kraxe.tk
@Graphite8five : Installation of the EKWB was pretty straight foward, taking apart the card was more of a challenge.  Now I was thinking, what a waste of money it would be to ditch the air cooler.   Well to make myself feel better, I took apart the most appealing part of the FTW3 (appealing to me).  The thermal indicators is what I find cool about the card.  Sure you can look at them in Precision XOC, but having indicators right inside your rig to see the lights that you can set temps to, is very convenient.  Interestingly, few members find that backplate logo doesn't work right with the rest of the LEDs removed.  I presume that connecting the logo bar with the temp indicators seem to close the loop of circuits for the LEDs to work right.  Everything works right on my FTW3.
 

GTXJackBauer

Graphite8five
 
If it's all working normally that's a good sign, does modding with the EKWB water blocks void warranty? 
 
Can the EKWB block for the 1080 Ti be run on the GPU only rather than in a full loop? 

1. You can install 3rd party coolers without voiding the EVGA warranty as long as the card is shipped back to them during RMA in the original condition that it came in out of the box and there is no damage to the card from human error.
 
2.  You could run a GPU only loop but that would be pointless when you can add the CPU to the loop as well for the money spent on a loop.  Just make sure the loop is sufficient enough to cool said components.

kraxe.tk
@Graphite8five: You could use a pump and radiator combo for that.  Swiftech has a 140mm radiator and pump on sale for $85, just get the AIO set.  It's priced $5 lower than just buying the radiator/pump alone. Here's a link http://www.swiftech.com/H140-X.aspx 
I upgraded from SLI 780's to single 1080Ti.  I will be giving the 780's to my nephews, one of them will be hooked up to the MCR140-X Drive.  
 
Here's a link to the just the radiator/pump http://www.swiftech.com/MCR140-X.aspx remember you get more items with the AIO kit, hoses, clamps CPU block, filled coolant, thermal paste, 140mm fan, and a fan distribution block (PWM splitter).  They have a picture of the setup you describe.  Doing this setup would be a little  convenient in certain situations.  
 
Have you seen the tear down of the FTW3 on Gamers Nexus? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBjTi0uj64E&t=406s 
How to install EKWB GTX 1080 Ti Waterblock, by: HW Recenze  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2vWugwQHm0

IlVengeancelI
Red Team 290x Ex-owner moved to 1080TI FTW no regrets so far :)

TomSawyer2112
Nice build, Talonman!  The Phanteks is an awesome case to build in.  How do you like your Thermaltake Riings?   I considered going with those to bring some more LED light into my case but stuck with my plain Noctua Industrials for now.