Million Dollar Water Block: How Water Cooling is Made | Factory Tour in Taiwan

[@GamersNexus]

SUPPORT OUR FACTORY TOUR SERIES! The best way to support our work is through our store: store.gamersnexus.net/ or via Patreon for behind-the-scenes videos: www.patreon.com/gamersnexus Watch our factory tour playlist: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hZqrgYl6ZZqbnbs

[@leviathanpriim3951]

this is very cool to see how h20 parts are made. Hope the rest of the trip is going well GN

[@vrealon7738]

Honestly, I think factory tours are my favorite kind of your content, keep up the great work 👍

[@Valegator]

I worked in a plastic recycling factory with similar looking bags filled with granulated plastic. So I can confirm that those big bags can contain 1000 kg of material. Tho it wasn't rare to see bags with 1200 kg of plastic in them. Open bag that you can see in the middle @07:02 by it look's to me like it could have about 400-550 kg. The rest of the bags that you can see stacked on left side look inefficiently packed and there is wasted space left in them. Then again their supplier might have asked them to fill the bags to a certain point for what ever reason. Keep in mind that I worked with granulated plastic and what I say might not 100% apply to their work.

[@superbanana111222333]

@@Valegator Very cool

[@gazyates5228]

This is Truly a treat , thanks guys , cant wait for the next one , PS now I know why fittings are so expensive 👍👍👍

[@ek8507]

i dig the fun socks and towels used for drying. really improves the overall mood in the factory.

[@markiegarza3223]

I was hoping someone would mention this!!! Haha!

[@rilock2435]

They seem to really like Kitten socks!

[@MotoCat91]

If I pretend this is the official EK watercooling channel it makes this comment so much better

[@bryandepaepe5984]

Recycling old clothes into shop rags is a common business everywhere.

[@ek8507]

@@MotoCat91 we need to start shipping kitty socks with every custom loop purchase to remind users to clean out their loops and prevent bio buildup and corrosion

[@uss_04]

Serious props to the people in the factory for letting you guys in and interrupting standard practices to make it more filmable for you guys. They could have just let you walk around with a camera but they took the time to slow things down. That must be pride in their work

[@AntExe-ey5my]

I've spent quite a lot of time operating CNC lathes and milling machines. Never used funky socks to protect any tooling though. Deeply regretting it now.

[@borderlinerd]

Those metal rods look a lot like brass, instead of copper. Brass is easily the most common material for water handling fittings in pc cooling and other consumer products. Brass is the common material because it's much cheaper and waaay easier to machine than copper. The blocks ofc need to be copper for thermal properties.

[@AsbestosMuffins]

might be a translation error

[@flagovhate]

Yea i said the same thing, stainless/brass fittings are the most common, i can't see any reason why they would use copper for a compression fitting.

[@BRUXXUS]

I was thinking the same thing. I mean... for fittings and structural parts, it really doesn't matter if they're brass or copper, they'll get plated anyways. The blocks are where it really counts. It does call into question certain company's marketing of parts, though.

[@MorbidEel]

@@AsbestosMuffins that seems likely since brass is "yellow copper" :)

[@nwimpney]

It's a super common translation error, but yeah. they're clearly brass,

[@neoqueto]

Those factory tours give us viewers truly invaluable insight into the entire manufacturing process. It's basically education for free.

[@22interceptions]

4:03 RGB! Even the factories have it now lol

[@mikka1986]

It's amazing with such capital and operating expenses, Bitspower can survive with just manufacturing water cooling parts for PC market, not to say custom loop parts are pretty low demand items.

[@jkotka]

thank you for the great content. few terms for future usage: cnc chamber = cnc milling machine, also cnc chamber = cnc lathe (latter is the one where the stock spins, former the one where the stock is stationary). oil = coolant. Intresting to see how seemingly unoptimal part of the process is. It might be that the amount of parts run on the milling machines is so low that it doesn't require pallets and fixturing to make it economically viable. The lathes with the bar feeders seem to be much more optimized.

[@andyvan27]

He should check out the endmills that cut super fast. It looks like a hot knife going through butter.

