Aiight, I +1'd a bunch I saw in this thread (nice).
Introducing Apollo 5.0. Not the prettiest thing I've done; but, after 6 years, 5 systems and $10,000+ in systems that sucked, this is the fastest.
Still in the Top 50 2-Way SLI on Firestrike (I was originally at #15 back in the day), and top 30 in Firestrike Extreme (last I checked). And yes, reference air-cooled (2-way ACX coolers is horrible, yanked them off quickly - sitting in boxes in the closet).
I still haven't completed my custom TEC waterchiller project using the Dell OEM H2C system - been too busy with work. That will clean up things nicely. 3D modeling is fun, but didn't like the casting tests I got for copper and silver. May have it milled next. So for now, a cheap H80 keeps the Ivy Bridge-E @ 4.7 tamed - bleh.
Ignore the white wires - they are thermal probes for the RIVBE's remote monitor.
ModsRigs link under avatar, and in sig.
Sorry that I didn't take pics of the modifications to the reference cooler and rear backplates (added additional heatsinks to both, increased thermal capacity).
All in all, the temps are much much lower than stock, matching the ACX coolers' performance on a one-on-one basis. With two ACX coolers though, that was just too much heat being dumped into the chassis - even with 6000 RPM server-grade fans.
(previously...)
I once dropped
$1000 on a watercooling setup that looked awesome; but, performed like ass (micro-stutter with tri-monitors and 3-way SLI). That kind of wrote off watercooling for me. Also, I didn't realize how much heat would be dumped into the chassis from having two large 280s up front like that. Whoops.