Awesome. Mustang Cobra fan right here too. Now you should race your Mustang PC with some intense benchmarks.

Epic build and mother of god!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey guys!
I had a lot of fun installing these Hydro Copper and Back Plates . So much fun that I took a lot of Pictures and made an installation video. Enjoy!
 
720p Installation Video (Created by me):

 
 
Installation Pictures:

 
The backside of the GTX 680

 
The GTX 680 Back-Plate. Evga really did a great job designing this.

 
The GTX 680 Classified Hydro Copper Water Block Setup. Comes with the Water Fittings, Water block, 14 small black screws, 4 small silver screws, 2 big silver screws, 1 bigger silver screw/nut/bolt and 2 water loop close fittings.

 
The  Hydro Copper Flipped Backwards.

 
The Water Block Fittings. These look really awesome and feel great. The quality of these are top notch.

 
Alright now to get into business. The holes I circled in yellow are the screws you need to take out to take off the housing on the GTX 680 classified. For the purpose of installing the hydro copper, these are the only screws you need to remove. I'm gonna remove the side screws on the housing itself to show others, in case they want to clean out the Fan, install another Fan, or do a completely different mod.

 
Side Screws on Housing

 
More side screws on the housing


 
Top Part of Housing Removed. This was done just by taking out the screws as I pointed above on the side of the housing.

 
This is what it looks like on the inner half of the housing with the top cover removed. You get to see the heat sink and the Fan. This is the part I was talking about earlier, If you need to clean the fan or heat sink of dust this is as far as you need to go.

 
This is the backside of the heat sink. This is the part that makes direct contact with the new Nvidia Kepler gpu. They did a really good job at applying there own thermal paste.

 
Here it is again with all the thermal paste removed. Just cleaning off everything since were going to be setting these aside just in-case we have to RMA any cards in the future. Do not throw away the housing, heatsinks or screws. You need these to reinstall on the RMA'd card so it's accepted via at EVGA.

 
Once you removed the screws underneath the GTX 680, we can finally remove the housing that's screwed down to the PCB itself.

 
Here's the board in all it's glory, everything is removed. It's NAKED!!!!!!

 
Evga really did a great job with the thermal application. It looks evenly spread on the gpu, no mess or bleeding on to the outside of the chip. If I didn't hold my own gripes on the TIM they use I would definitely leave it be. For any new individuals having doubts on cleaning the TIM or just dont want to open up the case and are worried. You have nothing to fear, Evga does this part exceptionally well and shows you why there Flagship card is the standard at Evga.


Alright were gonna be using a product  which was released this year and has been yielding great reviews and results for others. The Prolimatech PK3 Thermal Paste.
Here's an introduction to there product from there website.
"Like two hot lovers, a heat sink and the processor want to make full contact.  But microscopic imperfections in their craftsmanship create small gap for air.  These gaps act as thermal insulators, inhibiting the transfer of thermal energy from your components. PK-3 thermal compound is made up of specially designed nano particles, engineered to correct these imperfections.  The nano particles work by filling in the small air gaps and allowing for peak transfer of heat away from your components."
 
Features of the product:

High Thermal Conductivity

Low Thermal Resistance

Long-Term Stability

Long-Term Stability

Non-Corrosive

Non-Corrosive

No "burn-in" time required




 
Alright next step is to clean up that gpu of the thermal residue that was left. What I used are Q-Tips and Alcohol to remove the thermal paste. Use dry Q-Tips first to pick up as much residue that was left, usually you can get it nice and clean just by that. Since we want to make sure it's sparkly clean grab a Q-Tip and dip it into alcohol and start cleaning the chip itself and the edges of the chip. Once done, dry it up with another Q-tip  and your ready to go.





 
Now that the gpu chip is prepped, we need to take the PK3 thermal paste and apply it. I use the pea size drop in the middle of the chip application. I dont like the X application or the spread it evenly across the chip. As you can see in the Installation video I made, I had to remove the casing after applying the thermal paste to get a screw I missed. The pressure method while using the cross over method  for screwing the screws did a perfect job for spreading the paste evenly.

 
Once that's done, grab the bracket and the backplate and screw them in.

 
Next is to line up the Hydro Copper Water-Block evenly with the card and place it down. This is easily done since the 8pin and evbot ports have there own particular space on the water block. Line it up perfectly with that and your almost 99% golden. As a Reminder when plugging in the power cable for the Evga LED, do so gently but with enough force to make sure its connecting. When placing the Hydro copper down do not  let the wire go outward. Let it lay inward so it's inside the card and not hanging outside.
 
Pro-Tip -  When you have the 4 main screws tightened with the card and the back-plate, take this time to grab your 1 large silver screw with nut and washer. Place the Nut on the Chip side of the card. The hole is located near the DVI/HDMI bracket. This hole is to securly fasten down the bracket to the card. The next picture will show you were the hole is.



 
 
 
 
White Circle - The Bracket for all the ports. Grab your 1 large silver screw, but and washer. Screw this in prior to placing the Hydro Copper.
 
Yellow Circles -  These require the 4 small silver screws. This enables the gpu bracket and the back plate to hold each other in place.
 
Red Circles - All these are screwed in by the remaining black screws.
 
Blue Screws -  You are left with 2 large Silver screws. These go on last.

