1080 SLI - FE or Non-Reference with OC for watercooling? Caught in the middle...

Hi,

Guys - what's your pick on GTX 1080 board for water-cooling?

Would you go Founder's Edition or would you wait for something like ASUS Strix with OC? Problem is that it seems impossible to get my hands on these. Priceways - the OC is in par with FE. I need the fans so I can sell the card later - but is the OC on the non-reference cards worth the wait if I'm going to water cool?

Lastly - 1080 SLI or single 1080TI Founder's edition? I intend to go 4K.

Many thanks.

An aftermarket one with a better PCB than FE and that has a block for it/one on the card (look at EK website for configurator for example)

Unless these things get unlocked with better BIOS, as voltage control is very limited, its not terribly worth it to water cool these now IMO.

I've been eyeballing the STRIX as it has better OC than any other out there even though many claim EVGA is reputable beyond ASUS. EK and Bitspower have the STRIX WB. I've been waiting for 3 weeks and still on waiting list

I've started considering actually going Titan X, lower total cost than 1080 SLI - less risk of hassle with SLI, but I assume there will be no aftermarket or non-Reference cards that have good OC within the close future if ever? Furthermore I will be able to hopefully run SLI Titan X in the future if need...

Very ambivalent. Need to start the build within the next 2-3 weeks and the GPU choice still bugs me...

What would you guys do?

They all overclock to about the same. It really is a silicon lottery.

Wait for the 1080Ti, the Titan X (Pascal) is a waste of money unless you can use the double precision.

Actually Strix in early reviews was overclocking worse than reference cards. All of them make not much above 2100 with added voltage.
If I'm right then there are only blocks for reference ( FE ) cards. All wb manufacturers have about the same offer and in plans are non-reference blocks but I'm not sure if any brand has released anything.

They make custom blocks already for pascal...check EK configurator.