I just installed the hybrid cooler kits on my two 1080ti SC Gaming Black ICX cards. 
 
Cards:
EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti SC Black Edition GAMING, 11G-P4-6393-KR, 11GB GDDR5X, iCX Cooler & LED
 
Kits:
EVGA GTX 1080 Ti SC HYBRID Waterblock Cooler, Cooling, 400-HY-5598-B1
 
First off, these things work really, really well. I can run the two cards in SLI with full screen Furmark and the GPU temperature never exceeds 42c, even after extended time at the standard SC's "overclock" settings. With the stock ICX cooler (which is a damn impressive bit of metal) and the whir of the radiator fans never changes. I have resisted water cooling for a long time, but it really does the job. I am doing deep learning work and want to run these cards for long periods of time full out with as little noise as possible. 
 
I think the radiator fans could be better. They do work fine, just quieter. Project for some other day. 
 
On the installation process:
 
The kit comes with a good instruction sheet. If you carefully follow it, step by step and read it a couple of times first, you'll be OK.  However, the kit comes with a perplexingly large number of tiny screws, most of which, you will not use with any of the cards the kit supports. Have no idea why - but that's how it is. Also, there's no need to actually remove the back plates, which creates unnecessary work and potential for damage. 
 
My tips:
 
1. Acquire a high-quality #0 and #1 phillips screwdriver.  You will FAIL with crappy ones. I recommend the Wiha screwdrivers. They are excellent and I've used them for years.
 
http://www.wihatools.com
 
2. Get yourself an anti-static mat and grounding strap. You will be touching this card all over like it was your first prom date. $20 spent here could save your $1000+ graphics card. Most of the time, you'll get away without, but it is cheap insurance.
 
3. Before starting, go through the instructions step by step and pull the packets of screws called for in your installation. Why there's 5x as many kinds of screws in the kit as required I have no idea. Goes a lot easier if you do this first. (chefs call this mise en place) 
 
4. On the ICX cards like mine (and likely the EVGA blower type), in spite of the instructions, do not actually remove the back plates. Just take the screws out. You're going to put the plates right back on and removing them just increases the chances of damaging the thermal pads. Just take the screws out, leave the back plates hanging on with the thermal pads and proceed to take off the fan-sinks. 
 
5. Take the heat sinks off carefully. If you can, unplug the LED and fan plugs first. Don't use a prying tool to remove the fan sink. Slow, steady pressure and working around the perimeter a little at a time will allow it to separate easily and gently. Make sure not to damage the fan/led plugs as you lift the fan/sink off.
 
6. Give yourself plenty of room as the radiator and hoses need to flip and flop all over the place once you install the pump. 
 
7. Take your time. 
 
8. Don't be this guy: 
https://youtu.be/qyI9yDuf8xQ
 
All in all, the hardest part of this job is removing all the scratch protection film from the new shroud.

hahaha I loved watching that fail video - I seriously LOL'd at least twice

DamonLynchAnd as a general question for anyone, is the GPU still producing the same heat, and the hybrid cooler is more efficient at dissipating it, or is the overall heat from the system actually reduced by 30 - 40 degrees? I suspect the former, but I'd be delighted to be wrong
 

You are correct.... power=heat....unless you decrease the power draw heat production does not change, therefor the hybrid will dissipate heat better thus better (gpu) temps.

DamonLynch
@larrysb, does your Define R5 mostly cancel out the pump noise, or is it still noticeable? Do you think that with two of them, it would be difficult to route the tubes around a large cooler like the Noctua?
 
And as a general question for anyone, is the GPU still producing the same heat, and the hybrid cooler is more efficient at dissipating it, or is the overall heat from the system actually reduced by 30 - 40 degrees? I suspect the former, but I'd be delighted to be wrong
 
Thanks.

Too answer your general question, the GPU or CPU still dissipates the same number of watts into the environment. Different solutions are more efficient in moving it around. Also, cooler running CPUs and GPUs are more efficient. So, you will gain a few percent in efficiency and higher boost clocks at lower temperatures. About the only negative I have about the GPU AIOs, is the default fan at 100% is way too noisy. How hard would it be to tie the rad fan to the existing fan control on the GPU?  They really work well with push/pull with quality fans if you have the room.

HeavyHemi
Too answer your general question, the GPU or CPU still dissipates the same number of watts into the environment. Different solutions are more efficient in moving it around. Also, cooler running CPUs and GPUs are more efficient. So, you will gain a few percent in efficiency and higher boost clocks at lower temperatures.

