How soon the innovation can be found in production cards, EK does not specify
EK is holding a virtual EK EXPO at CES 2021, presenting new products and developments. Among them is “the first adequate solution for active cooling of the rear panel”. According to the manufacturer, it can be easily integrated into the cooling system without requiring inconvenient soft hose connections. In fact, this is the second water block located on the rear panel.
EK managed to add an “active back panel” to the water block for the video card.
Describing the novelty, EK compares a PCB to a heatsink, since the copper tracks are good at absorbing the heat generated by the components located on it. By removing heat from the board, you can reduce the overall temperature of all components on it, even those that are not directly cooled.
In turn, any additional cooling is very welcome as it allows more overclocking of the GPU. It is especially advisable to use additional cooling in flagship video cards with video memory located on the back of the PCB, such as the RTX 3090.
The active back panel is installed on the board via a thermal interface, which gives an additional plus in noise reduction. The fact is that the gasket dampens the inductors’ oscillations, which are heard as a whistle. What’s more, as the panel becomes stronger and more massive due to the water block, it absorbs vibration better.
How soon the described innovation can be found in production cards, EK does not specify.
