Mixing metals in a water-cooling loop is usually a recipe for disaster, but it turns into an even bigger disaster when users aren't properly informed of the materials used in the cooling blocks they are buying. We can see this in a current ongoing situation, with users finding major issues using the Asus Z690 Formula motherboard alongside purpose-built liquid cooling blocks. 

The Z690 Formula reached end-of-life status a while ago. The motherboard ships with an EKWB VRM block, which you can use to plumb the motherboard straight into your liquid cooling loop. While the block was advertised as being nickel-plated, it wasn't made clear that it was nickel-plated aluminium and not copper.

This has led to a number of users using the block in loops with copper components. The mix of aluminium and copper is now leading to corrosion, as you can see in some of the image above (via TechPowerUp).

EK has begun contacting customers to confirm an incompatibility issue with this product, and Asus and EK are reportedly working on a solution, including a hybrid VRM cooling solution. The two companies are also working to improve their “collaborative processes and development guardrails” to ensure this doesn't happen with future products.

If you do happen to be using one of these blocks, we would suggest removing it from your cooling loop and checking for signs of corrosion.

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KitGuru Says: Mixing metals is always bad news for liquid cooling loops, and given that this is an area where both EK and Asus have expertise, it is perplexing that this situation happened at all. Hopefully whatever errors were made along the way are rectified for future product launches. 

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