Can anyone explain the costs of these blocks? its a tiny bit of metal with some fins in it, why does this cost 150 dollars.
Its it just the niche market, they can ask whatever they want type of deal?

Even half of what they ask I would find a bit chunk of change for what you are ultimately buying.

ZoneDymoCan anyone explain the costs of these blocks? its a tiny bit of metal with some fins in it, why does this cost 150 dollars.
Its it just the niche market, they can ask whatever they want type of deal?

Even half of what they ask I would find a bit chunk of change for what you are ultimately buying.

Generally that's the reason you can get away with Chinese block for sub 20usd with same/very similar performance. That is if you don't care about brand, rgb, and apparently lcd display LOL

ZoneDymoCan anyone explain the costs of these blocks? its a tiny bit of metal with some fins in it, why does this cost 150 dollars.
Its it just the niche market, they can ask whatever they want type of deal?

Even half of what they ask I would find a bit chunk of change for what you are ultimately buying.

There are many chemical and metal processing processes to make these waterblocks last over time, thanks also to them that many mistakes of those who buy them are avoided.

The waterblocks must be inserted in various electrified chemical tanks and follow a chain process

As is often the case, people use low-quality, poor-quality liquids that will ruin water blocks putting colors or whatever else just for the looks.

Nor do they take into account that what they put in the loop gets hot and it is normal that anything you add will end up breaking down or going into conflict with the materials ( radiators/pump/waterblocks)


So for me the price is justified. And we're also talking about this waterblock including a temperature sensor with independent illuminated display it cant be cheap.

AnimalpakThere are many chemical and metal processing processes to make these waterblocks last over time, thanks also to them that many mistakes of those who buy them are avoided.

The waterblocks must be inserted in various electrified chemical tanks and follow a chain process

As is often the case, people use low-quality, poor-quality liquids that will ruin water blocks putting colors or whatever else just for the looks.

Nor do they take into account that what they put in the loop gets hot and it is normal that anything you add will end up breaking down or going into conflict with the materials ( radiators/pump/waterblocks)


So for me the price is justified. And we're also talking about this waterblock including a temperature sensor with independent illuminated display it cant be cheap.

Well if we are going to mention the manufacturing process then any component looks impressive, even those that cost 40 dollars.
A temperature sensor and a display, I mean, those really cost nothing at all tbh.

ZoneDymoCan anyone explain the costs of these blocks? its a tiny bit of metal with some fins in it, why does this cost 150 dollars.
Its it just the niche market, they can ask whatever they want type of deal?

Even half of what they ask I would find a bit chunk of change for what you are ultimately buying.

Great question. Back when D-Tek water cooling was still in business I actually met the founder. He explained that the raw materials of buying a giant chunk of copper is part of the cost but also the machining for his blocks was done by the same company that makes medical devices. So there's some technical expertise needed to cut the microfins. This was probably 15 years ago so obviously price of manufacture has probably gotten better but i suppose competition has also gone up. I assume he couldn't compete because he was just a 1 man show vs someone like EK who probably has a dozen computational fluid engineers. Paying for those engineers will also add to the cost of the block along with all the marketing people, etc...

ZoneDymoCan anyone explain the costs of these blocks? its a tiny bit of metal with some fins in it, why does this cost 150 dollars.
Its it just the niche market, they can ask whatever they want type of deal?

Even half of what they ask I would find a bit chunk of change for what you are ultimately buying.

Honestly, I truly believe it's all markup. I used to be the purchasing and inventory director for a national service company with clients like Target, a home Depot and Starbucks and we had to get tons of different compression fittings and liquid cooled heatsinks for various electrical devices and plumbed machines and I used to buy brass and 316 stainless steel compression fittings for a quarter of the price these PC water cooling companies charge, and that was at List price (without an account or discount). CNC milling machines are cheaper than ever (hell, I own one) and there are more watercooling companies than ever, so with increased volume production and competition prices should go way down, but they're not. However, if you go on aliexpress, you can easily find good quality fittings for under $3 each and cpu blocks for $50 or less directly from the Chinese OEMs that many of these PC brands get supplied from (only to slap their label on it and multiply the price x4).