 
Thanks for the confirmation (and to Heini2 too). That was what I guessed.  I had wondered if there might be some kind of negative dynamic feedback between the GPU temperature and its surroundings, in that as the air temp rises, the GPU's efficiency would go down, producing even more heat, raising the case temp, and so on. But it sounds like that's nothing to concern oneself with.
 

HeavyHemiThey really work well with push/pull with quality fans if you have the room.

 
By this you mean two fans, one either side of the radiator? That's a bit like the Noctua D15, I guess (except the Noctua has two towers).

larrysb
The hybrid cooler simply moves heat from one place to another. In this case, the heat of the GPU and VRAM are taken to the radiator by the liquid, then transferred to the air by the fan and blown outside the case.

I thought I read in the manual that the radiator/waterblock only pulls the heat from the GPU processor and that the VRAM is cooled by the blower fan attached to that area of the PCB.
 
Unless I missed something?

larrysb
The VRAM is covered by a copper plate and heat pads, which in turn, couple with thermal paste to the edge of the water block on the GPU. So GPU + VRAM are water cooled. 
 
The fan cools the VRM components, the mosfets, the inductors and capacitors. 
 
I wish I had gotten the full edition SC cards, rather than the black edition. The black edition lack the extra thermal sensors and async fan control. The hybrid cooling would benefit greatly from that, as the radiator fan doesn't need as much RPM as the VRM fan does.  :(

OH right! DUH.
 
Yeah that is one thing that annoys me; I have Black too (was only card I could find.) I don't like the rad fan at full speed. Did you have problems with fan speed period? I noticed on my 1080ti and my wife 1060 that if I didn't opened the EVGA app and reset the preset for fan control the onboard fan NEVER ran. Once I did that they now run according to the preset fan curve.
 
Otherwise I'm pretty impressed with the AIO. I came from a big boy setup with separate loops/rads/pumps/etc.

DamonLynch
For anyone who values quiet operation, it's best to replace the hybrid radiator fans with PWM fans controllable from the motherboard. I guess the stock fans are the way they are -- extremely basic -- so EVGA could hit a certain price point. At 85% power with two units running constantly in one case and replacement fans at 1400 rpm, I'm getting stable GPU temps of 63 degrees C, or about 5-10 degrees C above the stock fans running at 100%. That's fine with me, because it's so much quieter now. A much more pleasant working environment! Probably the noisiest component now is the PSU fan, or perhaps the case fans. Nothing to worry about with them in comparison.

 
No doubt about that! I just moved my two 120mm fans on the GPU Radiator to motherboard header with a PWM splitter--got them set at 1400rpms and it's MUCH better in terms of noise.

Mine stays in the 40's for 1-2 hours but at a certain point it gradually heats up all the way until 62c. Is this normal? I attached a Noctua s12a-flx to it, maybe it doesn't cool enough?

Thanks for sharing some detailed thoughts on the setup.

One note after running them a while:
 
Prior to installing the hybrid kits, I had one card that always ran hotter than the other. While it was apart, the cards appear to have slightly different inductors on them in the VRM section. 
 
Afterwards, the GPU's are virtually identical in reported temperature at 42c. However, as the "black" edition cards lack async fans and multiple thermistors, I measured the temps with a thermometer and discovered that the same card still runs hotter than the other. My guess is that the difference is due to different vendor components on the cards. 
 
Also, you'll need to tune the fans - the VRM can get *very* hot, while the GPU is nice and cool, and particularly on the "black" edition cards, since they don't have independent fans and multi-point sensors. 
 
I'm in the process of installing independent sensors and fan control on my Ausus motherboard to better control the radiator and VRM fans separately.

larrysb
One note after running them a while:
 
Prior to installing the hybrid kits, I had one card that always ran hotter than the other. While it was apart, the cards appear to have slightly different inductors on them in the VRM section. 
 
Afterwards, the GPU's are virtually identical in reported temperature at 42c. However, as the "black" edition cards lack async fans and multiple thermistors, I measured the temps with a thermometer and discovered that the same card still runs hotter than the other. My guess is that the difference is due to different vendor components on the cards. 
 
Also, you'll need to tune the fans - the VRM can get *very* hot, while the GPU is nice and cool, and particularly on the "black" edition cards, since they don't have independent fans and multi-point sensors. 
 
I'm in the process of installing independent sensors and fan control on my Ausus motherboard to better control the radiator and VRM fans separately.

