Hi all, I recently got 2 GTX260 from Gainward. It turns out that they are not the reference design, so far I have found they dont seem to have the standard voltage regulation setup as the guides for volt modding with Riva Tuner dont work. I have also read that they have a custom PCB layout and in this lies my problem. I am wanting to think about water cooling them but I am not sure how best to to do it. I assume the full cover blocks will not fit due to the custom layout or at least they wont sufficently cool areas surrounding the main core such as RAM and VRM's etc. The other option is to go for single blocks and continue to air cool the RAM and VRM's etc. Any thoughts on this subject or suggestions of how to best cool them would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all. PS. If anyone knows of any good gainward online communities please let me know as they do not have thier own manufacturer forums.
Information on Gainward seems sparse. Being stateside... I had never heard of them. Their Wikipedia entry references the Nvidia 8 series as their latest cards. Tweaktown has only benched the 275 and 295. Other than that... solid info or support seems lacking. It seems like Gainward products are marketed toward people who would rather someone else do the modding. People seem to think the stock cooler does a good job.
If the PCB is not refrence design then your only choice is to use a core only block like the swiftech MCW60 for example but you do have to becarful of the ram sinks etc.
