14 DAY TRIAL // For the most part, EK releases water blocks for central processing units and graphics cards, but those things can never really work alone, so the company has to launch other stuff too, like pumps.
As it happens, the Ljubljana-based premium water cooling gear manufacturer has just released one such pump, called EK-DCP 4.0.
It's the sort of thing that will easily hook up to the company's various water blocks, through normal hoses and connection ports.
The thing works at 12V DC and has a power consumption of 18W, plus an MTBF of 50.000 hours at a temperature of 25°C.
A 4-Pin Molex and 4-Pin PWM FAN connector deliver the necessary electricity. The cables are pre-sleeved, in case you were wondering.
So what can the thing do, you might ask? Why, cause a water flow of 800 liters per hour at a pressure of up to 4.0m.
Finally, EK included power management control, specifically pulse width modulation (PWM) control of rotation speed through the motherboard BIOS or a dedicated fan controller.
We suppose you could say that EK did all it could to sell people on the idea of a standard water cooling system.
You see, for a few years, it hasn't just been a question between air cooling and water cooling, not in the strictest sense.
Some companies ship closed-loop liquid coolers, which are like air-based coolers in that they work out of the box and independently, but have a coolant of some sort inside, and a radiator instead of a heatsink.
It is those products that the EK hopes to get people to discard in favor of its new EK-DCP 4.0 water pump, plus a CPU or GPU water block for whatever processor or video card they possess. And then there are things like the EK-DCP 4.0 X-RES pump reservoir combo unit, which the newcomer is supposed to be paired with (though it is compatible with others too).
The control via motherboard BIOS should win some points there, but nevertheless, the ultimate decision will probably depend on pricing more than a little bit.
On the flip side, some could argue that enthusiasts probably don't care about costs anyway, so there shouldn't even be a question of whether or not full-blown water cooling wins against closed-loop solutions.
Anyway, the price of the EK DCP 4.0 water pump is €45.70, which translates into $63.22, according to current exchange rates, give or take a few cents.