IMO classifieds on air are a waste. Its your money though..

What is good to you? They will run 75c+ under load depending on overclock and airflow and will perform no better than any other 980.
Your post doesn't make sense to me. 
 
You are saying that you want cards that are especially made for benching on water/LN2 and you are NOT putting them on water or LN2. I also assume you won't be flashing bios.. What's the point?
 
The first thing people will ask you is why do you have classifieds on air and that having them on air is silly. You'll need at least a $500 water loop to get them to perform. Classifieds are competitive class benching cards although you can game on them, there is only about a 1-2% difference.

DirtySouthWookie
What is good to you? They will run 75c+ under load depending on overclock and airflow and will perform no better than any other 980.
Your post doesn't make sense to me. 
 
You are saying that you want cards that are especially made for benching on water/LN2 and you are NOT putting them on water or LN2. I also assume you won't be flashing bios.. What's the point?
 
The first thing people will ask you is why do you have classifieds on air and that having them on air is silly. You'll need at least a $500 water loop to get them to perform. Classifieds are competitive class benching cards although you can game on them, there is only about a 1-2% difference.

I have an EVGA GTX 780 TI Classified, ON AIR, in a corsair Obsidian 350D.  Is it a bit overkill? Yes.  But at the same time, it has better components than a stock card (power-phases, etc.,)  Truth be told, I didn't buy mine for the sake of Overclocking; tried it for about 5 minutes, got bored, and just relished in the fact that a Classified in an Obsidian 350D looks amazing.  As for your claim on temps.  The highest temp I have seen is 67 Deg C, and that was in Project Cars @ 1080p, MAXED OUT (ultra everything), with Downsampling 6x (so basically taking a 12MP image and shrinking it to 2MP).  The hottest it's gotten running Unigine Heaven in a 12 hr loop was 65 Deg C.  The battle then, isn't "oh he bought a competition card and he's only driving grandma to get her groceries", but rather how to make a card that blasts hot air everywhere, have that hot air expelled as quickly as possible.  For me, it's dual 140mm Noctua NF-A14 iPPC-67's for intake, an NF-F12 iPPC67 for exhaust, and a water loop for the CPU only that uses 2 more NF-F12 ippc-67s as exhaust (like a chimney).  Also, a minimum of cable clutter blocks airflow to the card, and from the card (the only major airflow blockers are the tubes on the H220-x in my case).  
 
To reiterate, I'm not an overclocker, but classified / KPE cards serve well for both the Extreme OCer who runs DICE / LN2, but they also serve well for the smaller-box builder who wants a guaranteed 24/7 overclock with long-term reliability.  I fall into the latter group, and I have zero regrets over my purchase.

howdy2u2

ganzosrevenge
 
 
I have an EVGA GTX 780 TI Classified, ON AIR, in a corsair Obsidian 350D.  Is it a bit overkill? Yes.  But at the same time, it has better components than a stock card (power-phases, etc.,)  Truth be told, I didn't buy mine for the sake of Overclocking; tried it for about 5 minutes, got bored, and just relished in the fact that a Classified in an Obsidian 350D looks amazing.  As for your claim on temps.  The highest temp I have seen is 67 Deg C, and that was in Project Cars @ 1080p, MAXED OUT (ultra everything), with Downsampling 6x (so basically taking a 12MP image and shrinking it to 2MP).  The hottest it's gotten running Unigine Heaven in a 12 hr loop was 65 Deg C.  The battle then, isn't "oh he bought a competition card and he's only driving grandma to get her groceries", but rather how to make a card that blasts hot air everywhere, have that hot air expelled as quickly as possible.  For me, it's dual 140mm Noctua NF-A14 iPPC-67's for intake, an NF-F12 iPPC67 for exhaust, and a water loop for the CPU only that uses 2 more NF-F12 ippc-67s as exhaust (like a chimney).  Also, a minimum of cable clutter blocks airflow to the card, and from the card (the only major airflow blockers are the tubes on the H220-x in my case).  
 
To reiterate, I'm not an overclocker, but classified / KPE cards serve well for both the Extreme OCer who runs DICE / LN2, but they also serve well for the smaller-box builder who wants a guaranteed 24/7 overclock with long-term reliability.  I fall into the latter group, and I have zero regrets over my purchase.

This right here in bold. Well stated, very well stated. (I although am using 770 Classifieds in SLI, ACX cooled)

Thanks!
 
Small box = microATX and miniITX cases.  (In case the 350D reference was missed).  See my modsrigs for what I mean by "small box, happy classified" as well.

CoolProject
With acx cooler I will have problems in SLI since unlike the reference not discharge hot air from the back?

