I’m so blown away by how cool gaming PC builds are looking in the modern era. Some are RGB light shows with screens displaying animations inside, others are understated discrete little boxes. Others are a little of both and in the ever customisable world of PC Building, often those choices are completely up to you.
EKWB have made a very neat turn mixing laser lightshow with small and discrete PCs by putting a monoblock cooler on an ITX motherboard. The AM4 socket fitting monoblock is dubbed the EK-Quantum Momentum² ROG Strix X570-I Gaming D-RGB and has been made specifically for the Asus ROG Strix X570-I Gaming ITX motherboard. If you heard about pesky USB problems with AMD X570 mobos like the excellent Gigabyte X570S Aorus Master or more affordable ASRock X570S PG Riptide those have since been fixed too.
It’s even designed to work with Asus Aura Sync to customise every diode. Having the flat cooling system fully cover the mobo while giving an RGB glow through the water is a very neat look for a little system. It definitely looks nice and cool in there.
That being said, monoblocks aren’t exactly a common choice for coolers, as they’re built to cover a lot of the motherboard. That’s great in terms of how much cooling you can get, but it means as soon as you’re up for a new motherboard you need a brand new cooling system. Many don’t necessarily find this trade off to be worth it or just prefer to stick to simpler AIO or air coolers.
Best CPU cooler: keep your chip chilled in style
Best PC fans: super-silent and plastered in RGB
Best PC cases: big, little, and everything in-between.
But with a small form factor like an ITX motherboard, a bespoke cooler does seem like a good idea. And would probably make it easier to fit in a teeny tiny cute case if you wanted moreso than other cooling methods might. And the fact that it’s purpose built means it should be relatively hassle free to install. EKWB says the water block can keep an AM4 Ryzen CPU, VRM section, and the X570 chipset cool without any need for fans by flowing liquid over these critical areas. That sounds good and all but it's definitely mostly about how nice this thing looks.
Being a very specific and purpose built product means they’re not the cheapest way to keep your tiny PC cool, but for this use case it seems to make a lot of sense. While not out yet, they’re available for preorder on the EKWB shop for $209.99 USD, €167.98 Euro or $320 AUD.
