No worries Jack, I like the posts. :)
 
Damn I'm really tempted to go custom loop... but I think I'll get the hybrid 2080Ti first, and if it's a noisy one, I'll take that as a sign to return it and go for the hydro copper. I'll run that past EVGA first though.
 

 
Oh damn that looks good. I have a black Corsair Crystal 680X RGB case which is somewhat limited for radiators - I had to get a case with fairly shallow (front to back) dimension because of desk space. It can only fit a 280mm radiator at the top, or a thin 360 at the front, but not both at the same time, although it might be able to handle a 280mm at the top and a 240mm or 280mm at the bottom, but it would be a tight squeeze down the bottom with the cables. It would also have to use a pump/reservoir combo (for limited space reasons) which would have to somehow squeeze into the other 'chamber' of the case where the cabling and PSU is hidden. Here is how it looks at present with the AiO CPU and GPU (photo not great sorry - hard to get the lighting right using a phone camera). 680x custom loop builds seem to be few and far between..
 

Nereus
 
Here's one.. 360 rad up the front only.. impressed they got that reservoir in there. Is a 360 rad enough for a 9900K and a 2080Ti FTW3 HC though, other than at stock clocks? I wonder if that res there would impact airflow through the radiator
 
 

360 mm is enough but if you're going for OC's or even better deltas, you'll want more.

I think you could fit a 360mm as shown in the video (It's an EK I believe) and MAYBE a 240mm up top as long as you have the front rad's IN/OUT ports coming from the bottom instead of the top.  Just have to play around with that and even if the front rad gets covered slightly from the top with the addition of the top rad, no big deal because the combination of both rads will be better than having less.

If you're looking to mount a res/pump combo on the rad, most of the time the brackets that are supplied are only compatible with 120mm so you might want to stick with 240mm if you don't go with 360mm and not to mention best rad fans are usually 120mm for best pressure and sound.

Just thinking about it a bit more..

Another option, since the CPU is already utilizing a decent AIO, is to do a simpler loop for just the GPU, with a 280 rad on the bottom. It would keep the CPU out of the loop, keeping temps lower, and it would reduce cost by a few hundred bucks. It would also cool the GPU much better than the hybrid kit and give you the option to expand later, if you want.

Jack's right. 

Just go full custom loop. You won't regret it. 

 
FDOLopez11 I have the Corsair 680X RGB case too - very tight on space for a custom CPU + GPU loop though, and would have to be 2 x 240 radiators to make it effective, but it can be done.
 
I priced a full loop with 2 x 240mm radiators and it came to over $550 + tax (in NYC it's 8.875%), and that's on top of the additional cost of a 2080Ti hydro copper which is $150 more than the AiO model. It would be even more if I used hard tubing, which is what I'd like to do. I know for sure the custom loop will have better performance, and the 9900K runs hot and could certainly use that extra cooling over AiO, but I also have to look at time involved building and maintaining it (and time is always a huge issue for me with a young 7yo child to look after, plus a 3 - 3.5 hour commute every day, plus I'm President of our condo association which takes a fair amount of my time too), and ultimately is it worth ~$800 more to me (incl tax) taking that route right now?
 
For performance, hell yes it's definitely worth it, but I've decided to try the 2080Ti hybrid first (although seeing FDOLopez11 post that it's expensive garbage really threw me). If it's a relatively quiet one, I'll stick with it and not overclock the CPU too heavily. When the 3080Ti comes out I will reconsider then. Believe it or not, I was so torn between the full loop or the AiO, I even plugged the options into an online decision maker lol (incl an option to do nothing and wait for the 3080 series). For the record, AiO came up first.. so I kept trying best of 5. AiO came up the first 4 times lol, then I tried first to 10 and again AiO won it, custom loop came up 4 times, wait for 3080 came up 3 times. Who am I to argue with total random chance? :D
 
Thanks for all the comments, this is a good thread, please continue to post more.
 
..ordered. Wow EVGA has slow shipping, or expensive if you want it sooner than a week or two.
 