 
If you have a microATX case, then yes, because there will be no slots between the cards for airflow.  If you have an ATX case, and a GOOD atx mobo, you should be able to have one to two slots for airflow between the two cards.  Be advised though, the top card may be 10 Deg C hotter than the bottom card.  Hence why I said that good cable management is essential... you want as much airflow as possible to remove the exhausted air.
 
However, since you have not listed your rig's specifications, we cannot fully ascertain whether your rig will have sufficient airflow for 2 980 classifieds.  (See my sig, and see my modsrigs for how to make good airflow, and how to list your components)
 
 

   Obviously different GPU's but mine are in a Coolermaster Cosmos SE case. My CPU (i74790K) like Ganzosrevenge's is water cooled. 2-120mm fans in front (stock with case) 1-120mm fan pulling through a radiator  and 2- 140mm fans pulling through a radiator at the top. Cable management is necessary to say the least. Max temps so far have been 76* on the top GPU (Running 2 monitors 144hz 1080p) bottom GPU is several degrees cooler. Nothing but factory clocking on everything. If I read all the hype correctly the 980's should be cooler than the 770's Im running.
  From my viewpoint (as limited as it is) with your case you posted.......Looks doable to me!!  

CoolProject
what do you think of using 2 gtx 980 classified spaced from 2 slot with an air cooling?
In fact I would buy 2 gtx 980 superclocked reference, but unfortunately in the European store are not available ... and I can not wait any longer!

 I am currently running them in SLI with a single slot spacing with no overheating problems at all.
Plus you get 14 power phases and a 3 way bios switch. These cards run very well with this cooler, as it was designed to...
 
 
 
 
 

I owned 980 ACX SC and switched to Classy. You can tell the difference in build by just opening the box, Classy just screams quality.
- It has the highest stock clock,
- the most efficient (biggest) and quietest air cooler,
- more stable when OCed and can be pushed higher (on air),
- triple BIOS you can flash if you get fancy
 
What's not to like, I am not overclocker but plan on using mild OC down the road when stock clock won't be able to keep up with new, more demanding games. And I want 24/7 stability w/o running fans at 100%. I think Classy would serve that pretty well.
 
And yes, it's my money. 

I think it may be because there office is closed until Monday....
 

 
 
 

 
According to this schedule, there should be Technical support availabe today to help answer your question.
 
 
 

Hi guys i bought 4 classy.... the cards are very amazing (i use it for game no oc) the only problem of the card is the heating **** they burn as the hell!!!! Waiting the ek wabo i fixed it putting a fan with ties in front of the card (before doing this i recorded high temp stabilize on 80 - 85°) now with the fan and agressive fan curve and why not also a very good cable management i can play easly between 70 - 77 with only one pick in three days of 81!!!!! Waterblock is needed!!!! My case is obsidan 900d!

hashmat
Morning,
My first post here so be gentle folks.
I have 980 classified in Cooler master Haf X case. The card is driving Asus ROG PG 278Q 27 inch @ 2560x1440x144Hz Monitor. Precision X shows the idle temp to be 57 C with fans not spinning. Gaming pushes the temp. to between 65-70 .The card is not overclocked yet.
I was somewhat alarmed at idle temps but the folks at EVGA tells me it is normal behaviour for the card??
What do you recon?
Cheers

welcome to the forum!
you can setup a custom fan profile in Precision. This is mine but may be a little loud for you. I personally didn't like the fans not running at those temps, but thats just me. But thats what they were designed to do.
 
 

hashmat
Morning,
My first post here so be gentle folks.
I have 980 classified in Cooler master Haf X case. The card is driving Asus ROG PG 278Q 27 inch @ 2560x1440x144Hz Monitor. Precision X shows the idle temp to be 57 C with fans not spinning. Gaming pushes the temp. to between 65-70 .The card is not overclocked yet.
I was somewhat alarmed at idle temps but the folks at EVGA tells me it is normal behaviour for the card??
What do you recon?
Cheers

Welcome hashmat, nice setup with GTX980 Classified in SLI.
You can test cards with Firestrike and follow temps under load.
57C is little hot for idle but depend how much fan spin.
But 65-70C for overclocked GTX980 in SLI are normal temps.
 

I read your posts and cant wait, to build my PC :(, stil waiting for the PCU and PSU from Amzaon... oh! and the Classy backplates... tic tac... tic tac...

gringo69
I read your posts and cant wait, to build my PC :(, stil waiting for the PCU and PSU from Amzaon... oh! and the Classy backplates... tic tac... tic tac...

Look my score
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5039567