Tacky AF

ZoneDymoWell if we are going to mention the manufacturing process then any component looks impressive, even those that cost 40 dollars.
A temperature sensor and a display, I mean, those really cost nothing at all tbh.

Your not coming off as clever by displaying how little you know of the tech your bemoaning.

Do you think micro channel fins are easy to make , while retaining structural strength and chemical resistance.

Tbf it is expensive but your being extreme as a 20£ part would not equal that of this.

ZoneDymoCan anyone explain the costs of these blocks? its a tiny bit of metal with some fins in it, why does this cost 150 dollars.
Its it just the niche market, they can ask whatever they want type of deal?

Even half of what they ask I would find a bit chunk of change for what you are ultimately buying.

As a former CNC machinist milling those micro channels is pretty precision machining I know my own Aqua Computer block has at least 1 flaw in the 0.5mm ”grid” of fins and that fine machining cant be done quickly using such tiny mills on a soft material like copper not to mention machining the rest of the block and some are more complex than others. I could see my pretty simple block taking many hours of machining from billet to finish and multiple different programs and processes, tool changes, and moumting/dismounting it for each process.

I made some pretty small parts with very tight tolerance for the oil industry where even a “perfect run“ would have errors because they were so small(extremely frustrating to get to the last process and it being.001off tolerance...)
I uh hated making these little pistons...

AnarchoPrimitivHonestly, I truly believe it's all markup. I used to be the purchasing and inventory director for a national service company with clients like Target, a home Depot and Starbucks and we had to get tons of different compression fittings and liquid cooled heatsinks for various electrical devices and plumbed machines and I used to buy brass and 316 stainless steel compression fittings for a quarter of the price these PC water cooling companies charge, and that was at List price (without an account or discount). CNC milling machines are cheaper than ever (hell, I own one) and there are more watercooling companies than ever, so with increased volume production and competition prices should go way down, but they're not. However, if you go on aliexpress, you can easily find good quality fittings for under $3 each and cpu blocks for $50 or less directly from the Chinese OEMs that many of these PC brands get supplied from (only to slap their label on it and multiply the price x4).

The micro fins are not milled ,The machine to make them is slow AND expensive and does one at a time and the parts you bought were yesterday tech not this soooo.

See gamers nexus waterblock factory tour on the tube.

theoneandonlymrkYour not coming off as clever by displaying how little you know of the tech your bemoaning.

Do you think micro channel fins are easy to make , while retaining structural strength and chemical resistance.

Tbf it is expensive but your being extreme as a 20£ part would not equal that of this.

Copper/brass/stainless steel are naturally inert/chemical resistant, there's no value added labor or process that needs to be performed to those elements to make them more so, and nickel plating is a cheap process even when nickel prices are up. Viton-B rubber for chemically resistant o rings are cheap as dirt these days as well.

While microfins are more delicate than your typical milling, the process is extremely long in the tooth (as with all the manufacturing processes) and as such, the original R&D and tooling/die costs have been more than recuperate. Anyone that has either owned a business or worked at a high enough level in one knows that labor is always the highest cost (at least when based in a first world country) and regardless of the initial cost of the manufacturing equipment, once automation of manufacturing is implemented, the actual cost per production unit is rather low. Add to that the fact that these PC watercooling companies have been around for at least 5+ years, the initial cost of the production equipment has long been recuperated driving the cost of production even lower. Lastly, the vast majority of these blocks, from all these companies, have been using the same designs with very slight modifications for many years, meaning R&D, engineering, and design costs are much lower than many would claim.

Like I said, I understand that industrial compression fittings are made by companies with greater production volumes, but the fact that industrial compression fittings, even mil spec ones, are a quarter of the price of PC water cooling fittings while being made with more expensive materials and smaller tolerances, demonstrates that these PC watercooling brands are charging a huge [unnecessary] premium.

Water Cooling is larger than ever, has more competition than ever, more manufacturers than ever and as I stated previously, the initial tooling/die and R&D costs have been more than recuperated. And yet, the basic price of a fitting or water block has not significantly gone down in several years even when the commodities and raw materials for manufacturing have seen considerable price drops (I'm always well informed on these prices for both my financial investments and my own small business production).

