notfordman
Is it EK that still makes the Hydro Copper's?
No.
EVGA went over to some other secret (unknown to me at least) manufacturer, and the quality has suffered a lot. The RTX series hydrocoppers have been plagued with issues due to poor contact/mounting or poor performance in general.
Since the hydrocoppers are also hard to get ahold of, if your friend hasn't already bought the hydrocopper block, I would recommend that they just buy an EK block instead.