[@mrt6399]

eey a fellow machinist

[@jefferyburns7893]

Being an industrial engineer and trained to program and set up cnc machines as well as figure out best tools and material for each thing this was a super interesting video

[@nigelstone2565]

catia or NX

[@jon4715]

gives you a deeper appreciation for these small parts. these factory tours are the best computer-related vids on youtube.

[@vonezerq]

Loving these factory tour videos. Has a lot of "How it was made" vibe which I think is very good.

[@paladingeorge6098]

Its so cool that you guys get to do these kinds of tours. This kind of "how its made" content is not as easily found about PC parts.

[@BRUXXUS]

Obviously I love all the factory footage and information, but that little glimpse of the countryside from the train was really beautiful.

[@mateuszkwietowicz2470]

Thanks! As a big bitspower fan, I loved the tour of their factory. Suprised how small it is. I'm used to factories being huge, multi storage, multi building processing plants... yet, this is barely a warehouse with several, highly expensive machine and a dozen or so workers... I now better understand the price of their fittings, but I still hate how expensive they are compared to smething like alphacool.

[@johntotten4872]

The feels when you were born and raised in a small town of 16k people. 230k people is a decent sized city. Loving the factory tours. You learn why things cost what they do and also how it is made and what is truly involved in the manufacture.

[@KeppyKep]

Fascinating. Really cool seeing a small factory as well. Quite different to the behemoths like cooler master

[@IzzacJ]

As a former CNC mill operator and programmer (at one of the biggest screw/bolt maker for the car industry, Bulten AB) I found this quite interesting. I’d love to see more about the actual CNC machines and their software. I used GibbsCAM 12, which was a hot mess filled with bugs and crashes. The workstation was pretty dope thou. Handled games pretty well during the 2+ hour jobs xD EDIT: I operated a Mazak Variaxis 500-5X II.

[@atomkinder67]

Oh boy, last version of GibbsCAM I used was 2012+ and that sure takes me back. To be honest most of them have their odd quirks and spats. Used MasterCAM for a while in progressive die manufacturing, HSMWorks in agricultural research equipment, and now NX, Fusion 360 and Hypermill for a consumer electronics company that will remain unnamed.

[@Jdraisen]

Awesome, loving the factory tours!

[@hquest]

Nothing like the smell of cooling CNC oil in the morning!

[@evilspoons]

Or getting chips in your eye... keep those safety glasses on folks.

[@flagovhate]

@@evilspoons lol that dude with a air gun had no safety glasses, i was like bruh.

[@harsimransingh615]

@@evilspoons I think they know what they are doing. Also the Machines are closed.

[@flagovhate]

@@harsimransingh615 you clearly didn't see the guy blowing the parts with the air gun. Nobody, no matter how many years of experience, or how skillfull, would be able to 100% avoid an eye injury.

[@evilspoons]

@@harsimransingh615 And I know what I'm doing, I'm an electrical engineer who works in factory automation.

[@rockitcool8621]

It takes us about 12 minutes to make a complete delid tool, 9 minutes to make a Copper IHS. We use diamond tipped tools to cut copper, diamond coated tools to cut plastic.

[@21C.NewTaiwanese]

Welcom to TAIWAN ~ 歡迎來台灣 😁

[@russellneal1263]

Love these factory tour videos Steve and crew. Really drives home how much you care about a quality product coming to market for us consumers.

[@alecjahn]

You do us all a great service by doing these tours, especially during a time like this when many people are stuck at home. Cheers!

[@shifty277]

Phenominal video, I really enjoy this content. Watch all your factory tour videos and thumbs'd up on all. Thanks for going through all the effort to travel to these factories and persuading companies to bring your cameras in. Easily the best tech channel on youtube.

[@southbronxny5727]

Glad you showing people how complicated a business is.

[@laukmray]

I love the factory tour.

[@bobiseverywhere]

i liked bitspower before but more so even now getting to see this and the people that work there.

[@morpheus_9]

I am in a CNC machine shop class and this video is so badass!

[@d00dEEE]

Oh, and big thumbs up to Bitspower for giving you the tour!

[@Mr.DJones]

Great vid. I think it is fantastic that you and your team get to travel to other countries and love what you do. Thank you again for all your hard work.

