I want to give everyone here an update since I complained so much. My blocks finally shipped this past Monday and they arrived on Tuesday. The shipping was very fast, but I'm very disappointed that they shipped two weeks after I was told they would. I received my 1080tis from EVGA last week, so they are currently set up in my PC with the stock cooler. I will be installing the blocks this weekend.
 
Installing the blocks is going to be a pain because I have to run at least 4 new hard line tubes. I will post pictures of the final results for everyone to see.

Removed for GTXJackBauer The Stalker of the Forums.

No water for me. I'll stay dry and hope I stay cool!

it might short circuit under water

Systom
Well now, that was fun. It's not perfect, I could probably do some bends a bit cleaner, but for a first time custom loop build? Pretty happy with it. Still gotta tidy things up a bit more, add a couple more minor mods.
 
Leviathan



I pumped my CPU, 6850k, 4.2ghz to 4.5 ghz, ram from 2600 to 3000, I couldn't even boot with that before, and so far after running some aida tests/gaming, it appears to be stable. Highest I've seen my CPU tapping out at is 60C, the GPU at 50C, but I have not tried to fully push the GPU yet until I make sure the CPU is stable first. Some might say that's high for a custom loop, but I'm a bit limited by my case, a single 360 40mm rad for both CPU/GPU, much better temps/sound than I was getting before with AIO's. But, that was from a stress test regarding the CPU, gaming keeps it around 50C as well.

Awesome Build!

w0ng3r

nvidyuh

Poofu1
it might short circuit under water

... what did he mean by this?

He's probably making useless posts to get elite status lol 

I think he means if it leaks.

surfseattle
Does it make sense to pay high prices for an expensive aftermarket card like the EVGA FTW3 if you're going to water cool ?
 
Sounds like all the Nvidia chips have about the same overclock capability so why not just buy the cheapest founders edition you can find ?

If you are going to WC, then yes, chances are it's going to be up to the silicon lottery and how cool you can keep the card. 

I'm not sure how much the 10+2 power phase on the FTW3 will boost your OC compared to the 7 phase power on the FE.
As there aren't any reviews or OC results for the FTW3 out yet, its' hard to say.
 
 
Also, how on earth do you surf in seattle

w0ng3r

surfseattle
Does it make sense to pay high prices for an expensive aftermarket card like the EVGA FTW3 if you're going to water cool ?
 
Sounds like all the Nvidia chips have about the same overclock capability so why not just buy the cheapest founders edition you can find ?

If you are going to WC, then yes, chances are it's going to be up to the silicon lottery and how cool you can keep the card. 

I'm not sure how much the 10+2 power phase on the FTW3 will boost your OC compared to the 7 phase power on the FE.
As there aren't any reviews or OC results for the FTW3 out yet, its' hard to say.
 
 
Also, how on earth do you surf in seattle

 
 
Well you have a VERY interesting point that I hadn't thought of before .... power !!
 
It might make sense to look at the Aorus 1080ti card .... it can take 350 Watts of power, more than any other card out there.
 
Surfin' in Seattle consists of getting out in the middle of Puget Sound and waiting for the big freighters to go by to catch a wave.   but, it only works by starting out on a stand up paddle board.
 
Doesn't hurt to be wearing a 3mm wetsuit, too !!!
 

surfseattle

w0ng3r

surfseattle
Does it make sense to pay high prices for an expensive aftermarket card like the EVGA FTW3 if you're going to water cool ?
 
Sounds like all the Nvidia chips have about the same overclock capability so why not just buy the cheapest founders edition you can find ?

If you are going to WC, then yes, chances are it's going to be up to the silicon lottery and how cool you can keep the card. 

I'm not sure how much the 10+2 power phase on the FTW3 will boost your OC compared to the 7 phase power on the FE.
As there aren't any reviews or OC results for the FTW3 out yet, its' hard to say.
 
 
Also, how on earth do you surf in seattle

 
 
Well you have a VERY interesting point that I hadn't thought of before .... power !!
 
It might make sense to look at the Aorus 1080ti card .... it can take 350 Watts of power, more than any other card out there.
 
Surfin' in Seattle consists of getting out in the middle of Puget Sound and waiting for the big freighters to go by to catch a wave.   but, it only works by starting out on a stand up paddle board.
 
Doesn't hurt to be wearing a 3mm wetsuit, too !!!
 

