Custom VRM Waterblock, worthy or not?

if it is available now.. the "custom" would be so high in price the one-off for testing,
and modifications would be counter active to making it cooler to the dollar invested.
if the case is really drafty, duct case air to the VRM for cooling.. depending on
overclock 4.2 or higher, id be a thing to watch the VRM and the temps it makes.
with a 4+2 phase.. i wouldnt expect a great deal of control as like its bigger brother
the ATX P55 SLI..

airdeano

Just get a resistor and solder it inline on the fan, slow that sucker down for less annoyance. Drop it down to 10v or 9v...

I think that if the MVR-40 or MVR-100 aren't able to work, and there are no blocks that were manufactured specific for your board, that the price will be so high as to not be worthwhile in any way. If money is not an issue, you would do far better to upgrade your MB/CPU than spends hundreds on an aged chipset block with no resale value, warranty, guarantee that it will function, etc.
Just to give you an idea on price: for what a one-off custom block for that board would cost, you could instead sell the MB/CPU you currently have and likely grab a gently used GB Z68 top-end board or maybe even an Asus Maximus IV Extreme and an i7-2600K from the forums, and you will be better off in every way, and spend nothing "out of pocket" if you don't consider money set aside for the block to be "out of pocket"...
The best way to cool VRM's in my experience has been to use RAM cooling fans. Well, it is the best inexpensive way. I have nothing against chipset blocks and in fact I am hoping to grab one of the MIPS R4E blocks, although I don't think they are in anyway useful unless you are pushing a high-ish overclock and even then it's like 75:25 looks:performance. It will maybe increase stability at high clocks, and maybe increase component life, but that's about it.

I understand the inability to upgrade, and I think that considering the circumstances, you are absolutely right to wait, I was just trying to throw an entirely different idea out there. And i7-860 is still a formidable CPU today, so that will be a very nice jump up!

I do have a few other ideas regarding cooling the VRMs without resorting to water (which will kill flow rate and if the Koolance "universal" options don't work, I simply cannot see it being feasible)...
You can combine a number of these techniques if you wish, as most are relatively simple.
- Use individual heatsinks for each VRM/MOSFET such as the EnzoTech C110 forged copper heatsinks
- Use a large multi-unit EnzoTech C110 copper heatsink for the primary ones to share and apply the smaller individual ones to the rest
- Use a RAM cooling fan system to provide some directed airflow across the area, especially beneficial with the aftermarket heatsinks
- Make your own heatsinks by taking an old motherboard, removing its Southbridge/Northbridge heatsink(s), and cut them down to the same square size as the VRMs and MOSFETS, attaching them with either adhesive thermal pads or a mix of a potent TIM and a good thermal adhesive
- Duct your airflow from a certain area of the case to prevent already hot air from being used to cool the area
- Attach a number of 40mm (give or take, whatever size fits best) together by using small metal bars with screw holes to connect them, and then mount this series of fans across the top of the power phase area; will be most effective with the EnzoTech type heatsink idea
- You could perhaps make your own heatsink by getting a small sheet of copper and a copper pipe, cut the sheet into pieces the same size in height (height being from the bottom of the board to the top, parallel to CPU socket; essentially height is the size of the VRM in the direction in which it aligns with the others), making it a certain amount wider, bending the wider sides around the copper tube but being sure to leave the bottom contact area flat, and then soldering the small sheet pieces to the tubing so that when you set it down on top, it all lines up perfectly with the VRMs. You can then use something, such as a Dremel, to make a cut down the exact center of the top of the tubing, then make a large number of fine cuts perpendicular to the long cut (cut down about halfway to 2/3rds of the way through the tube), and then bend these "fins" back and have them bent in a variety of angles and directions to maximize the surface area available for direct airflow. You can then mount a few attached together fans to blow directly across this, or at a slightly downward angle, and so long as the homemade heatsink is well attached with good TIM/Adhesive and the soldering is decent, you will get much better cooling potential as you have increased the surface area exponentially.
- Use two of the Koolance VRM blocks to get as many as you can, attaching with a TIM/TA mix?

I don't know if any of these ideas are feasible for you, but I hope that they at least provide a bit of inspiration!