Well what can I say? It is very well regarded slimline HWLabs radiator. Everytime questions about which radiator to use, slim line HWLabs radiator always pop up. I’ve always using EK products and using PE 360 however since their slim line is considered below average and I need as much cooling as possible to reach 5.2 GHz prime95 stable with my 9900K so this time around I decided to try HWLabs to be paired with my EK PE 360 and see if they live up to their name. So here’s my honest review you can trust. Firstly the build quality, the frame is very sturdy, however the microfin was very thin it is very susceptible to accidental bend even if only hitting fingernail. I recommend to protect the fins with a piece of cardboard during handling and installation. The paint job was well done it is quite thick, take me sometime to sand them down in order to repaint with color of my choice. However, I noticed that the inside of the frame was not painted properly it exposes partial brass/copper color which is a minus for me since it is actually can be seen from the sides with typical installation. Not that it affects me since I repaint it myself however for some people they might find it annoying. It can be easily fixed with a can of spray paint though. The original color is no longer dark matter finish but now they used carbon black color which I think is nice because not everyone liked dark matter finish and carbon black obviously will match with more cases out there. Now they also have white color, which is also sold by highflow.nl. Installation was easy, the bolt they used is standard M4 bolts (included) which is not compatible with bolts from some other manufacturer. The mounting hole is very precise however the distance between fans is very tight which makes it difficult to install fans with vibration pads such as Noctua industrial fans which I use however other fans will sit very nicely. Now the actual performance, it was performing very well. With both PE 360 and GTS 280 I managed to drop my cpu temp further around 12 degrees at full load compared with when I only use single PE 360 allowing me to go 5.2 GHz with my 9900K. I have not tried using only GTS 280 without PE360 however judging from the 12 degrees temp drop even with other bigger radiator in the loop means it performing very well. During normal usage my fans was dead silent and only ramped up under stress test/benchmarks. Lastly words around the internet is that this particular radiator have very high flow restriction similar as waterblock which probably is why it performed very well. I didn’t see any issue with my single d5 pump at all so I believe no need to worry too much about it except if you have very large loop with many waterblocks and rads. Overall performance wise it does lived to it’s name minus some minor issue I mentioned above. I hope this review will help someone. Thank you.

Zeer kwetsbare RGB hub, wees heel voorzichtig met het aansluiten van de kabels want je ziet niet goed of ze er goed in zit wat tot gevolg kan hebben dat pins gaan buigen. Ook zit het hele middenstuk los, dit merk je erg goed bij het aansluiten van de sata kabel. Doet overigens wel wat hij moet doen, namelijk zorgen voor meer werkende RGB aansluitingen.

Outstanding for cabinet use

I really recomend this as a DMD.

BR

Magnus

I have used the amazon rockit tool before and it failed. It bent the pcb of the cpu. This derbaueur has a very smart design that you can still see your pcu and is of such high quality that frankly i was stupid to try anything else. Delid went fast with no risk, the relid tool is handy with the template to keep the ihs in the middle. 5 stars

OK firstly, to be honest I bought this waterblock for the look. It really is super nice with it’s addressable RGB. Most people prefer Heatkiller however I believe almost any water block is enough to cool my cpu since I’m always doing direct die so that my vcore is the limiting factor. So if any water block is enough then I would prefer to go with the looks. People also said that the plexi might crack someday but I believe it is due to excessive tightening. And even if it may crack by it self someday, it will take very long time and by the time it crack your cpu become irrelevant. And if you still wanted to keep it, I’m sure EKWB will have plexi replacement for it soon. My only complaint is the silver lining with Velocity branding was made from plastic. It still giving premium feels and looks although for me it would be perfect product if they used copper nickel same as the cold plate.