DetroitAC says Eddy_EK bought one on Nov. 11th 2008.

[Bojamijams]

I can put all kinds of stuff on my own website too.

[alejo]

But then webshops in the UK got them in on 21st of Nov. That'd would be mighty quick to buy a top on the 13th, get it to Slovenia and then produce them and then get them to the UK in 8 days.

[Bojamijams]

Did these webshops get them physically in their store on Nov 21st or did they add the SKU for it on the 21st when Eddy notified them that a Rev2 would be coming soon?

[Diverge]

many things don't add up:

1) he denied having ever seen the internals of DetroitAC's top... and tries to side step it by saying great minds think alike... lol
2) he denied ever buying one of DetroitAC's tops - when DetroitAC seems to have proof he did.
3) his original purchase on the 11th was never paid... cause he had second thoughs on what might happen if you bought something, with intentions to copy, usining his business name (Eddy_EK)

IMO, #1 says enough for me. but the fact that #2 and #3 happened as well, just leaves no doubt. The website date could be edited, or even show that he planned to rip off DetroitAC's internal design.... which wouldn't take much time for him, since he already had external foundation of his top created (1st rev).

[003]

I still can't believe I payed $40 for the POS that was the original EK X-TOP

Yup. At least I'm not the only one stuck with one of those. Granted, the custom barb options are nice, and it DOES perform slightly better than stock.

But still I wish I had gotten the DetroitAC top instead... damn. The X-Top was the only custom top for the D5 at the time I purchased it...

[alejo]

I don't know. Did Eddy's pump top come out after someone in Slovenia ordered one? I don't know that either. That's the point. Until everyone knows, people shouldn't really be throwing out accusations.

One of the shops, chilled-pc.co.uk would be able to tell us. The owner Tom, posts on this forum. His shop shows a date of the 21st of Nov. I do know that the Nov. 10th date on Eddy's page has not been altered. That was the first thing I checked this morning when DetroitAC made his first comment.

[skinnee]

Hold on here folks...before we gather a mob and stone someone to death, lets take a deep breath and look at the info we have.

I am not picking a side, I enjoy working with both DetroitAC and Eddy. All I can do is present the information I have, so lets see the two tops side by side.

[hellcamino]

They are certainly similar but definitely not identical. Is the mounting system the same skinnee?

[mozis]

Until everyone knows, people shouldn't really be throwing out accusations.

QFT...

watercoolinguk.co.uk had it about the same time - 20th of Nov.

[Sadasius]

They are not completely identical that is because it had to be revised to accommodate the front outlet. The back mounting plate which holds the ring instead of the top itself is different because well it would have been way too obvious if it was in the top like DetroitAC's. DetroitAc was the innovator that made the giant ring go away and moved the impeller into the top with spiraled volute that was suggested in the early stages of the build. EK just smoothed that out some but is still the same.

If I am wrong and Eddy can disprove this then I am more then man enough to apologize and eat my words. Trust me when I say this that I hope I am wrong because I like EK and Eddy has helped me before hence the reason why I am so torn right now on this issue.

[armeniandave]

As a person who machines parts for a living when I look at the two side by side I would say that EK did not blatantly copy the design. Looking at the inlet and outlet there is really only so much variation possible.

Did Eddie actually buy one of Detroit AC's tops? Maybe he did but he was probably trying to figure out why Detroit's top worked so well. In almost all industries competitors buy the competitions product and then try and see why it works so well with the ultimate goal to improve upon it and create a new product. If you look at all the aftermarket DDC tops out there they are all pretty similar also.

Perhaps the performance curve is the result of both Detroit and EK hitting upon the right designs, albeit very similar but still a bit different than each other.

[Bojamijams]

If he had bought it just to 'see' then that would've been fine if he admitted to doing that. But he blatantly LIED in saying that

"Also, we did not bought a top from you for direct comparison"

When you can see that they did.

[hellcamino]

If he had bought it just to 'see' then that would've been fine if he admitted to doing that. But he blatantly LIED in saying that

"Also, we did not bought a top from you for direct comparison"

When you can see that they did.

I have to agree that makes Eddy look a little stinky but as said before the tops for DDC are all quite similar too and with good reason. Still waiting to hear back from Eddy and DetroitAc though.