Watercooled 'reference' cards - worth it?

[R-TYPE]

Am interested in going for watercooled cards, in SLI (either 970 or 980). Am very interested in having a system that's quite silent, hence intrigued in omitting the card's fans, and watercooling the cards using 'reference' WC blocks for the cards. The reference cards have lower clocks than some custom cards (EVGA 'superclocked' card for example). Is it better in long term to go to reference? Or is it much of a muchness and not worth the hassle, just go for non-reference designs?

New to the world of WC so have not had experience here before. Interested to hear any voices of experience.

Thanks.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

You can do it cheaper yourself.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...bd-8758-a58de5a2f6c5_zps52ca74ed.png~original
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v25/amigafan2003/Untitled2_zps57aa9c2d.png~original

That's a couple of Galax 970 exoc's with £50 universal EK Thermosphere blocks fitted.

 

[abui1806]

Generally, people choose to go with reference card because it is easier and sometimes cheaper to find a waterblock for it. But if you can find a block for the non-reference card then why not. And, the full cover waterblock is always better than the universal block because it can cool down everything you need (GPU, VRM, VRAM).

 

[Matty_Boy]

I bought 2x Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming cards, stripped off the coolers and then added the designated EK Waterblocks to them. Was very easy to remove the stock fans and fit the waterblocks. From what I can see the G1 cards have a better power supply headroom than reference cards and so hopefully can be pushed higher under water.