rjbarker
A tip for you....put all the little screws (n nuts) back in the original backplate mounted on the stock cooler....even the original thermal pads can be placed in the same location on the stock cooler....then wrap it all up in saran wrap and store it back in the original box.
When the day comes to finally sell the card (or RMA), you will be happy you did this ;)
 
Good luck....post pics when your done!

rjbarker

Slider6996
Welp just wanted to let u guys know I went ahead and bought the EK waterblock and active backplate ( i know i dont rly need the backplate ) and i did also buy some gelid thermal pads, was gonna get grizzly but seen gelid just as good and seen several videos showing a 20c drop in memory temps over stock pads so snagged those too, ty all for advice and such too, got a few videos tabbed open so can watch before hand on doing all this as first time converting a card and dont wanna fark it up. 

Once you block the Card the first time you will see just how easy it is.
Was trickier getting the stock cooler back on the Card with the 3 little fan headers and one very pesky screw / nut combo thats in a tough spot ;)
A tip for you....put all the little screws (n nuts) back in the original backplate mounted on the stock cooler....even the original thermal pads can be placed in the same location on the stock cooler....then wrap it all up in saran wrap and store it back in the original box.
When the day comes to finally sell the card (or RMA), you will be happy you did this ;)
 
Good luck....post pics when your done!

rjbarker
Be patient..dont rush...get a decent Exacto knife to cut the thermal pads.
Remember  you will have 4 headers to disconnect prior to pulling the PCB away from the Stock Cooler (be gentle).
 
You can take the I/O mounting bracket completely off (3 little screws where DP/HDMI ports are), just dont forget to re-install it prior to installing the water block.
I lay the block down so the shiny side is up.....install the pads n grease on the PCB....then slowly lower the pcb down onto the block (lining up the holes perfectly, you dont want to wiggle it around to much after seating it, to line up the screw holes)).
4 GPU die screws first, then the rest (dont forget the little plastic washers), leave the ones off for the backplate, think there was 6 screws for the backplate.....cant remember for sure now.
 
Cutting the pads for the backplate was a bit tedious, this is the first backplate I have seen that had so many pads...and 3 different sizes (mostly 2mm though).
 
Between my 3080 and 3080 TI I have blocked both cards and unblocked re-installed stock cooler on 3080....once you get a few under your belt you will see its not rocket science...straight forward.
the first few I did back in the GTX 680 / 780Ti days I watched youtube videos and followed along.
 
Have fun with it....you likely shvt your pants the first time you boot up and no signal to the monitor though ;) , it happens, usually something simple (like ensuring all 3 PCI-E power plugs are properly seated (at both end ..GPU and PSU)!!
 
Cheers