Normal
So what I did there was just take off a portion of the metal shroud and plastic see through window on the reference card. Then removed the heatsink that was there.About 8 screws in total to take both parts off.The rest of the card stays in tact, this allows the fan to cool the VRM's at the back of the card, while the GPU water block cools the GPU die.And yes, modifying the top cover would allow covering the card up again, however because the fan on the stock cooler pushes air to the back of the card and the radiator fans in the case push air to the back of the card as well, i don't see a need to put a cover on the card at this stage.
So what I did there was just take off a portion of the metal shroud and plastic see through window on the reference card. Then removed the heatsink that was there.
About 8 screws in total to take both parts off.
The rest of the card stays in tact, this allows the fan to cool the VRM's at the back of the card, while the GPU water block cools the GPU die.
And yes, modifying the top cover would allow covering the card up again, however because the fan on the stock cooler pushes air to the back of the card and the radiator fans in the case push air to the back of the card as well, i don't see a need to put a cover on the card at this stage.