[@boonagiplays]

I love these factory tour videos from you guys. Reminds me of field trips we used to have in grade school.

[@robrocksea]

Since Shipping Costs are the largest cost in production. I can see water block production coming back to North/South America, or the Caribbean. Where most of the copper(mined/recycled) is used comes from. and Sold.

[@AsbestosMuffins]

quite interesting that this factory is essentially just a warehouse of CnC cabinets

[@atomkinder67]

It's very similar to machine shops in the USA, of which there are many.

[@mrt6399]

not a cnc cabinet, these are cnc mills and cnc lathes

[@3rdGenGuy]

Same as US factories, all be it with less safety requirements.

[@FoolOfATuque]

@@mrt6399 some were Mill/Turn machines as well.

[@hazonku]

As others mentioned, I too am surprised they don't have an 4 & 5 axis machines. I'm sure they'll likely get around to that before they start buying up more real estate though.

[@mrt6399]

or a high density pallet or something

[@KeppyKep]

2:33 Patrick just casually checking out how the pallet smells

[@uss_04]

I love those small-ish towns connected through high speed rail that passes through farmland. Must be relaxing

[@kevgwang]

simply awesome. I love these kinds of videos

[@ghostdog4330]

I do enjoy these vids. The factories are cool for showing how it all works.

[@coolliung]

Welcome to Taiwan!

[@CollinJDM98]

You and your team never disappoint Steve. A man, team, and channel of such pure quality. Keep up the great work, every video I have watched from the channel has been amazing!

[@Skidd2]

Those are some really cheap cnc machines! I was in a shop where there cheapest one was $250k! (USD)

[@jefferyburns7893]

Skidd2 those are cheaper competitors to haas cnc mills

[@atomkinder67]

@@jefferyburns7893 [Almost] no one in Asia would bother importing Haas from the US. There are a lot of machine tool manufacturers there with dedicated foundry and casting plants dedicated to machine tools. And don't kid yourself, Haas is a pretty inexpensive commodity machine tool as far as these things go.

[@jefferyburns7893]

atomkinder67 agreed on all fronts. From the couple seconds I could pause and zoom in on the screen on the machine the machines seemed to be using the older but in my opinion better fadal software. I was also interested in the fact they were not set up with 4 and 5 axis mills from what I could tell

[@ReinaldoRauch]

that's why they produce the blocks in taiwan or china

[@2Fast4Mellow]

Don't forget that the more expensive CNC machines can also turn the 'subject' instead of relying on the operator to do so. They automatically infer the 0,0 point instead of using templates. However labor costs is low in Asia, so it's way cheaper to let a operator flip the subject than buying a machine that costs twice as much (and it also bigger).. In the late 90s the IT company I worked for had a CNC factory customer that produces specialized items for various German car manufacturers. These items had very low tolerances. Parts that were allowed some larger tolerances were produced in Asia. The German luxery car manufacturers have more made in Europe than Asia than factories that produce for the common people. It's very simple, a car that costs 60.000 euro is easier to produce in Europe than a car that costs 20.000 euro.. However most of our customers were active in the offshore business..

[@_EVANERV_]

I love these factory tours! Keep them coming!

[@LKLM138]

PCs, Watercooling, heavy machinery, presice human/asian engineering... man these videos scratch a tickle I didn't know I had.

[@josediaspinto7438]

I was remembering the "time" (circa 2004) when the best waterblocks had their base lapped (as did Swiftech, DangerDen) instead of plainly finishing them on the mill.

[@uss_04]

That was a perfect into clip. All that lubricant spraying everywhere looks so satisfying

[@captianmorgan7627]

These factory tours are great.

[@mr_jarble]

This is one of those I did not know how badly I wanted to see until you posted it

[@ipadize]

doesnt look like they have 5 axis machines. Those would cut down machining times dramatically because you dont have to do multipass milling on an qngled surface but you can tilt/rotate the 4th/5th axis and just use a facemill ps. if you think you can only machine one piece at a time on a 5 axis, there are pyramid clamping things or Tombstones where you can machine more pieces at a time

[@machinist7230]

Tombstones are generally used for high density workholding in 4 axis horizontal machining centers, HOWEVER, there are "pyramids" for mounting multiple centering vises in a 5 axis machine(both trunnion machines and swivel heads). See 5thaxis.com for examples - you'll note that they're in the "decent used car" spectrum in terms of price.

