This liquid cooling kit gives your empty drive bays a purpose

It's been a long time since we've needed an optical drive to play Myst. While not completely obsolete, the market for optical drives isn't what it once was. With that in mind, EK has a new line of liquid coolers that make use of your case's empty 5.25-inch drive bays. That's assuming your case even has optical drive bays to begin with.

EK's new Gaming series kits, or G kits for short, come in three different radiator sizes, those being 240mm, 280mm, and 360mm. The smaller of the two feature two cooling fans, while the largest one has three fans.

Other than the size of the radiator and number (and size) of the accompanying cooling fans, all three kits are the same. Each one features a universal CPU water block that fits all modern CPU sockets (including AMD's new AM4 socket for Ryzen) with tool-less installation, and all three come with a plexiglass reservoir that occupies two 5.25-inch drive bays.

"This type of design makes the use of 5.25-inch drive bay slots in order to provide efficient air flow and more room for other components when facing limited space constraints," EK says.

The reservoir also sports an integrated Xylem D5 PWM water pump that pushes coolant through two meters of transparent tubing that comes with the package. You also get six advanced compression fittings that are made of nickel, and a 100mL bottle of CryoFuel clear concentrate that needs to be dilluted with 900mL of distilled water (not included).

In addition to users with free 5.25-inch drive bays, EK says its Gaming series is ideally suited for users with limited liquid cooling experience.

"The majority of components are pre-assembled, resulting in quick and painless installation procedure. Once installed, these kits are a full custom loop solution. They can be upgraded with additional water blocks, for example, GPU water blocks and components, such as additional radiators," EK says. "If you are cooling your rig with air, and dreaming about liquid cooling, these kits will make your transition to this elite club as easy as possible!"

Pricing has been set at €290 for the G240 kit, €300 for the G280 kit, and €315 for the G360 kit.

Paul Lilly

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).