Kickstarter is home to some of the wildest and ingenious ideas in tech, with Nudecnc’s Ncore V1-naked die cooling water block standing out among all the potential suitors for your funding. This miniscule direct-die water block may even sway a few delidding-atheists among us.
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You likely have not heard of Nudecnc before – with good reason. The company seems to be one CAD-CAM designer named Arek Tobiszewski, who put together the prototype of the Ncore V1 as a personal project.
The result of the creators machining is an exceptionally innovative direct-die custom loop water block. While most water blocks tend to feature some sort of mounting system, the Ncore V1 actually slots right into the socket just above the CPU itself and locks into place with the Intel LGA1151 bracket. Supposedly, installation only takes 12 seconds to complete this way, but I won’t judge you too harshly if you take a little longer to install the Ncore on your ~$330 i7 8700K.
The extra space within the bracket itself is due to the removal of the IHS (integrated heat spreader) from the CPU itself. While this procedure is common among overclockers, and will aid thermals massively once completed and some new TIM (thermal interface material) is applied, it can look a little too daunting for most users to carry out.
To combat the extra layer of metal stuck to your CPU and to make things a little more convenient for the uninitiated, the Ncore comes with its own delidding tool. This handy tool twists the IHS right off the top of your chip in a way that makes me feel very uncomfortable. When you’re done, you can switch about the delidder tool and utilise it as a mounting bracket for extra support or mounting a CPU with the IHS intact. Neat.
The water block features ¼ inch brass inlet and outlet threaded connectors, an acrylic top plate, multiple o-ring seals, and a copper base for top-of-the-line thermal performance. The water flow can also be adjusted for high- or low-flow loops, if required.
So far, the project has already successfully netted £3,798 (as of writing) of its £10,000 all-in goal, which the small company needs to raise by May 1, 2018 to get the go-ahead. Anyone interested in the Ncore V1 will need to pledge at least £69 for the V1 model (without the delidder), or £89 for the full hardware package with the delidder tool included.