Watercool HK and HK Lc:Being crowned with several awards, I was kind of eager to get these blocks into the test rig, to see if they could live up to the hype.
Watercool, another German based manufacturer, owned by sir Rico Weber has been collecting award after award with his HeatKiller series. There are 3 different models; the HK 3.0, Lc and Lt version. We got the first two in the lab, the 3.0 being the most expensive, the Lt in between and the Lc the least expensive.
Both top and base are crafted out of copper. If this enhances cooling is questionable, but sounds pretty reasonable.
The interior looks pretty straightforward, but everything is designed for maximum flow with massive channel cutouts. The jet plate is removable/interchangeable to allow the block to perform better on eg dual core CPU's.
No pin structure here, but sleeves are cut into the big copper block, optimized again for good flow and less turbulence.
Watercool deviates from the other German manufacturers with its mounting system. A screw with a spring is screwed into an offset. Watercool advises to use the 20mm tension in their manual with I7 CPU's, a guideline which I totally adhered too. A back plate can be ordered separately to improve the mounting of the block and to avoid warping of the motherboard.
Some more detailed shots, tells more than words.
Watercool HK LC Being the cheapest of the three, I assume Lc stands for Low Cost, does this mean also inferior performance? At first glance it looks like they replaced the copper top with a delrin version. But there's more under the hood than that, or is it less?
The top's interior looks alike its bigger brother, but there's no dispenser here at all.
The base also has cutouts but fewer ones then the full blown version.
Thank you!
Must have been hard work benching so many blocks... and doing them all again just due to change of thermal paste. Thorough to say the least...
Though I am new to watercooling this is the only article I have found that tests this many waterblocks. This will sure help me in buying the right block for me.
Are there any other sources available like this?
None the less. Just felt like after all that hard work you deserved at least one thank you .
And I hope that you will expand this article over time so that it could be a big buyers guide almost... Covering as many waterblocks with real tested data as possible? Or does this exist already? Would be a major way for madshrimps to become even more unique?