EK Openly Apologizes about Supremacy EVO Threadripper Edition Mistake
You know what, companies sometimes make mistakes and often say nowhting. Others you have to applaud, for being open and transparent about it. EK belongs in that last category. They just posted a huge apology on their website in regards to EK-Supremacy EVO Threadripper Edition CPU water blocks not being at its best, and offers a free fix.
It seems the original Ryzen Threadripper CPU blocks did not cover all the cores properly, the fin area wasn't large enough. The performance was significantly worse than competitor blocks and that just doesn't live up to what EK is and offers as a brand. Here's that apology posted on their website:
An apology from EK to all the enthusiasts
EK® was always dedicated to providing overclocking enthusiasts and PC builders with the best of what the market can offer. Anyone who was reading the reviews is aware that this was not entirely true for the EK-Supremacy EVO Threadripper Edition CPU water block. This was a result of an oversight from our side almost a year ago. The performance of EK-Supremacy EVO Threadripper Edition CPU water block and the X399 monoblocks, which are based on the same cold plate design, are not up to EK® standards so action had to be taken. For this reason, the EK-Supremacy EVO Threadripper Edition CPU water blocks are on a fair discount for some time and the launch of three X399 monoblocks was held off until the issue with the cold plate is fixed.
Finally, now we can try to make things right, as our engineers came up with a new cold plate, tailor-made for HEDT AMD® Ryzen™ Threadripper processors. The new cold plate has a much larger fin area than the older one, and now the monoblocks can even compete against the best performing Ryzen™ Threadripper™ water blocks on the market.
To set things right, everyone who purchased the EK-FB ASUS ROG ZE RGB Monoblock can apply for a free upgrade kit. The upgrade kit with the new cold plate will contain all the necessary things needed to conduct the cold plate swap. Everyone who can provide proof of purchase of the EK-FB ASUS ROG ZE RGB Monoblock is entitled to a free upgrade kit with free delivery. All you need to do is contact EK support team at www.ekwb.com/support and arrange the upgrade kit. If you need any help with replacing the old cold plate, please contact our customer service or refer to THIS video tutorial.
Unfortunately, the upgrade kit will not be available for EK-Supremacy EVO Threadripper Edition CPU water block, since it does not share the same mounting mechanism as the monoblock. Everyone who purchased EK-Supremacy EVO Threadripper Edition CPU water block before the 24th of November 2017 is entitled to a 25 €/$ coupon code. Everyone who can provide proof of purchase before the 24th of November 2017 is entitled to a partial refund of 25 €/$. All you need to do is contact EK support team at www.ekwb.com/support and arrange the coupon code.
Our engineering team is hard at work with developing a new CPU water block which will be specifically designed for HEDT AMD® Ryzen™ Threadripper™ processors. We hope that the partial refund will compensate for the lack of performance of the EK-Supremacy EVO Threadripper Edition CPU water block and that you, our customers, will put your trust in our upcoming products.
Sincerely,
EK
Senior Member
Posts: 2068
Joined: 2017-03-10
It's nice that they're owning up to their failures and trying to make up for it. I didn't really know how it compared to the competition, and simply assumed EK would make a good product (guess I was wrong). I've contacted EK about a coupon, as I bought the block in August.
To be frank, I didn't notice overly high temps on my system (running 24/7, computing on all cores), but I don't overclock or do anything extreme. Maybe on my next major overhaul I'll think about replacing the block.
Senior Member
Posts: 11554
Joined: 2010-12-27
Even HSF designed for threadripper compared to normal versions on those Noctua heatsinks made a significant difference; normal versions didn't cover all the cores.
Senior Member
Posts: 3669
Joined: 2011-11-24
So wait, they design them and then never test them? How did this get to market?
Senior Member
Posts: 6483
Joined: 2012-11-10
I'm sure they did. It's not like their design didn't work, it just wasn't as efficient as it could be. I guess EK just underestimated the importance of taking advantage of TR's entire surface area. After all, there are higher-wattage CPUs than the 1950X with significantly smaller dies, so if I were them I'd also assume "meh, we probably don't have to cover the whole thing".
Senior Member
Posts: 1268
Joined: 2014-11-19
It was faulty(inferior) in that it did not do what those buying it expected. But yes, they are handling it as they should.