First we hear of the water cooled Alienware M18x laptop by Asetek, and now we're told that desktop owners may get some water based action with the new Inno3D GTX680! The implementation is based on the Accelero Hybrid by Arctic Cooling, a combined water/air cooling system. Details are scarce at this point, but we expect that the air portion will keep the memory cool whilst the water block takes care of the hot GPU.
A water based system should provide superior cooling to the stock solution while reducing the overall sound output. The system is similar to closed loop cooling kits sold for CPUs, which consist of a miniature pump built into the water block, and tubing connected to a single 180mm radiator (which attaches to a standard fan mount point). We expect this to be the case for the Inno3D version too.
With all these integrated water solutions cropping up, we're sure more enthusiasts will consider moving to custom loops to solve the issue of having several individual systems running at once. One for the CPU, one for each GPU... it starts to get a tad messy. A custom water cooled system also allows parts to be reused between upgrades, and will almost certainly perform better.
You can take a look at the renders of the card below. Let's hope they decide on a more attractive PCB colour!