 

fdolopez11

Nereus
FDOLopez11 I have the Corsair 680X RGB case too - very tight on space for a custom CPU + GPU loop though, and would have to be 2 x 240 radiators to make it effective, but it can be done.
 
I priced a full loop with 2 x 240mm radiators and it came to over $550 + tax (in NYC it's 8.875%), and that's on top of the additional cost of a 2080Ti hydro copper which is $150 more than the AiO model. It would be even more if I used hard tubing, which is what I'd like to do. I know for sure the custom loop will have better performance, and the 9900K runs hot and could certainly use that extra cooling over AiO, but I also have to look at time involved building and maintaining it (and time is always a huge issue for me with a young 7yo child to look after, plus a 3 - 3.5 hour commute every day, plus I'm President of our condo association which takes a fair amount of my time too), and ultimately is it worth ~$800 more to me (incl tax) taking that route right now?
 
For performance, hell yes it's definitely worth it, but I've decided to try the 2080Ti hybrid first (although seeing FDOLopez11 post that it's expensive garbage really threw me). If it's a relatively quiet one, I'll stick with it and not overclock the CPU too heavily. When the 3080Ti comes out I will reconsider then. Believe it or not, I was so torn between the full loop or the AiO, I even plugged the options into an online decision maker lol (incl an option to do nothing and wait for the 3080 series). For the record, AiO came up first.. so I kept trying best of 5. AiO came up the first 4 times lol, then I tried first to 10 and again AiO won it, custom loop came up 4 times, wait for 3080 came up 3 times. Who am I to argue with total random chance? :D
 
Thanks for all the comments, this is a good thread, please continue to post more.
 
..ordered. Wow EVGA has slow shipping, or expensive if you want it sooner than a week or two.

Let me expalin you all the issues I ran into in the past couple of months:
Terrible thermal paste application and no proper contact, initially I was hitting 75C with Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark, after reassembling it and changing the thermal paste to Cooler Master MasterGel Maker (almost same performance as Conductonaut but way cheaper) I reduced the temp to 59C at 4K Vsync Off, capping the framerate to 60fps it goes down to 54C-57C.
To achieve this I changed the fans to Corsair ML 120 which have very high Static Pressure and running at 100% (controlled by the motherboard BIOS, very aggressive fan curve) on a Push-Pull configuration, the rad and the hoses will get quite hot when pushing the card to the limit.
My current OC are: +120Mhz on the core, +600Mhz on the Vram so you may achieve lower temps if you don't plan to do Overclocking.
 
Writing this down might look easy but it took a lot of effor and trials, countless trials and tech support from some guys at this forum. Contacting EVGA Tech support was useless, they won't help at all, when I showed them the pictures of the terrible TIM application and contact pressure to the chip they only said: "oh that's normal of our process, glad you fixed it". Do you really expect an answer like that from a company that sells you a $1500 USD card?
 
Feel free to contact me again if you have more question, I'll be glad to help you.
Happy holidays

 
Oh damn, that's not good. I definitely appreciate it took a lot of time doing all that. I always use aftermarket fans (usually bequiet! SilentWings - the high-speed ones have very good static pressure with relatively low noise, and the standard ones make great case fans), and like you, I use the motherboard headers and BIOS curve for the fans on my current hybrid as well as the CLC280, always have. I also usually replace the tim, and many cards I've replaced the thermal pads as well, so those aren't huge issues for me, but you're right - shouldn't have to do that on a brand new $1,500 GPU. "Oh that's normal of our process, glad you fixed it" is a shyte answer from support, and not what I'd expect from them.
 
Damn. Damn damn damn.
 
How did you run your loop in the 680X case? Got any photos, or a ModsRigs listing? I don't think a 360mm rad alone up the front is enough if I want to overclock, but the case is relatively small. Did you do 2x240mm radiators?
 
Looking at the many threads on these forums again about noise issues... well.. I have the money ready for a full water loop... GAH! I usually can make a decision easily, but this one has me really divided. I can still contact EVGA tomorrow and get the order canceled, or go with the hybrid now (and replace the tim if it runs hot) and slowly purchase parts for a custom loop over the next few months, and go full loop when the 3080Ti comes out. If they send me a dud 2080Ti Hybrid, I'll return it.
 