 
 
That's it. Once everything is screwed on you now have your back plate and hydro copper water blocks installed.
Here are some final pictures.
 


 

 
 
 
 
Alright, that's it for now. Hope you guys enjoyed this part of the build log. There's plenty of more to come.  Still waiting on the Sli Bridge cover and a 3mm pre-wired light so I can send evething all at once to Otis. Wish I had everything pre-set but I just keep adding more stuff lol.
 
STAY TUNED!!!
 
 
 
 
 
 

post edited by Cloudz00x - 2012/11/28 19:38:59

Hmm some reason, some of the pictures aren't showing. Gonna try and fix this
-edit-
Alright seems like it's just me. Opened up Internet explorer ( I use Firefox) and everything is working.

So what you guys think of the latest update, which was uninstalling the classified housing and installing HC with back plates.
Also comment on the installation video. First time ever doing something like that. I personally think it came out good. Comments and opinions, bad or good are welcomed.

Gold Leader

That's a nice set of GK104-400-A2's you got there mate! , Very nice guide and pictures too! 

@ EVGA Crew:

Please do give him a Blue Ribbon for this, this can be very helpful for other builders that plan on doing something similar to this alike

Yea each of the chips when cleaned and prepped for the Hydro Coppers were fantastic. Even the thermal paste application done by Evga was awesome. I usually have a headache when looking at manufacturers application of thermal paste, horrendous! Thanks for the nice comments on the installation YouTube video and on here.
As with anyone, I tried to research everything before getting it and there was a lack of actual videos on installing hydro coppers and back-plates especially on the classified cards. So I figured besides the pictures a video would compliment the build log. I do have to give credits to my girlfriend for recording while I did the process. Hope it helps anyone going through the same installation!  As someone else commented, once the build is entirely done there will be a video on it to.
Thanks again!

I am waiting for pic of pc and case side by side.

Oh man, things just keep getting better and better. I just received a email from my buddy Alex at FrozenQ. He is putting the final touches on the SLI Bridge cover that I ordered. Boy oh boy does it look nice. There is a 4inch blue cathode illuminating it in the background.  He's gonna send this my way soon, then redirecting it to Otis When it's in my hands I can take some official pictures with no light and light.
Here's the teaser he sent me:
 

 
 
MORE TO COME!
 
 

Gold Leader

Interesting how is that made, is it laser cut or was a dremel used, even it looks to precise to be done with a dremen, since one wrong move and your hand goes all over the place, as we all know PCB is very hard to cut neatly, very chemical stuff too :X

 
Well the piece itself is acrylic, It's black on the outside and a frost finish underneath to allow for better illumination. It's all Lazar Cut and he used CAD to get the image and cut going.
 
Here is the CAD he sent me when he was getting it prepped.

 
Here was a mock trial that tried to include the snake scales. Since it was so much detail the lazer couldnt get the scales since it would just burn right through. So he removed thr scales increased the border and the PIC in my above post was the next mock up.
 
 
See how the scales were removed and testing how border increase would work. Some letters got messed up but as I said in the post/pic above it came out looking sweet.

 

Very nice looking build!

You can use both, in a way if you want something different than the one you are using just apply the other one xD
 
But if I had to choose, yeah it is difficult they are both very nice heh, hmm  I'd say this one:

 
Why? Well since this is a small part of the system, it should not have too many details, it will pop out anyways, right

What motherboard? All I see is waterblocks lol.

Looks friggin sweet, can't wait to see the final product.

Alright small update.
 
In the mail I received 4 packages.
The first package was the other custom SLI bridge cover by Dwood over at OCN.
He did an impeccable job. He was also nice enough to give me an acrylic, glass then the actually brushed metal piece of it.
Here are some pics of it.
 
Polished finished product:

 
Acrylic version:

 
Glass Version:

 
All of them side by side. I can either use the finished product by itself.... or I can place the glass version on top to create a thicker more robust piece. I'm still using the other SLI cover created by Alex over at Frozen Q. So I must figure out what I want to do with this if anything at all.
 

 
 
 
 
The other 3 packages are as follows. I think it speaks for itself. A review and more pictures are going to be up soon. Once the Cobra Rig is complete.
3x 2560x1440p CrossOver LED-P

 
 
 
More to Come!
 
 

Here's another little update.
Got a small package in today.
Opened it up it was the other Custom SLI Bridge Cover from Alex over at FrozenQ.
He did a fantastic job on this. I wanna use this this piece as the official bridge cover. The other Cover , Otis will probably use as a design aesthetic on the build somewhere.
 
Here are some pics.
 
The pieces all together. A great thing he did to the bridge itself is make it have a small housing. There is a glass cover on the top and side covers for it. He also was very nice enough to send me the cathode set for the setup. Awesome!

 
The piece itself:

 
 
The cathodes in the back. There attached with velcro.

 
 
Here is what I was explained before. There is a side housing for it. According to his words, the housing can fit over the setting for the bridge or I can remove the housing for it by loosening the screws on the top. I have 2 options, I may remove the housing since I dont want to hide the back plates on the Classifieds either. I still have the 2 3MM LED lights, so I can probably have the same illumination while keeping the the overall size of it minimal. I really want the illumination so I'm gonna see how everything works first and go with the best option. Then package everything and mail it out to Otis.

 
 
Finally here are some pictures of it illuminated.

 

 

 
 
 
Alright, More to Come!