0341motormen1
The thing is if you guys can respond of how many people have had problems once they either added the correct standoffs or ordered with the standoffs already in place from ek . Also how many have not had problems after the stand off update from ek . I want to watercool the card but still after reading the whole 22 page form am still worried . The fact that ek added the standoff but did not admit doing anything wrong is not a good sign . either they messed up or did it for the reason that it will make people less worried to buy the waterblock even though ek knowing the standoff change has no effect. Others have had problems with other blocks but not as many as EK . I wanted a corsair waterblock but they havent made one for the Evga cards . Evga cards seem to be one of the most sold 3 series that you can get your hands on during this time . The fact that Corsair chose to make a MSi waterblock really says somthing . Now i guess the only thing to do is wait for Corsair to make a waterblock for the ftw3090 or maybe Evga will make one but who knows . Really dont want to take a chance on Ek  then have somthing go wrong to then get a refurb 3090 when i have a new one .

I wouldn't hold my breath for anyone else to try and compete with a block for the FTW3.  As well as EK...Bitspower, Bykski & Optimus already do.  I haven't really been staying on top of what Corsair do, but I've never seen any GPU block from Corsair for anything other than the reference cards so I'm not sure where you get the idea that they chose to target any particular brand of card over others?

I'm still to see anyone post a pic of the larger standoffs having caused damage, so it's not quite a closed case until then, IMO.  It could simply be explained by EK having the majority of the market share and the problem being inherent to the EVGA design.  But the more time that passes with no-one reporting the problem with the smaller standoffs the more it looks like that was the problem, eh?

Should I replace my standoffs despite not having any issue with my card?  I received my WB in Feb...

Yes am thinking of the same seeing if people have problems with the new standoff but thats gonna take alot of time , and yes corsair makes 3000 series blocks for the asus strix cards , founders , reference, and even msi which is weird for them not including Evga water blocks especially seeing how evga is pumping out more cards then asus and msi . Not to mention Evga and Asus are one of the more popular third party cards

So my revised standoffs arrived yesterday so I figured I would notate the changes.
 
The original standoffs are .236"/6mm in diameter and the revised standoffs are .177"/4.5mm in diameter.
 
 

On my third card I measured from the centreline of the hole in the PCB and the nearest component on the board and it's 3mm.  Given the wiggle-room provided by not precisely locating the PCB to the cooler (the EVGA air cooler does, at one corner) it will hit for some people when using the 6mm standoffs and won't for others.  I'm not saying that I know this is what bricks the cards, but I can't see how it's anything other than an obvious error on EK's part...or EVGA changed the PCB layout in more ways than moving the VRAM modules and changing the capacitor types?
 
https://imgur.com/DXPtkb1

 

Wow! Very interesting to say the least.

0341motormen1
wow sorry to hear that but that problem that you are having with the Evga 3090 kingpin block the watercooling block that evga sells themselves may shed some truth on the Ek statement of them saying it was the cards pcb being weak and the card being bricked while taking the stock cooler off . Unless Evga didnt have enough of a gap in there kingpin  block and that caused contact that shorted somthing out  but i doubt that. The 3090 kingpin does infact use thermal putty as well could the thermal putty really be the route cause forcing users to exsert more force then then normal while taking the stock cooler off putting extra strain on a weak pcb or noraml pcb and bricking the card that way . What i would like to know is if you run the hard at high temps and let that putty become softer then take it off solve that problem as others have said in the form . But regardless it does seem that Ek might have been correct ....

This has been mentioned once before. It is recommended that you stress test the card before disassembly so as to warm up the paste and pads. From doing that the heat spreader should be a little easier to remove and not flex the pcb as much. This is a topic of concern along with these standoffs as to why so many ftw3s are bricking when installing the waterblock. 

Waterblocked my 3080ti last night, running tubes now. I stress tested for 2 hours getting up to 75°c before removing block. I didn't pry away from stock cooler, more like a lateral motion..very gingerly. Once the seal of the paste was "broke" it came off easily. Upon inspecting the pads used had the consistency of sand. Ill report back once tubes run

0341motormen1
Found this on youtube talk about pcb bend took a screen shot after the snap sound offf

Hopefully more people aren't now going to assume that those of us who have had problems are as stupid as the guy in the video.  The number of people who didn't have a problem that are assuming that the difference between success and failure has to be the care that they took is already annoying.

Blopresti1980
Waterblocked my 3080ti last night, running tubes now. I stress tested for 2 hours getting up to 75°c before removing block. I didn't pry away from stock cooler, more like a lateral motion..very gingerly. Once the seal of the paste was "broke" it came off easily. Upon inspecting the pads used had the consistency of sand. Ill report back once tubes run

Hope it goes well for you.  Were the lower three standoffs 6mm or the revised 4.5mm versions?

Sounds like you are mistaking the heat sink putty for pads?

Glad it went well for you which block did you use and what model of 3080ti do you have is it a ftw ?

krellnut

 Were the lower three standoffs 6mm or the revised 4.5mm versions?

Time to get accurate with our descriptions, too many people reading this.
The revised standoffs are smaller in diameter.
Lower or shorter refers to its length. The replaced standoffs are the same length or height as the originals.

"lower three", not "three lower".

In this case "lower" was referring to their location on the PCB. Savvy?

I know how long (from Melbourne) - 8 days if you ship via DHL.  I've sent two, they turn it around in Taiwan in about 24 hours.

I've taken the stock cooler off three FTW3 Ultras.  The first one I didn't test until afterwards so I don't know if it worked after simply removing the stock cooler.
The second just about fell apart as I'd been benchmarking for 40 minutes before taking it off and after refitting the stock cooler I booted it once.
Both there first two cards died were dead immediately after fitting the EK block.
The third card was just as easy to get the stock cooler off and is still running on air in a spare rig, smashing 103.4 mh/s all day every day with new thermal pads everywhere as the RMA cards both had the pads fitted very poorly.  It was ok for gaming, but was a dog to try and mine with.
 
I have three of the narrower standoffs for my GPU block now, but I want to thoroughly test the card on air so there's no doubt about what killed it if it dies after fitting the GPU block.

So yes, I would recommend that you refit the original cooler and use it for a while before trying to fit the block.  I can't remember, but I think it was 1mm thermal pads needed to replace the thermal putty used in two places.
 
It takes so little time to get the stock cooler off that I wouldn't bother with the heat gun but it wouldn't hurt to have it there it seems like you might need it. Set to 110c or so?.  I used a plastic pry between the pcie connector on the card and the stock cooler.

I ran on air for six months waiting for the EK block to be released, so I share your pain!

Didn't read over this to much, but are you using an extender for your riser?  May not be the card.

Blopresti1980
No, not just the heat sink putty, it was on the vram among other things. But, it works great. And yes, used the revised standoffs

I wonder if that's perhaps a 3080ti thing.  Sounds kind of weird!