This is just more of the same PC brand egregious price inflation, just like, for example, with addressable LEDs. You can go on aliexpress and buy 5 meters (15+ feet) of 144 LED/meter strips (one IC/LED) for $50 or less, and yet corsair, nzxt, Asus, etc will charge $20 for a half meter of 30 LED/meter strips that come with their stupid proprietary connectors instead of an industry standard, generic 3 pin JST connector (I can't stand that stupid 4 minus 1 = 3 pin connector that Asus uses for their mobo addressable headers that for some reason the other mobo manufacturers adopted... An adapter to generic 3 pin JST is included for free with every mobo, so the reasoning behind their proprietary connector does not make sense with respect to generating more profits). The price inflation for these LED strips is completely unjustified, but demonstrates that all these PC brands do it and will continue to do it as long as PC "enthusiasts" continue to pay.

Part of the problem is that so many pc "enthusiasts" seemingly do not know something exists (like far cheaper generic addressable LEDs) until Corsair slaps their label on it, then proceeds to fleece the PC community. If they were more aware and can assumed to be rational, then NOBODY would be buying led strips from any PC brand with their severely inflated prices and instead be buying generic ones with the same exact ICs for a quarter of the price....and yet you see plenty of people buying the Corsair node or Nzxt Hue+ for $60+ while a $15 generic, programmable controller with the ability to operate 2048 pixels/LEDs are never considered. It's frustrating.

theoneandonlymrkThe micro fins are not milled ,The machine to make them is slow AND expensive and does one at a time and the parts you bought were yesterday tech not this soooo.

See gamers nexus waterblock factory tour on the tube.

Yeah that’s even more tedious than actually milling but “easier” as a process. But definitely time intensive machining regardless.

AnarchoPrimitivHonestly, I truly believe it's all markup. I used to be the purchasing and inventory director for a national service company with clients like Target, a home Depot and Starbucks and we had to get tons of different compression fittings and liquid cooled heatsinks for various electrical devices and plumbed machines and I used to buy brass and 316 stainless steel compression fittings for a quarter of the price these PC water cooling companies charge, and that was at List price (without an account or discount). CNC milling machines are cheaper than ever (hell, I own one) and there are more watercooling companies than ever, so with increased volume production and competition prices should go way down, but they're not. However, if you go on aliexpress, you can easily find good quality fittings for under $3 each and cpu blocks for $50 or less directly from the Chinese OEMs that many of these PC brands get supplied from (only to slap their label on it and multiply the price x4).

Then make some, design, spend hours setting it up, find acceptable profit margins including warranty for people who do dumb things to keep a great reputation, shipping, insurance, taxes, ya know, business overhead, and then make profit.

So pay yourself 75K a year, pay 25K in taxes, a building cost with internet, utilities, insurance for maybe 30K a year. How many can you produce a day, ship, collect for?

130K overhead means sales of $360 a day every day just to cover base expense, not including supplies, shipping and warranty. So at $50 each that's 7 roughly a day.

AnarchoPrimitivCopper/brass/stainless steel are naturally inert/chemical resistant, there's no value added labor or process that needs to be performed to those elements to make them more so, and nickel plating is a cheap process even when nickel prices are up. Viton-B rubber for chemically resistant o rings are cheap as dirt these days as well.

While microfins are more delicate than your typical milling, the process is extremely long in the tooth (as with all the manufacturing processes) and as such, the original R&D and tooling/die costs have been more than recuperate. Anyone that has either owned a business or worked at a high enough level in one knows that labor is always the highest cost (at least when based in a first world country) and regardless of the initial cost of the manufacturing equipment, once automation of manufacturing is implemented, the actual cost per production unit is rather low. Add to that the fact that these PC watercooling companies have been around for at least 5+ years, the initial cost of the production equipment has long been recuperated driving the cost of production even lower. Lastly, the vast majority of these blocks, from all these companies, have been using the same designs with very slight modifications for many years, meaning R&D, engineering, and design costs are much lower than many would claim.

Like I said, I understand that industrial compression fittings are made by companies with greater production volumes, but the fact that industrial compression fittings, even mil spec ones, are a quarter of the price of PC water cooling fittings while being made with more expensive materials and smaller tolerances, demonstrates that these PC watercooling brands are charging a huge [unnecessary] premium.

