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Published: December 27, 2017 | Source: EKWB | Author: Mark Campbell

ASUS quietly changes the PCB design of their GTX 1080 Ti Strix – Breaking EK Water block compatibility

ASUS quietly changes the PCB design of their GTX 1080 Ti Strix - Breaking EK Water block compatability

ASUS quietly changes the PCB design of their GTX 1080 Ti Strix 

Product revisions are common within the PC industry, be it releasing newly manufactured motherboards with newer BIOS iterations or making small design changes that are designed to improve the efficiency or longevity of their products. 
 
Product revision rarely have a huge impact on a product’s compatibility, rarely making changes that are visible to the eyes of an average user, though there are occasions where such changes can have a huge impact. A recent example of this is recent changes to ASUS’ GTX 1080 Ti Strix, which renders new graphics processors incompatible with EK’s custom GTX 1080 Ti water blocks.

EK has warned their users that ASUS GTX 1080 Ti Strix graphics cards that manufactured after the start of November 2017 (with the model numbers HBYVCM064817, HBYVCM999999, HCYVCM000001 or HCYVCM059975), will not be compatible with their custom GTX 1080 Ti Strix water blocks. At this time it is unknown precisely what component placements have changed on newer models of break compatibility.    

  

ASUS quietly changes the PCB design of their GTX 1080 Ti Strix - Breaking EK Water block compatability 
Like all major design revisions, ASUS has changed the PCB of their GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards for a reason, whether it be to reduce manufacturing cost, increase reliability or otherwise improve their product. These changes were worth the engineering time that ASUS spent on it, as otherwise ASUS’ GTX 1080 Ti design would not have been changed. 

Those who are interested in water cooling their GTX 1080 Ti Strix should take note of this event, as it means that PC builders should avoid new GTX 1080 Ti Strix model numbers if they plan on purchasing one of these GPUs with water cooling in mind. 

You can join the discussion on ASUS changing the PCB of their GTX 1080 Ti Strix on the OC3D Forums. 

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