My 3080 block has just been updated to the 12th of Feb... god dang it

Some bad news in my end. I preordered about 45 minutes after the preorder dropped for the blocks and backplates, nickel plexi and black backplate. My account says ship date of February 11. I also got the email stating end of December for shipping of my preorder. This is the response I got after opening a ticket about the situation:

Sadly I must inform you that your order 200067466 is missing the EK-Quantum Vector FTW3 RTX 3080/3090 waterblock and backplate which will be restocked on the 8th of January 2021.

I am responding for more clarification as they didn’t address the February 11 date as well as the ‘end of December’ email from last week.

Nereus

Nereus
Yup my order says that too now... Estimated Delivery Date: 10 February 2021  (nickel + plexi block and nickel back plate)

I spoke to them and just 4 days ago and they confirmed the block and back plate should be available for my order in late December. Copy & paste: 
"The block should be available for your order in late December. We were informed that by that time, the backplates will be available as well."

Hrmm. Hoping this estimated delivery date is just an error and the 10th February date applies to new orders entered today, not our orders from 7th December.

I've emailed them back requesting clarification. Will let you know when I get a response.

EKWB have not responded yet, which is surprising, they were pretty quick to respond previously. Doesn't look good though does it.
 

No it doesn’t. I emailed them also. I’ll update if there’s any change too.

Well that’s great! Thanks!

 
 
 
 

badboy64
Mine says the the 10th of February for delivery. I ordered it in the afternoon after the announced it.

The website is incorrect. My order says the same thing. Email them for a definitive answer on your order.

63rd in line here. Getting a ‘restock’ date of January 8th for my order.

where do you get this number?
 
Only if i mail them?
Thx markus

 
Also for those waiting on the Optimus blocks, I just received this email:
 
 
We want to give you an update with exactly where we're at. We're shipping blocks, though the delays are definitely unfortunate. And the team really apologizes for the delays!!

STATUS UPDATE:

• Most batch 1 will ship this tuesday (today) and wednesday
• Batch 2 starts shipping next week, quantities and exact ETAs will be determined by nickel plating
• We're giving everyone 15% off discount for their next order.

DELAY SHORT STORY:

• Taking time for plating to fix nickel QC issues
• More time to QC parts and assembly

LONG STORY:
While we've done lots of nickel plating, we've been running into issues with the GPUs and QC. Our partner companies do our nickel processing, since it's toxic and specialized, we can't do it in our building. The first batches of blocks had defects in the range of 80-90%, meaning 90% didn't meet our standards and needed to be remade. We QCed the first units that came off the line to make sure they were good. When we received the rest, we discovered they didn't meet QC standards. We initially thought this was an isolated issue that could be quickly resolved, but it extended longer to where it delayed everything.

We've been going back and forth with the platers to make sure we don't have these issues and to expedite the blocks being plated. Because of the hard times right now, they have been delayed as they struggle with their own internal issues. Our timeline updates were based on their updates, so when they missed targets, we missed targets. We were given multiple dates, dates were missed or the quality of the parts wasn't A+.

The good news is the batches we received are now 90% good. We held off plating the remade blocks until we knew we wouldn't receive bad blocks.

So right now, all of batch 1 parts (save for 10%) are QCed and good to ship as soon as they are assembled. The 10% of people whose blocks aren't good will go out the week after. Batch 2 is going to plating right now in groups so we can make sure the plating is perfect, as we know the plating is correct, we'll be pushing more through. The exact dates for batch 2 are TBD, but it will be last week of december and then into early january. We're getting additional help to assemble the blocks at a rapid pace. With the covid situation in Chicago, we have been building out isolated assembly rooms so people can help without issues.

While not ideal, this is where we're at and the entire team here is working hard over the holidays to get absolutely everything made and shipped as soon as we can. 

Thank you for hanging in there and understanding!!

I asked EK and they didn't tell me my place in line.  They said they were going to have stock again Jan 29th and gave me a free ek promo bundle for the delay.
 
May end up working out if the rumors about the 3080ti happening in February are true.

There are plenty of people with Optimus blocks that have posted their rigs at oc.net.

Quality is pretty damn good with 8c delta, but their customer service/transparency needs some work. Played the estimation game too aggressively.

 
If anyone has received a 3080/3090 FTW3 block (of any sort), please let us know if there were any problems removing the air cooler and adding the water block, particularly any surprises like some strange torx or hex screw sizes, nuts in strange places, or LED connectors to watch out for etc. - would be appreciated.
EDIT: solved most of these questions below...
 
I wonder if the LEDs in the EK blocks have a separate cable to the motherboard, or use the same LED connector on the card as the air cooler used.
Connects to the motherboard D-RGB header.
ALSO - The EKWB DRGB cable should also be able to connect directly to the GPU. The FTW3 has a DRGB header on the end of it. (thanks the_Scarlet_one).
 
Here is the installation guide from EKWB (for the plexi block at least), but it doesn't tell you about removing the existing cooler:
https://www.ekwb.com/shop/EK-IM/EK-IM-3831109832981.pdf
 
The plexi block product page near the bottom does mention needing a 'special hex adapter' (which appears to just be a 4mm hex socket), although I'm not sure where it's needed.. possibly for the nuts you'll see in the video below..
 
Here is the Gamers Nexus 3080 tear down video which includes removal of back plate and cooler, VERY useful, hopefully 3090 is much the same:
 

 
 

  
   
 
 

the_Scarlet_one

Nereus
  
   
 

Just quoting this because it’s shorter than the other post...

The EKWB DRGB cable should be able to connect directly to the GPU. The FTW3 has a DRGB header on the end. You can also connect it to the motherboard, of course, which would sync colors better.

Great! I was just taking it from their install guide, but if it can also connect to the GPU then that may be a lot tidier looking. Cheers. I'll edit my post above.
 

Looks like HeatKiller has some "Available now".  Does anyone now if these will fit the FTW3 Ultra?
https://shop.watercool.de/Waterblocks-GPU__NVIDIA_1__GeForceZ-RTX-3080-3090_1