It probably would be...but you won't do it for the same reason that didn't go for the '[more than] good enough' 1070 or the 'good enough' 3.5mW/K EK thermal pads. Once you mask off the contacts on the top of the cpu (green board part) there's nothing else to short out for quite some distance. It would have to escape the confines of the IHS, travel across the cpu, find its way out of the socket, onto the motherboard and then be enough of it to bridge some traces...which are probably insulated by the top-coat on the board anyway. If you've put that much too much paste on the top of the die, you're gonna have problems getting the IHS back on the top!
Haha that's very true, this will be my last build for a very long time so determined to do things properly
Will definitely be stealing your idea of using clear nail varnish just to make sure!
Think you had trouble with the fans looking the wrong colour in pics before. As long as they look good in the flesh fin, it's all good. Dragon looks really nice.
That's true, just slightly irritating that it doesn't look as good in the pictures as it should do. Might have to cheat and alter the colour balance with GIMP for the final shots
Thanks, I love how the added details show up so well when it's lit up
Most of them will honour the warranty if you block up a card. As long as you've not obviously done something stupid, that is. They'll probably want the original heatsink and fan back on it - whether that's for completeness, their testing or a knowing plausible deniability I'm not sure.
That's good to know, although obviously hoping it isn't needed! Heard MSI are one of the better companies when it comes to warranties so fingers crossed.
They ditched the metal frame around the GPU?
I'll admit that it was a pain to clean the goop out from the edges and the corners...but it looked sort of cool. Different from just another CPU/GPU/APU/FPU.
This is the first one I've ever 'blocked' so no idea
Cool. Hadn't spotted those existed. There are 'better' ones available but the price gets ridiculous. Looks like those are a good balance between cost and performance. Two different thicknesses presumably....unless the block for the 1080 only requires one - it was 0.5mm and 1mm for the 980Ti.
Yeah the small squares are 0.5mm and the long piece is 1mm. Not the best thermal pads you can buy but as you said, they're better than the EK ones and aren't stupidly expensive, so well worth the cash for a small upgrade.
Because the heatsinks and fans are so big....and we've all been conditioned by Apple (and others) to see slim and clean as beautiful.
Must admit I was quite surprised at how big the stock cooler was, looks so much sleeker with the EK block on
Did you try the third way which would be to have the legs spread (no innuendo intended)? Like this > <
Otherwise, the first one.
I did mate but wasn't overly keen on it, think the first pic is definitely winning!
Nope. Not unless you were going for a more industrial look....and then the green pump cover would need to be black or chrome. Look at me talking colours like I've got a Scooby!
Think they could look good in the right build but like you said, doesn't really go with this one so going to stick with the lower, more interesting mount
I think I understand what you mean. You might want to consider soft tube from pump to gpu - with the same 90's as you've got. It'd just give the pump some vibration isolation and you wouldn't see it anyway - or if you do it'll be straight and clear and you won't notice the difference. You'd need some rubber under the feet or between the feet and pump/res too. Depends how much the noise irritates you - me, it's a fairly personal vendetta.
Luckily the PC will be on carpet under my desk, so pump vibration noise isn't really much of an issue for me. Soft tubing would be easier and add some isolation from pump vibration but I think it would always irritate me that it wasn't exactly the same as the other pipes, so I'll have to go with the noisy option. Planning on using soft tubing in the bottom compartment though where it doesn't show
If you have the exit pipe from the gpu running horizontally across the case, it will match up with the other horizontal pipes that are parallel. When it then bends 90° downwards, it'll be parallel (bends willing!) to the drain tube's downward section.
The tube from lower compartment to res will presumably follow this in parallel. Looks like there will be pass-throughs and step-drills on your shopping list!
That was actually my initial plan, but unfortunately the radiator in the bottom is right where the pipe would need to pass through the floor so I decided running them all parallel towards the motherboard was the neatest / easiest solution. Not quite as fancy but should look OK if it all goes to plan
Yep, definitely better lit up
and will be able to get a clearer view with it being raised off the ground, maybe some water reflection patterns as well will show ?
