Full cover WB for GTX 280 good idea?

[SparksNelec]

I'm debating between putting a full cover water block on my GTX 280 or if I should go with a 'universal' WB and use a uni-sink design to cover the RAM, mosfets, etc.

Generally, the 'universal' block plus the uni-sink ends up being a little cheaper than a full cover block with the potential benefit of working on a different GPU later (with a new uni-sink obviously). The full cover block looks nicer and only takes up 1 expansion slot but space isn't going to be an issue for me.

What about the performance of each? Do full cover water blocks cool the core as much as a 'universal' one? How much of a benefit is there to water cooling the rest of the card? I don't have a fan blowing directly on the GPU so will that be a big problem for the uni-sink design? I'd probably experiment with OC'ing the GPU but that isn't as important as just getting rid of the GPU fan and getting the temps somewhere reasonable.

My water cooling loop would consist of one GTX 280 and an i7 920 with one 2x120 rad and 1x120 rad all being pumped by an Eheim HPPS 12V.

 

[chinesepiratefood]

You will get better temps out of a block only covering the gpu, and putting seperate sinks on the ram, mosfets, etc.

May need a small fan on them, dunno about 280 specifically

 

[MocciBoo]

I'd go with xspc full coverage block, great quality full cover blocks at a significantly cheaper price.

 

[Blkout]

You will get better temps out of a block only covering the gpu, and putting seperate sinks on the ram, mosfets, etc.

May need a small fan on them, dunno about 280 specifically

I think you mean his temps will be better on the core, but everything else will run hot. FC blocks are superior in every way. The only downside is that they obviously can't be used on another card. Today's cards need cooling on the voltage regulators and memory as well as the core. It's not worth 3-4c cooler temps on the core for 30-40c temps higher on the voltage regs and memory with a GPU only block.