Water Cooling is larger than ever, has more competition than ever, more manufacturers than ever and as I stated previously, the initial tooling/die and R&D costs have been more than recuperated. And yet, the basic price of a fitting or water block has not significantly gone down in several years even when the commodities and raw materials for manufacturing have seen considerable price drops (I'm always well informed on these prices for both my financial investments and my own small business production).

This is just more of the same PC brand egregious price inflation, just like, for example, with addressable LEDs. You can go on aliexpress and buy 5 meters (15+ feet) of 144 LED/meter strips (one IC/LED) for $50 or less, and yet corsair, nzxt, Asus, etc will charge $20 for a half meter of 30 LED/meter strips that come with their stupid proprietary connectors instead of an industry standard, generic 3 pin JST connector (I can't stand that stupid 4 minus 1 = 3 pin connector that Asus uses for their mobo addressable headers that for some reason the other mobo manufacturers adopted... An adapter to generic 3 pin JST is included for free with every mobo, so the reasoning behind their proprietary connector does not make sense with respect to generating more profits). The price inflation for these LED strips is completely unjustified, but demonstrates that all these PC brands do it and will continue to do it as long as PC "enthusiasts" continue to pay.

Part of the problem is that so many pc "enthusiasts" seemingly do not know something exists (like far cheaper generic addressable LEDs) until Corsair slaps their label on it, then proceeds to fleece the PC community. If they were more aware and can assumed to be rational, then NOBODY would be buying led strips from any PC brand with their severely inflated prices and instead be buying generic ones with the same exact ICs for a quarter of the price....and yet you see plenty of people buying the Corsair node or Nzxt Hue+ for $60+ while a $15 generic, programmable controller with the ability to operate 2048 pixels/LEDs are never considered. It's frustrating.

So after a full page you still sound like someone who has no machining experience , I am a qualified machine op as one of my qualifications not the only one and as i said micro fins are not milled or they are not micro.

Oh and these machines ARE new they don't mill.......


Go watch gamers nexus video , get educated then argue with me.

Clearly you get frustrated by bullshit.

I bought Corsair lighting for the SOFTWARE not the admitted generic strips.

Pps generic strip manufacturers have f all to offer for unified control tied to many types of motherboard, i looked.

Are we really surprised a product positioned as premium and trying to deploy a USP (OLED display) is overpriced?

What?

theoneandonlymrkSo after a full page you still sound like someone who has no machining experience , I am a qualified machine op as one of my qualifications not the only one and as i said micro fins are not milled or they are not micro.

Oh and these machines ARE new they don't mill.......


Go watch gamers nexus video , get educated then argue with me.

Clearly you get frustrated by bullshit.

I bought Corsair lighting for the SOFTWARE not the admitted generic strips.

Pps generic strip manufacturers have f all to offer for unified control tied to many types of motherboard, i looked.

Yeah I’ve used a lot of different machines and specialty tools in both lathes and mills but that is definitely speciality equipment built for purpose and I’d be interested in how long that process actually takes it’s clearly and obviously making very small cuts which totally makes sense dealing with copper.

I did like the first pic, then I saw the RGB.... :shadedshu:

Let us also not forget Aqua Computer did this years ago now sans the RGB nonsense.

INSTG8RLet us also not forget Aqua Computer did this years ago now sans the RGB nonsense.

thats still the sexiest waterblock ever.

DeathtoGnomesthats still the sexiest waterblock ever.

right? :love: I have a boring Cuplex Kryos, I covet that but can’t justify replacing my perfectly fine block...

Bitspower: "We support Intel and AMD"
Socket TR4: I'm I a Joke to you?!? ...

INSTG8RLet us also not forget Aqua Computer did this years ago now sans the RGB nonsense.

Exactly. I have the am4 version of this exact block and I'm very happy with it.

Bitspower what happened to you?

Just like 2-3 years ago you manufactured very nice, clean, sleek, inoffensive stuff blocks at very high quality (... and price).

Now you adding bloody RGB, pointless plastic covers for even more money. Sorry guys but you certainly lost the plot.