14 DAY TRIAL // We seem to be writing about a new waterblock every week, and EK is very often the company behind their creation, but now we're going to examine a different component of water cooling systems: the EK-Ascendancy water cooling system control board.
A water cooling system can't exist in the absence of even one of the individual parts that make it up, be they a water block, a pump, hoses, fittings, etc.
Still, as far as importance goes, the control board could very well qualify as the most important, because it falls to it to determine performance.
While water blocks and reservoirs can dictate certain limits to coolant volume and flow, the control board ultimately makes everything work.
The new EK-Ascendancy boasts a direct drain FET water cooled voltage regulation module (VRM) with up to 1450W sustained power.
It also has a standard PCI Express 6-pin power port and can control a 4-pin molex / 3-pin DC (up to 40W) or 4-pin PWM capable water pump.
What's more, it can direct up to eight 4-pin PWM or 3-pin DC fans (15W energy consumption each), as well as 10 thermal probes.
We can see why EK describes the thing as “the ultimate solution for any avid computer water cooling enthusiast.”
As for software, the EK-Ascendancy ships with a Microsoft Windows application that features CPUID SDK support, logging function for all parameters, and custom profile creation (fan control, flow meter pule tuning, etc.).
To use the EK-Ascendancy, all you have to do is install it in a 5.25-inch bay. EK will release it with and without an LCD interface by March 2014, for an unknown price.
Right now, it's only in validation phase, and as curious as it sounds, the full version with LCD display will come out first, maybe in January or February actually. Chances are we'll see it at CES 2013 (Consumer Electronics Show).
