980Ti - custom cooled, but with 'reference' board underneath?

[wunkley]

Do any of the custom cooled (ie non ref exhaust blower type) 980Ti's have an actual reference sized/ spec'd board under the cooler?

Reason I'm asking is.......thinking of getting just one 980Ti to start with and would like one with ACX type cooling (like the EVGA or MSI gamer, or G1) to allow for high overclocks with lowest temps and minimal noise.

BUT.... further down the line I will probably go SLI and would then want to remove the ACX cooler and slap an EVGA Hybrid AIO cooler on it, and have 2 x AIO hybrid cooled 980Ti cards for SLI. Far as I understand AIO hybrid coolers like EVGA's only fit onto 'reference' boards, is that right?

 

[andybird123]

Look at the product pages, if it has 6+8 pin then its a reference board underneath

However, the AIO should fit any board as the socket layout for the GPU itself is the same, you just have to make sure you have adequate vrm cooling, the msi gamer for example has a seperate vrm and memory cooler so taking off the GPU heat sink would leave that behind and then you would need a fan to blow air across the heatsink

 

[setter]

One of the zotac cards with an aftermarket cooler uses a reference board. Iirc its the one that ocuk had on offer at £499.99 last week.

 

[ICDP]

The EVGA Hybrid AIO cooler is designed for reference cards with the reference cooler, the fan is still utilised for VRM and VRAM cooling. So using on a non reference cooled card will not work.