these 970's run hotter due to extra monitors, funny how I keep getting network attacked when on this site now lol eat my firewall. i'll go through the logs later.
Reference so I can put a water block on it. These custom fan/board combinations is a nightmare to fit blocks to.
I voted Single,dual,triple because thats what i have now and my 760 before this was the same.It also has best performance without having to void your warranty and also its quiet, unless you OC it a lot. But it depends on the situation, my next build will probably be a mITX case with blower type cooler GPU. Probably later adding water cooling to it. Blower is good if you plan on going water, or do it yourself custom coolers (accelero, etc)
I voted for other, as I'd go for a waterblock if I could be bothered. My next build will probably be on a custom loop to be honest.
970 SLI 3rd party temps? Look no further. Temps of course vary from game to game but Metro LL Redux makes my top card run at 73-75 degrees and bottom card at 68ish. I've put the high ASIC card on top to balance the temperature. I use a mild OC for that game (1420 MHz). This would not have been possible with my old EVGA 780Ti ACX and therefore i vote 3rd party for this generation.
i prefer custom designs as its easier to clean. for example, my point of view gtx660 is extremely easy to keep dust free, while my previos refernce gtx 260 was tough to clean.
Reference - rear exhaust Titan cooler. I typically build mini-ITX and heat is always something I am mindful from mistakes made in the past. I currently use the EVGA Hadron, and tried a dual fan GPU, MSI mini-ITX 760, and eventually settled on a 770 with Titan cooler. My experience with small, enclosed builds is the reference rear exhaust works best for overall temps on the GPU & CPU.
I tried the MSI mini-ITX 760 in my EVGA Hadron & it mostly exhausts into the case - very little out the back if any.