EK will build and sell you a liquid-cooled AMD Ryzen gaming PC

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.

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Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).