[@footpetaljones]

Any kind of fixture plate or zero point workholding would make their productivity skyrocket without even buying another machine.

[@boazplays7239]

My job is to manufacture those specialized drill bits. With so many factories shut down, we're pretty much out of work.

[@voodooutt]

and better yet, if anyone is curious, the machines that make the tools needed for these CNC machines is a whole 'nother world! 5 axis CNC cutter grinding: Carbide Drills / Endmills / Reamers / Step Tools / Inserts (ISOG Technology GmbH)

[@aegisfate41808]

Thanks Steve, this was super interesting. Just took the dive into water cooling myself.

[@kobewong2122]

I can't believe Gamers Nexus isn't subscribed to Gamers Nexus.

[@flagovhate]

Are you sure the fittings are copper and not brass? What is the benefit to using copper over brass or even stainless?

[@tee_es_bee]

3 hours in a CNC is massive. Not surprised the prices are high on those parts.

[@nitishisad5947]

Pos Chinese machines.

[@atomkinder67]

This only depends on what you're making and how you want to get there. I've had cycle times in the range of 40 hours.

[@nitishisad5947]

@@atomkinder67 if not talking about time particularly, but if they have used something multi axis like UMC 750p, they would have shaved a lot more time per part. But it seems like 3 axes are more cost effective for them. As the product is niche and is not produced in such a high quantity.

[@nigelstone2565]

@@nitishisad5947 but the cost of 5 axis is far higher when you dont need it most jobs are 5 axis positioning and 3 axis machining

[@nigelstone2565]

@@atomkinder67 kzbin.info/www/bejne/eX3NhZyuoquIoa8 this take 6 days 24 / 7

[@grailknightofenoch1263]

awesome shit bro

[@victorm316]

That is what I do for a living. I work on CNC milling machines

[@TheCloudhopper]

That "small town" is larger than the 2nd largest CITY in my country. Hahahahahaha.

[@bikingchupei2447]

hmm, taiwan as a whole is already pretty small, where do you live?

[@KingHalbatorix]

@Every Word Is A Made-Up Word _WHAT_ I live in rural america, anything over 100k is a small city, village doesn't even start until you're under 5,000 residents

[@obake6290]

@@KingHalbatorix Yeah, I grew up in a small city of around 5k. 230k is bigger than almost every city in the state.

[@ahmetrefikeryilmaz4432]

well the population is about 4M where I live (Izmir, TR). There is Istanbul however, easily 22M+ at any given moment and probably bordering 25M summertime. 200K is just the right population I'd like for a city. Not too crowded, not too empty.

[@MetalForever895]

Tech Jesus How it's made, great content!

[@ElectricEvan]

Where are the safety glasses on the guy who was shooting compressed air into that cnc machine?!

[@flagovhate]

Lmao they are non-existent

[@ElectricEvan]

I can't care about the LN2 handling. If it splashes up at you the leidenfrost effect mostly protects people a lot of the time.

[@UrbanaticLemonade]

He is an idiot for not using PPEs

[@docferringer]

The safety glasses are stored in the first world along with all of the other safety regulations.

[@sevbait]

I’ve been wanting to try an custom loop, but find the $475+ bykski/barrowch price for a Laing D5 with pump top and reservoir, two 240mm radiators, cpu block, the pricey GPU block, various fittings, acrylic/petg tubing, biocide, little tools, etc to be too expensive for now. EKWB wants $760 for this setup, and all I can think about is how well my $60 be quiet tower performs and the GPU upgrade that I could alternatively buy for the same money. Thanks for showing us why these items cost what they do.

[@headmd]

Yeah open loop is an investment, being low volume "hand built" products. I justified it by telling myself that I could re-use everything except the blocks over multiple upgrades.

[@1222dss]

Yeah. Solid loop from good quality components can easily be ~1K But BP stuff still insanely overpriced. Barrow fittings are just as good while having way lower cost

[@qiyuxuan9437]

lol, that sound way overpriced for bykski/barriwch parts.....They are extreamly cheap in China, and a whole CPU+GPU loop usually cost below 300$.