 
 

Nereus

fdolopez11

Nereus
FDOLopez11 I have the Corsair 680X RGB case too - very tight on space for a custom CPU + GPU loop though, and would have to be 2 x 240 radiators to make it effective, but it can be done.
 
I priced a full loop with 2 x 240mm radiators and it came to over $550 + tax (in NYC it's 8.875%), and that's on top of the additional cost of a 2080Ti hydro copper which is $150 more than the AiO model. It would be even more if I used hard tubing, which is what I'd like to do. I know for sure the custom loop will have better performance, and the 9900K runs hot and could certainly use that extra cooling over AiO, but I also have to look at time involved building and maintaining it (and time is always a huge issue for me with a young 7yo child to look after, plus a 3 - 3.5 hour commute every day, plus I'm President of our condo association which takes a fair amount of my time too), and ultimately is it worth ~$800 more to me (incl tax) taking that route right now?
 
For performance, hell yes it's definitely worth it, but I've decided to try the 2080Ti hybrid first (although seeing FDOLopez11 post that it's expensive garbage really threw me). If it's a relatively quiet one, I'll stick with it and not overclock the CPU too heavily. When the 3080Ti comes out I will reconsider then. Believe it or not, I was so torn between the full loop or the AiO, I even plugged the options into an online decision maker lol (incl an option to do nothing and wait for the 3080 series). For the record, AiO came up first.. so I kept trying best of 5. AiO came up the first 4 times lol, then I tried first to 10 and again AiO won it, custom loop came up 4 times, wait for 3080 came up 3 times. Who am I to argue with total random chance? :D
 
Thanks for all the comments, this is a good thread, please continue to post more.
 
..ordered. Wow EVGA has slow shipping, or expensive if you want it sooner than a week or two.

Let me expalin you all the issues I ran into in the past couple of months:
Terrible thermal paste application and no proper contact, initially I was hitting 75C with Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark, after reassembling it and changing the thermal paste to Cooler Master MasterGel Maker (almost same performance as Conductonaut but way cheaper) I reduced the temp to 59C at 4K Vsync Off, capping the framerate to 60fps it goes down to 54C-57C.
To achieve this I changed the fans to Corsair ML 120 which have very high Static Pressure and running at 100% (controlled by the motherboard BIOS, very aggressive fan curve) on a Push-Pull configuration, the rad and the hoses will get quite hot when pushing the card to the limit.
My current OC are: +120Mhz on the core, +600Mhz on the Vram so you may achieve lower temps if you don't plan to do Overclocking.
 
Writing this down might look easy but it took a lot of effor and trials, countless trials and tech support from some guys at this forum. Contacting EVGA Tech support was useless, they won't help at all, when I showed them the pictures of the terrible TIM application and contact pressure to the chip they only said: "oh that's normal of our process, glad you fixed it". Do you really expect an answer like that from a company that sells you a $1500 USD card?
 
Feel free to contact me again if you have more question, I'll be glad to help you.
Happy holidays

 
Oh damn, that's not good. I definitely appreciate it took a lot of time doing all that. I always use aftermarket fans (usually bequiet! SilentWings - the high-speed ones have very good static pressure with relatively low noise, and the standard ones make great case fans), and like you, I use the motherboard headers and BIOS curve for the fans on my current hybrid as well as the CLC280, always have. I also usually replace the tim, and many cards I've replaced the thermal pads as well, so those aren't huge issues for me, but you're right - shouldn't have to do that on a brand new $1,500 GPU. "Oh that's normal of our process, glad you fixed it" is a shyte answer from support, and not what I'd expect from them.
 
Damn. Damn damn damn.
 
How did you run your loop in the 680X case? Got any photos, or a ModsRigs listing? I don't think a 360mm rad alone up the front is enough if I want to overclock, but the case is relatively small. Did you do 2x240mm radiators?
 
