Introduction

XSPC impressed us with their Raystorm Neo CPU water block when we checked it out last year, and at the time, they had hinted at it being a part of a larger "Neo" branding of products across the company. Indeed, they have since then launched more options for that very CPU block, including a metal-top version, which makes the difference between the Neo and their older Pro series all the smaller now. Today, we take a look at another of their offerings under this branding, the Neo memory water block. Thanks again to XSPC for providing a review sample to TechPowerUp.


I asked for a memory block and side plate set since both are needed to really make this work unless you have some from before or even some memory sticks with removable heatsink fins that also happen to have matching screw holes (highly unlikely). In addition, these come in the black chrome or standard chrome finishes similar to the Raystorm Neo CPU block, so you can match an entire watercooling build using XSPC blocks if you so desire. In this review, we will go over this offering from XSPC as well as the memory kit from Patriot that helped make this review possible, and we will also answer the elephant in this room: is watercooling system memory currently necessary at all? Let's begin by taking a look at the specifications for this XSPC setup.

Specifications

Packaging and Accessories

XSPC's product packaging ranges from a subtle black and white to a more colorful, wrapped cardboard box or a plain cardboard with writing on it. While I would have preferred to see more uniformity here, it is a small thing to bicker about, and if the packaging does its job by protecting the product inside, that's all I really care about. Here, we have the latter with the Neo memory block and side plates coming in bare cardboard with the XSPC logo on front, and a sticker on the back tells us which product is inside, right next to a QC pass sticker, which is reassuring. No seals to see here, and there are two flaps on the side that help keep the contents inside in place.


We get a lot of accessories here, most of which are thermal pads (0.5 mm thick). Alongside those are two acrylic spacers that need to be used with low-profile memory, and XSPC also provides the necessary screws to help install everything, along with an L-shaped Allen key to use with the hex heads on these screws. Finally, given the acrylic top and additions to their new Neo product lineup, XSPC also includes RGB lighting with two separately addressable RGB LEDs and a respective controller.


We see here the same simple hands-on kit with the two LEDs plugging into a power/control unit that is in turn powered by a fully sized SATA connector on the PSU. You can change the static color and the breathing mode's speed and effect with three buttons on the controller. The LEDs are rectangular cuboids rather than round and should thus fit into similarly shaped holes on the block itself.


The memory block and side plates all come separately packaged in bubble wrap, with the block also having a silica gel packet in it. This helps further protect the components in case of any shipping or handling mishaps. Given this was such an early production sample, XSPC was not able to get the manual printed and included here, but an online copy can be found here.