Is the Aorus card really 350 watt TDP? I saw it has 12+2 phase, but didn't see the TDP rating.   I haven't owned a gigabyte product since... my athlon xp 2100 system, GA-7DXR+ motherboard, roflmao
 
 

Category 5
No reason to wait almost a year for Coffee Lake to get another 14nm chip with the standard 10% speed boost.  I would pick up a z270 and Kaby Lake now, unless you're planning on going with an extreme platform.  In that case Skylake-E is worth waiting for over X99, which is still great (and offers 40 PCI-E lanes) but getting old.

this +1, either go kaby or cannon, unless you want the Enthusiast line

surfseattle

w0ng3r

surfseattle
Does it make sense to pay high prices for an expensive aftermarket card like the EVGA FTW3 if you're going to water cool ?
 
Sounds like all the Nvidia chips have about the same overclock capability so why not just buy the cheapest founders edition you can find ?

If you are going to WC, then yes, chances are it's going to be up to the silicon lottery and how cool you can keep the card. 

I'm not sure how much the 10+2 power phase on the FTW3 will boost your OC compared to the 7 phase power on the FE.
As there aren't any reviews or OC results for the FTW3 out yet, its' hard to say.
 
 
Also, how on earth do you surf in seattle

 
 
Well you have a VERY interesting point that I hadn't thought of before .... power !!
 
It might make sense to look at the Aorus 1080ti card .... it can take 350 Watts of power, more than any other card out there.
 
Surfin' in Seattle consists of getting out in the middle of Puget Sound and waiting for the big freighters to go by to catch a wave.   but, it only works by starting out on a stand up paddle board.
 
Doesn't hurt to be wearing a 3mm wetsuit, too !!!
 

Nah, FE it's enough if watercooling. I had a 1080 classified and didn't gain much from the extra power. That's just the was Pascal is.

I made some adjustments to my strategy.
 

 

 
Maybe a waterblock eventually, till then, this is quiet and cool and great. Never gets over 50c at load.

surfseattle
Looks kinda funky ..... but, what the hell if it works GREAT !!!

Oh I love the way it looks. The FE cooler looks gorgeous to me, i was really annoyed at having to lose it. And the visible guts of the hybrid pump make it look super industrial. 

w0ng3r
 
If you are waiting for coffee lake... It's going to be february 2018, add a few more months for manufacturers to release good motherboards and its going to be close to a year away. Then there is the fact that coffee lake is still going to be 14nm.
It would still be a nice upgrade to have a 6C/12T I7, but I will personally have hold out for Cannonlake as I just upgraded from my maximus vi gene + 4770k to a maximus ix extreme + 7700k. 

 
Few things I disagree with here. First, most reports are saying Coffee Lake is going to be late summer / early fall release. Benchmarks of Coffee Lake are already live online, so no reason to doubt these reports. 
 
Second, the Coffee Lake benchmarks that are all live are being posted using a Z270 chipset, so we know at a minimum Coffee Lake will be an LGA 1151 socket. Given this, it's reasonable to assume that Coffee Lake will work with current Z270 (and possibly Z170) chipsets.
 
Since I'm currently sitting with a 6700K on a Z270 chipset (I got the 6700K at a very good price prior to the release of the 7700K), Coffee Lake seems to make perfect sense for me, even if it is released in February 2018 (which seems unlikely at this point).

w0ng3r
 
My brother in law works at Intel, I can safely tell you it won't be out till close to the end of the year. It will definitely not be out this summer/early fall.
If you aren't already on kaby lake it might be a worthwhile upgrade (depending on what you have now, and when cannon lake is out), 

Fair enough. I can't argue with inside information.

I ordered an EK Titan X Pascal waterblock from Amazon through their Warehouse Deals organization, which was listed as brand new but with damaged packaging, so it was like $10 or $12 cheaper. 

Turns out they sent me a brand new EK Titan X Maxwell block in a cardboard shipping box with all the screws and whatnot. Wrong block. I'm returning it. In the meantime, the true EK 1080ti water blocks became available at Performance PCs, so I ordered one of those. I like the look of it better, since it doesn't have the cut-out in the block that's for a DVI header that doesn't exist on the 1080ti. It arrives today. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what my 1080ti can do on water, since it won't be throttling down because the temps will never exceed the triggering points. My 1080 SC was magnificent with its EK block, and so far on air my 1080ti is already blowing it away, and it's not at its full potential yet.