EKWB's new vertical mount lets you give your liquid-cooled GPU the attention it deserves
Flaunt it.
EKWB has introduced a new vertical GPU mounting bracket for its liquid cooling water blocks, which allows you to mount your graphics card with the more exciting liquid-cooled area atop of your GPU facing outwards.
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I've spoken about this issue many times before. You buy a swanky liquid cooling block for your graphics card, marvel at its beauty, install it, and then stick it in your PC with the intrinsically lovely part hidden out of sight. You know it's there, doing a great job cooling your PC parts, but you can't flaunt it (unless you use a mirror). And what's the point in custom loop liquid cooling if you can't show it off?
Enter: the EK-Loop Vertical GPU Holder. It's far from the first vertical GPU mount—in fact, many modern cases now come with the option to align your graphics card either horizontally or vertically—but this one has been specially built to offer sturdy support for hard-tube installation.
You'll need at least six free slots for the Vertical GPU Holder, and your case needs to come with an open PCIe expansion slot design—those with no bracket bars installed across them. EK is planning a mount to fit these too, but in the meantime you'd have to cut them out manually at your own peril to get it to all fit.
The bracket then screws into two of your ATX motherboard mounts, which EKWB says makes for an incredibly sturdy construction, that can even survive the precarious task of transporting your water-cooled PC once you've built it. I don't care to put that one to the test myself, if I'm honest.
A 200mm riser cable is also included in the box, which should suffice for most builds.
The ability to flaunt your PC's silicon doesn't come cheap, however. The EK-Loop Vertical GPU Holder is available from the EKWB webshop for €65.
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Jacob earned his first byline writing for his own tech blog. From there, he graduated to professionally breaking things as hardware writer at PCGamesN, and would go on to run the team as hardware editor. He joined PC Gamer's top staff as senior hardware editor before becoming managing editor of the hardware team, and you'll now find him reporting on the latest developments in the technology and gaming industries and testing the newest PC components.