Thanks OP for the tips and review, I got exactly the same setup as yours, which is EVGA GTX 1080Ti SC Black + SC hybrid kit, the issue of VRM fan on the kit for my situation is: without fan controlling software such as afterburner or precisionX, it will never spin even under heavy load because that fan can only be triggered by the GPU core temperature which now will never reached 55C (on/off threshold temp for the vrm fan) under water cooling, therefore the vrm module would be purely passively cooled by only a small piece of heatsink, it can cook an egg after some gaming, in extreme case like if you put the waterblock radiator outside of your pc case thus the GPU core is cooled much more effcient than the rest of the card, then the BIOS will think the vrm is very cool when it’s actually burning. Remember the fired vrm issue of the early batch of EVGA gtx 1080 ? EVGA shouldn’t put the SC black model on the compatible list of this hybrid cooler in the first place, or at least roll out a specified BIOS for the particular setup since expecting people to use fan control software isn’t an ideal soluction at all.

Thanks for the update Larry. I just got my hybrid kit for a black 6393 card. I'll see what the difference is between ICX cooler and the hybrid. Folding 24/7 it's at 58 degrees [ICX] and decently quiet.  

geswek
 
 
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but the VRM fan, you referring to the fan on the hybrid block?
 
If so, not sure why yours is not turning on but mine is on. I set the fan curve to manual and have it set to increase if necessary based on temperature.

The waterblock goes over the GPU and the VRAM, and pumps the hot water up to the radiator. 
 
The remaining air-cooling fan and heat-sink on the card is for cooling the VRM, aka, Voltage Regulator Module, which step down the 12v and 5v power connectors to the 1.2v and 200 amps the GPU uses to run on. It is a collection of inductors, capacitors and mosfets that do all this work. They can actually handle a lot of heat, like 100c easily. But it is best to keep them cool. 
 
The BIOS on the 1080ti SC2 "Black" edition cards will not turn on the VRM fan until the GPU's own internal thermistor reaches a certain temperature. However, with the efficiency of the water cooling, the GPU never gets anywhere near this trigger temperature. The "Black" edition cards do not have the 9 thermal sensors that the other SC2 card does have. It just has the one sensor in the GPU. 
 
You can use the EVGA software in Windows to change the fan curve so that the VRM fan turns on earlier. In Linux, nvidia-smi will do the trick, though it doesn't have the sophistication that the Windows tools have. 
 
But - it requires some intervention. Can't rely on the card itself to turn on the VRM fan, because it will not reach the level. 

xaplusa

larrysb
The waterblock goes over the GPU and the VRAM, and pumps the hot water up to the radiator. 
The remaining air-cooling fan and heat-sink on the card is for cooling the VRM, aka, Voltage Regulator Module, which step down the 12v and 5v power connectors to the 1.2v and 200 amps the GPU uses to run on. It is a collection of inductors, capacitors and mosfets that do all this work. They can actually handle a lot of heat, like 100c easily. But it is best to keep them cool. 
The BIOS on the 1080ti SC2 "Black" edition cards will not turn on the VRM fan until the GPU's own internal thermistor reaches a certain temperature. However, with the efficiency of the water cooling, the GPU never gets anywhere near this trigger temperature. The "Black" edition cards do not have the 9 thermal sensors that the other SC2 card does have. It just has the one sensor in the GPU. 
You can use the EVGA software in Windows to change the fan curve so that the VRM fan turns on earlier. In Linux, nvidia-smi will do the trick, though it doesn't have the sophistication that the Windows tools have. 
But - it requires some intervention. Can't rely on the card itself to turn on the VRM fan, because it will not reach the level. 

I got the same setup, the evga should roll out a optional BIOS for the 1080ti black edition so that it can be able to use with the hybrid cooler properly without software's assistance. otherwise the black edition should not be on the compatible list of the hybrid kit

Yeah...it's too bad we can't modify the Pascal BIOS.  With the Hybrid kit I stuck on my FE I use push/pull on the rad with Scythe AP-13's @ 90% from the motherboard you can't hear them at all and you save those watts the fan would use, for the GPU. Hours of gaming and I top out at ~50C in silence. Some are not aware that the power to run the fans and the pump is used by GPU boost to calculate total power draw. You can easily test this by running your fan(s) at idle, then at 100% and see the power draw increase around 5%. Afterburner, I set a fan profile for the PWM fan so that when the GPU hits 40C, it ramps up to 35%. Which is inaudible, but moves enough air to cool the VRM. I had the same concern as you, the default profile leaves the PWM fan running at 23% regardless of how hot the PWM gets on the FE. This model has the cold plate for the memory so that isn't a concern for me.