Looking at the many threads on these forums again about noise issues... well.. I have the money ready for a full water loop... GAH! I usually can make a decision easily, but this one has me really divided. I can still contact EVGA tomorrow and get the order canceled, or go with the hybrid now (and replace the tim if it runs hot) and slowly purchase parts for a custom loop over the next few months, and go full loop when the 3080Ti comes out. If they send me a dud 2080Ti Hybrid, I'll return it.
 
 
 

I haven't done my loop yet, still waiting for the components to arrive. I will only watercool the GPU with a 360 rad. I will leave the CPU (9900k) with the current AIO (Corsair H115i Pro) because I only use the PC for gaming and I have never seen temps above 55C.
 
You mentioned that you want to keep the PC quiet, you won't get that with the hybrid kit if you want to keep the temps low, the fans must run at 100% to stay below 60C.

Nereus
 
Received the card. Looks like I got lucky - pretty much zero pump noise even on full load, yay! Does the pump run 100% 24/7 anyway? Put an aftermarket fan on the radiator and plugged it into the GPU port since it's 4-pin and everything looks good - that fan has a low start-up voltage so I'm not having any issue with the fan stopping completely. Card boosts to just over 2GHz with no overclocking by me.. nice! Have not run it through 3DMark or anything yet. Time Spy 14,413 with everything (CPU & GPU & RAM) on stock clocks.
 
 

Impressive results!  What kind of temps are you seeing?  What does it clock to under light load at idle temps?

Nereus
 
No pump noise at all. I'm very happy with this GPU so far.
 

That's great to hear!  
 
I'm starting to wonder maybe the fluid levels might be slightly low is why some were hearing their pumps screech.

I disagree. I have two 2080Ti ultra hybrids running in SLI. I bench for hours at a time and the GPU’s on both cards never get above 55c. Both pumps are quiet. I did change the radiator fans to Noctua industrial 3000 rpm fans in a dual fan push/pull configuration using a Noctua controller plugged only into the power supply and controlling the fans on the radiator from the Noctua controller only (no mobo connection). The pump runs 100% of the time. The card mounted fans are controlled through MSI afterburner and I leave them at 40%. Someone said that GPU temp affects memory temps and I agree that if your GPU is heating up then the board heats up and the heat “walks” to the mem through the board. The cost of the Ultra Hybrid vs a ref card modified using pumps and Fuji pads, (and KPX or Kryonaught) that are the correct size, which are hard to find is not financially comparable if you value your time. Also, getting into a full open cooling loop is even more expensive and a whole other list of problems.

If you received a card that runs over specification then EVGA will meet RMA expectation. All CPU’s and GPU’s are a crapshoot. That’s why it’s called the silicone lottery. If it runs under the specification stated you either need to modify the card to get to the numbers you want or you need to accept it like it is. Most people don’t mount radiators correctly as they use the stock EVGA fans which meet spec, but better fans are available, inexpensive and paired with proper radiator mounting can reduce temps. Investing in an open loop is simply throwing money at the problem. Also using an enclosed case is always an issue. A normal case is a giant heat trap. The internal ambient temperature of a case will always be higher than the external ambient temperature. Use an open bench case and you’ll see significant temp reductions. I run my fans on everything at 100%. I don’t care about noise I’m half deaf from military service so it doesn’t bother me. I am much more interested in performance than noise or looks. Also, noise from RGB ramp up and ramp down and the voltage it uses reduces your base mobo available voltage. People spend stupid money on RGB and custom loops and then stuff everything into a toaster oven case and then complain they are not getting the performance they expect, it doesn’t make any sense. If you do some research you will see that most overclockers use open bench systems with direct cooling using AIO cooling systems no cases and very rarely open loops in a sealed case.

One other thing people need to remember these cards and the motherboards are designed for factory assembly to go to 100’s of customers. Not every video card or motherboard is going to leave the factory exactly correct. I’ve seen cards missing cooling pads from other vendors like Asus. I’m not saying EVGA is perfect but they have always provided the best support. I have been doing this for 35 years and can honestly say EVGA has always treated me well. I used to be a PNY guy but their quality and performance has degraded.

If the 2080Ti is expensive garbage then I guess I received the best two cards they made. Both will overclock to 2130 GPU and 2013 memory. I doubt that’s a coincidence.