[@sevbait]

yuxuan qi that sounds much more reasonable. Big markup and large shipping costs kill it.

[@CaptainGrief66]

_On the unrelated side but I trust you guys_ With a budget of 600 hundred euros I have 200 for the GPU, which would you suggest? I'm pairing it with a B450 MOBO and a Ryzen 5 2600 since Amazon has no 1600AF apparently

[@bobg3034]

I use alot of Bitspower water fittings! Great stuf!

[@osgrov]

Very cool! Can't wait for the R&D video, that'll be fascinating. Kind of surprising there isn't a way to deal with acrylic waste, I did not know that. I bet there's quite a lot of it, too. :/

[@Chiisai1987]

Very informative. Superb content!

[@3rdGenGuy]

explains why I've never had a Bitspower fitting fail. they seem to have QA nailed down well 20+ fittings from 10 years ago still work without issue.

[@diegofernandez4789]

Love to see these videos.

[@williamw1156]

This is pretty neat. I believe these cars are called a Swiss lathe if you want to look up other footage of them. Way smaller then the cnc milling machines I run def cool though

[@mafcarvalho]

Great content! Thanks for the guided tour!

[@SaraBearRawr0312]

While there is inevitably a markup in all parts, this really puts the often expensive seeming price of custom loop components in light and shows that time really is money. I never thought about it taking a half hour to machine a single cold plate.

[@jakelee7805]

I love these factory videos it's like I'm watching how it's made! Except better because it's GN

[@sirflop1220]

I would love to see the Ek version of this factory

[@mickspersonalyoutubeaccoun7932]

EK don't own factory, they outsource.

[@sirflop1220]

@@mickspersonalyoutubeaccoun7932 oh... that should explain the price you think? (I mean its still top quality)

[@gwot]

@@mickspersonalyoutubeaccoun7932 what? where did you hear that from? here's a video of EK factory tour kzbin.info/www/bejne/aaeVg2yhpZVjgtE

[@v4ng3n]

2:33 door bell? It really got me. :D

[@Heinz76Harald]

me too XD

[@alexmccauley503]

The difference in manufacturing technology and methodology between Taiwan and China is rather remarkable, even for the same type of products.

[@flikflak24]

Sorry to correct you/the information you where given by them but the Oil is not to cool Anything ( mostly because the optimal cutting temps/reformation "zone" As it's called is 810 degree C°) The Oil is to Lubricate the tool's and remove "chips" So you don't recut the material that you already Cut I work as a Industrial technician witch setup. Program and run's mashines like them P. S. Would love to go to there factory and show / teach them how to make the parts faster and and with more parts in the mashines at the same time

[@TheEvil909295]

The worker has a face mask on but no safety glasses when using compressed air. I would say safety first ...

[@CaveyMoth]

Safety is number one priority.

[@ReNeyer]

Don't worry, he engaged the safety squint before using the compressed air.

[@CaveyMoth]

@@ReNeyer Was that an Asian joke?

[@UrbanaticLemonade]

yeah they care about Human malware than getting a burr into the eyes

[@iaial0]

@@CaveyMoth nah it's worldwide common safety knowledge

[@Sunny-gt8zi]

Thank you for showing us some of the view from the train! :D

[@jasonmapotts]

very cool vid thanks for this. I just received my bitspower TR block.

[@claycassin8437]

Good luck getting home dude...where you should already be

[@spencerconstance]

I'm pretty sure the lathes making the fittings are Ganesh (now Gen Turn) Cyclone 32 CS machines, or something close to it. We have one of them where I work, and while they aren't bad machines they definitely aren't as nice or fast as something like a Citizen or Tsugami swiss style screw machine. Probably plenty for what they are doing though.

[@bruceliu1657]

chen = thousand, wan = ten thousand. Their digit system is set for 4. Ours is sets of 3.

