HW News: ZOTAC GTX 1080 Arctic Storm, Aqua Computer Kryographics, & NAND

Recapping some of the most recent hardware news for the past two days, we visit topics centering on liquid cooling for video cards and a side topic discussing Micron's newest 32GB mobile 3D NAND.

For GPUs, ZOTAC has just announced its “ArcticStorm” GTX 1080 card with waterblock, providing full coverage over the VRAM, FETs, and GPU itself. Standard G1/4 threaded fittings include barbs to support 10mm inner diameter tubing, and microfins are spaced at 0.3mm apart. For a more visual understanding of microfins and spacing, check our liquid cooler tear-down. A metal backplate is included with the card.

We don't have a price on Zotac's ArcticStorm just yet, but have reached-out to ask.

Aqua Computer also announced its open-loop liquid cooler waterblock for the Titan X Pascal graphics card, offering full coverage of the VRAM and GPU. The entire card is not covered as with the Zotac ArcticStorm (for the 1080), but that's really less of a cooling concern and more of an aesthetics choice.

Aqua Computer is also only selling the block, not the entire card + block ensemble. The block is priced at 100 euros for the copper version, 115 for the nickel-plated copper version, and there's an extra 25 euros for an optional backplate. The cooler is a jet plate electrolytic copper block that's 10mm thick – pretty dense – and allows for thermal compound on VRAM and the GPU.

The final news item is regarding Micron's newest push into the mobile market with 3D NAND, now growing up to 32GB in capacity. The new 3D NAND die is ~60mm^2, and makes up for its small footprint by vertically stacking NAND. Learn more about what NAND is in our previous article.

This push into mobile is an attempt by Micron to expand offerings into growth sectors, and should theoretically improve application load times and writes on photos/camera apps.

Host: Steve “Lelldorianx” Burke
Video: Keegan "HornetSting" Gallick