What's being billed as the world's first waterblock for naked die cooling, the Ncore V1, has landed on Kickstarter with a goal of raising $14,090. At the time of this writing, 27 backers have pledged $3,605 towards that goal.
The Ncore V1 is unique from other waterblocks in that it is purpose built for processors without an integrated heatspreader (IHS). Intel and AMD don't sell their chips without this critical piece of metal, of course, as it serves to both protect the die from damage and transfer heat to a larger surface area, on top of which sits a cooler of some sort (and thermal paste).
In the ongoing quest for superior cooling than what's available out of the box, enthusiasts resort to all sorts of tricks. Some people sandpaper the IHS in an attempt to create a smoother surface (known as "lapping"), and others embark on the delicate process of delidding, choosing to remove the IHS altogether.
For those who are brave enough to try the latter—and "it takes balls to perform this type of the surgery," the wife of the Ncore V1's designer candidly admits in the Kickstarter video—this waterblock is supposed to make cooling an easier affair. It features an in-socket mounting system, so it drops right in without having to install a separate bracket. It's compatible with socket LGA 1151 Intel processors and motherboards.
The designer of the Ncore V1, Arek Tobiszewski, is a CNC CAD/CAM designer. He's dabbled in other projects, none of which have seen mass market appeal. Tobiszewski hopes this one will be different, at least in so much that serving a niche market allows.
According to the Kickstarter page, prototypes of the cooler have shown a significant reduction in temperature on a Core i7-6700K, compared to using a standard waterblock on both regular and delidded chips. The Ncore V1 essentially acts as the IHS, enabling coolant to flow 20x closer to the CPU, Tobiszewski says. In that way, it supposedly offers the same protection for the CPU die, while kicking up cooling performance.
Early Bird pricing is set at £69 ($97), with an estimated delivery of August 2018. There's also an £89 ($125) tier that includes a frame for delidding. You can check it out here.