[@capcap1785]

Bold of you to go to Taiwan rn

[@parthian945]

How is it bold to go to the safest country on earth rn? only 77 cases after two and a half months

[@MrMugwump44]

He's using that burr whip in the wrong direction at 10:23 lmao

[@mikel802]

Great vid and super interesting. Would of liked if ya'll locked down the auto focus when showing certain parts like the fitting being machined. Was very interested in the fitting part but kinda defeated the point of them turning off the oil when half of the recording was outta focus.

[@sqeaky8190]

Doesn't "Open loop" mean the water touches the air, and "Closed loop" )mean it doesn't touch the air? Is it possible you meant prebuilt loop vs custom loop?

[@warp00009]

After recently replacing my old liquid cooler with a NH-D15 (and it's awesome performance that is significantly better than the old cooler could provide), my new mantra regarding water cooling is Just Say No! (Lost my previous build when its liquid cooler failed and wrecked everything with a coolant leak. Never, ever want a failure like that again)!

[@qiyuxuan9437]

Which type of tubing did you used? soft or hard?

[@warp00009]

@@qiyuxuan9437 My old liquid cooler was a prepackaged, closed loop pump and radiator system that used soft rubber tubing. This was the same as the previous cooling system, that leaked from the pump all into my CPU socket and motherboard (totally wrecking them). When I installed the new NH-D15 air cooler recently, I used Thermal Grizzly thermal paste because from technical reviews I had seen its thermal transfer coefficient was about 50% higher than even the good thermal paste that Noctua provided. I can't argue with the results from using the NH-D15 which are spectacular (beating the old liquid cooler by a solid 15C in a "100% CPU on all cores for over an hour" video rendering workload)!

[@mastermoarman]

Swiss lathes are awesone.

[@SWEJmeister]

This type of content is why GN beats the competition.

[@xcbrr50]

GN in 2048: How 3mm Cpu is made : TSMC factory tour

[@rosshoyt2030]

@Titan Mechanism 😂👌

[@butifarras]

@Titan Mechanismhow Planck lenght cpu Is made

[@PFAlt]

*2028

[@aiGeis]

He perhaps meant 3mm, which is sorta dumb but the again by 2030 silicone will perhaps be a thing of the past due to the transistor size becoming impossibly small.

[@thereddog223]

@Titan Mechanism pretty sure either way we will have a process below nm by than lol

[@valdius85]

Great content. I hope the trip will be worthwhile and you get the value back. For sure you will become more of an expert in the manufacturing market. :)

[@somebrains5431]

Nice, can’t wait for your U14s review to confirm my bias. Gpus seem to benefit a lot from aios or open loops. Hope NZXT brings back the kraken bracket for ampere.

[@qiyuxuan9437]

Gpu definitely benefit more from water cooling, due to direct die contact with water block, while also having a much larger contact area. I change a FE GTX1080 to a AIO cooler, and it can easily maintain a sub 60 degree temp while maintain a higher clock, the stock blower cooler was so bad, the GPU thermal throttling while running over 80 degree...For CPUs, unless you delid and use liquid metal, you wont see nearly as much improvement using watercooling.

[@nigelstone2565]

add the cost of solid works dont know what that is but we use Catia and that starts at £10,000 per seat depending on options

[@ikbendusan]

cool tour

[@BlackgigaOps]

In my country Bykski & Barrow is the way to go for custom watercooling, the part relative cheaper than EKWB or Bitspower 1:because most EKWB or Bitspower part reseller put alot of markup price & 2:part is just hard to find in general.. for Bykski & Barrow alot part sell in aliexpress and free shipping as well, and the price is good for custom watercooling part like one of my favorite Bykski XPR A-MC Cpu block it cost around 40-41 dollar and now discount around 30 dollar

[@yorchli3152]

Another advantage of Bykski is that they do full cover GPU waterblocks (GPU die, VRM, VRAM) for many more models than EK that offers a universal waterblock but not full coverage.

[@rosshoyt2030]

The only Corona-free video on my feed! 🙏

[@3RAN7ON]

LOL those socks!

[@cleitonfelipe2092]

What is the process used to make the black parts? Painting? Chemical?

[@wojciechbatog576]

Do they just mill the microfins in the copper waterblock bases? Or is it a separate process?

[@LawrenceTimme]

Very much interesting.

[@chaoticav3nger131]

Sure makes you feel better about the $xxx pricing