Over the past two decades, EK has built itself a reputation for designing and selling custom high-end liquid cooling kits and parts. Now it wants to try its hand at selling prebuilt PCs, starting with liquid-cooled systems built around AMD's second generation Ryzen processor lineup.
It's a well-timed entry into the field of prebuilt PCs, given that AMD just launched a new round of Ryzen chips that are faring well in reviews (see our own write-up on the new Ryzen 7 2700X). What will be interesting, though, is if EK can carve itself an audience from buyers who might otherwise look to boutique builders like Maingear and Digital Storm for high-end setups with custom liquid cooling loops.
EK's pitch is that not everyone has the time to build their own system. That's obviously true, though the real appeal is having a professional builder take the risk of putting together a liquid cooling setup, for those who might feel trepidation in venturing beyond all-in-one coolers that are practically as easy to install as an air cooler.
There are three baseline configurations. The least expensive is the Hero, which starts at $2,100 and includes a Ryzen 5 2600 procesor, MSI B350 Tomahawk motherboard, 16GB of G.Skill Triden Z RGB RAM, GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card, Samsung 960 Evo 250GB SSD + Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD, and an EVGA Supernova 650W power supply.
The next step up is the Champion SKU starting at $2,750. Upgrades include a Ryzen 7 2700X CPU, MSI X470 Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard, double the capacity of both storage drives, a GeForce GTX 1070 Ti graphics card, and an 850W PSU.
Finally, the Legend starting at $4,260 ups the ante with an MSI X470 Gaming M7 AC motherboard, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD paired with a 4TB HDD, a GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card, and a 1000W PSU. EK also bumps the OS up from Windows 10 Home to the Pro version.
All three setups come built in an In-Win 101C Fluid Gaming edition case with custom automotive paint, laser etched serial number, and a soft-tube liquid cooling configuration that flows to both the CPU and graphics card.
Buyers are not bound to the three specific configurations above—EK offers a bit of customization, though nothing too crazy. That said, EK isn't offering any Intel options at them moment, only second generation Ryzen setups.
Go here to check them out.
