I’m not really a fan of EKWB, but that is kind of tempting.
Yeah, I hear what you are saying.
I think they've had their stumbles, but they are mostly OK, and if you want a fullcover block for any random GPU out there you happen to be able to pick up, sometimes they are your only alternative, especially in this market where you are lucky to get a GPU at all, and can't pick and choose the one you want based on which block will fit.
I can think of two negatives about them.
1.) That nickel coating fiasco a decade ago.
I was really disappointed in that they didn't take full responsibility for it and make their customers whole, but at least they learned from it and improved their plating process, so newer parts shouldn't have the same problem.
2.) The ****ty design on their first Threadripper block.
They assumed Threadripper was going to be a low volume chip no one would buy, so in order to make a cost-effective block for it, they stretched their existing base resulting in a small fin area compared to the large CPU. Turns out their competitors went all in and designed special CPU blocks just for threadripper. When they realized this (and when they got some bad press) they did the same and launched a larger v2 block that performs well.
I've had two of their nickel plated blocks, my old CPU block (Supremacy EVO full copper) and my current GPU block for my Pascal Titan. Neither have had any issues and both have performed very well.
This particular GPU spoke to me because it was available, it was considered one of the most performant 6900xt's on the market, and I wouldn't have to go out trying to find a full cover block that fit it, and have it shipped from slow-venia making me wait for my install. This is going to make it easy to just plop it in there and go!
When I first started buying water blocks in 2016 (I was late to the party) I struggled with whether or not I wanted to give my money to a company that had screwed over its customers like they had with the nickel plating issue, but I quickly concluded that if I wanted to cool the components I had, (and get the best performance while doing so) I didn't have much of a choice. I got over it over time.
The blocks I have bought have worked for me, but when I upgraded to a Threadripper 2 years ago I decided to go with Watercool's block instead, and it has not disappointed. Still on the GPU side the options are more limited. Watercool has great blocks, but only for a small number of cards. You buy anything outside of reference layout and they are pretty much out of the picture, and so few boards are reference layout these days. There's the Alphacool adaptable design, where you keep the same central block, and just replace the mounting hardware and fullcover portion to fit your new GPU. It's a cool concept, but they don't perform as well sadly. Then there is the Chinese junk like Bykski. No way I am tryusting water near my expensive parts to a Chinese company.
...so I keep coming back to EK being my only choice in many cases.
