Evga Hybrid or Hydros?

[mithiral67]

Hi all, I am building a new rig and plan on going dual 1080tis. I want to go water cooling for sound purposes as my pc sits right next to me on my desk. I also want to go with solid 24/7 cooling both on the gpu and on the power and memory temps. I have a evga sc2 hybrid in my second computer and with push pull fans at 50% (for sound reasons) and a 140mm fan at 60% laying on top of the card, its showing gpu temps of 48, power of 60 and memory of 57. Case open.

Set up I am considering.

EVGA 1080ti FTW3 Hybrids - in stock $1700
EVGA 1080ti SC2 Hydro Copper - In stock $2,400 (includes 2 cards and ekwb costume kit for my set up)
EVGA 1080ti FTW3 Hydro Copper - not in stock $2,500 (includes 2 cards and ekwb costume kit for my set up+)
EVGA 1080ti FTW3 - plus ewbk water cooling. $2,849

Random facts, i have never customer watercooled but would like to try it it. While it looks amazing, it will primarily be for cooling as I might look at it a dozen times a year and my friends might look at it 5 times a year. Still torn if its worth the $700+ investment.

Question one. How much better do the hydro coppers cool than the hybrids on the power and memory? Will I see better overall cooling there? ekwb claims the system will run at 40c, which isnt noticeable lower than i will likely see on the ftw hybrids as the sc2 is already in the 40s at quiet temps.
Question two. If the answer above is yes, hydros are decently better, do i go sc2 or wait for the ftw3 hydros? Most of what I have read is that the only difference between the sc2 and ftw3 normal cards is slightly lower temps and similar performance as its up to the silicon lottery than sc2 vs ftw3. If they have similar blocks then cooling is a motto point here.
Question three. Will the ek water blocks be better then the hydro in quality and performance to justify the price jump?
Question four. Do the blocks (evga or ek) help cool the top of the card? The top of my sc2 hybrid (and regular sc2) in my second computer are hot as heck and i put fans on them to help cool and they do help noticeable, all temps by 3-5 degrees.
Question five. Am i nuts and should go with the ftw3 hydros as its the cheapest option, provides temps so low even in the 40s and 50s that these cards can run 24/7 for the next three years no issue pr at least be covered by warranty.

Thanks,
James

 

[maxfly]

do you have links to these custom ek loops? without knowing what the custom loops consist of and what the hybrid aios are we cant give you an informed answer. links to the different cards will allow us to see which is clocked higher etc...

 

[caddi daddi]

go with full cover blocks and a custom loop or look at msi sea hawk.
the evga hybrid only cools the gpu cores and memory but not the vrm.
I have A 1080 hybrid in with A 1080 ftw and it takes some airflow (noise) to keep them cool.

 

[mithiral67]

do you have links to these custom ek loops? without knowing what the custom loops consist of and what the hybrid aios are we cant give you an informed answer. links to the different cards will allow us to see which is clocked higher etc...

No link, its just the ek webpage, the configure for the set up i described and the standard combo. Their customer thing really dont add a ton of variety. Claims 40c loop at decibels.

- - - Updated - - -

go with full cover blocks and a custom loop or look at msi sea hawk.
the evga hybrid only cools the gpu cores and memory but not the vrm.
I have A 1080 hybrid in with A 1080 ftw and it takes some airflow (noise) to keep them cool.

I asked someone with the ek block and they said that its not a ton better with with the ek set up. That and vram can take a lot more temp than the gpu.

 

[caddi daddi]

a couple of things to know.
on my 1080 hybrid card,
you only have control of the fan on the board and vrm.
the fan on the radiator runs at full rpm all the time, I have moved the fan connecter to the motherboard so I have control of it.
there is only one temp sensor, that is in the processor die, you have no clue what the vrm temp is so I keep that fan cranked up.

 

[||Console||]

I understand that you are doing this for Noise reasons . I would check some reviews on AIB 1080ti's normalised @ 40db (check gamersnexus) vs the water cooling solutions .
I have been water cooling for 10+ years but with these pascal cards only reason IMO is for less noise (so I havent picked up a block yet , If I do it will be a Full cover) , they wont really oc much better on water . My AIB 1080 is VERY noisy with 100% fan speed but I only use that when benching with the fan on auto I dont really hear it with normal use , and when gaming I have headphones on so again I dont hear it and it for sure doesnt ramp up any where close to 100% . as a test I just ran furmark for 5 min fan only went to 48% 1800 rpms ish .

 

[mithiral67]

Thanks all for the advice