Alphacool CORE 1 CPU block - bulging with danger of splitting?

[FoulOnWhite]

I thought all new ones would come with the white seal. maybe yours is a gen 1 too.

Around sep 2023 i got mine

 

[A Computer Guy]

I thought OP might like this video despite covering air not water cooling.

 

[BoggledBeagle]

I tried to find some more samples of the block on Youtube, and some appear completely flat and some are even worse than mine. It does not appear that Alphacool has the manufacturing and quality assurance under control.

See this video from 12:55. Note that he noticed the problem when he unpacked the block and used the word "deformation". This term in the technical world is not positive or even neutral.

I hope now you will understand better why I used expressions as "bursting at seams", "stuffed" etc.

If you like what you see there, you must be some sort of technical masochist.

One more thing: If you look closely, all the deformation lines are visible on the plate even after he removed it from the block, the deformation in his case was so extreme, that the material did not relax to the original shape after the pressure has been removed. My block returned to the flat shape, however the side creases were still apparent.

Roman in this video from 18:55:

comments about nickel plating defects in the block, and that he got a different sample of the block to inspect because of that, but I am not sure if he mentioned how the second sample looked in the video. Did he comment on that elsewhere?

 

[BoggledBeagle]

I sent an email to Alphacool with these questions:

I would like to ask, what is the situation with the blocks, if the newest blocks are supplied with this translucent insert and if this insert is thinner than the black rubber insert I received in my block?

which unfortunately have not been answered. So I have no idea what is the situation with the translucent insert...

BTW after I exchanged the insert in the block (original rubber 0,65 mm thick, replacement plastic 0,4 mm thick), which made it much less bulged, I consider the block usable for me.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

That core 1 is a very good block for temps