Pros: Works as advertised and then some. I have this installed on my ASUS reference design GTX980. This cooler literally cut my temps in half under full load and opened up a greater ability to overclock my card. The highest I've seen my temps get under full load is 42C. The only thing I did was opted not to use the pre-applied thermal compound and used Phanteks NHDC compound instead.

Cons: Need more of these units produced. It was extremely difficult to find one instock and available for purchase.

Other Thoughts: If you can find one, get it!

Pros: -I can't get my custom bios gtx 980 (1550MHz @1.3v) over 45c with stock fan, 49c with a MUCH quieter noctua NF-P12 (22c ambient temps, aftermarket TIM). This means there is no thermal throttling and gpu boost is always boosted to whatever I want it to be at.

-Quieter than reference design 980 IF you replace the stock radiator fan or use some method to control it (see other thoughts)

-Pump noise is minimal and only audible to me if I am actively listening with a very quiet room and 3 very quiet pc fans. Even then it is no problem at all. Quieter than the Raijintek Triton I used to use

-gave me a decent amount of overclocking headroom and makes me feel like I'll still have a working GPU after a year of overclocking!

Cons: -I think I hate the way the shroud looks, but I'm not sure... leaning towards hate. Why replace a work of art with a hunk of plastic... its a shame (see other thoughts)

-It would be VERY helpful to include an "inventory" of sorts at the beginning of the manual (like almost ALL manuals have) to identify all the different parts and screw types so there are no doubts. I'm all for extra screws (they are tiny and could be easy to lose) but I need to know they are extra and not necessary. People are self installing this on a complex, 500$ piece of electronics so I feel better instructions in general are warranted. Even some online resources would be great and cheaper to implement than amending every manual already printed and packaged.

-stock radiator fan is noisy, about the same as 62-65% speed on the reference blower which is half the reason I bought this. I figured as much and had an extra NF-P12 ready to go and it is SO much better and still yields GREAT results.
EVGA should have either provided a quieter fan instead or provided a disconnect that leaves the fan capable of reaching any other means of control, 4-5" isn't much wire length and I feel the disconnect should have been closer to the card, not the fan. Constant 12v, I think its a little silly to have a overpowered fan and constant full power when its not at all necessary for cooling.

-Despite all my complaining about it its really no problem for me and they did provide the option to use your own fan or plug theirs into a different power source, I just really like my fans controlled and quiet when idling

Other Thoughts: -I used top of the line Kryonaut thermal interface material (never tried the stock paste) Installed on reference gtx 980 (non oc/sc version) overclocked and overvolted (1550mhz core @ 1.275v) tested using unigien valley, 3d mark, Furmark, BF4, GTAv, witcher 3 in a customized case with good/great airflow.

Mobo- Asus Z97-A
CPU- i7 4790k (delidded @ 4.9GHz , under a NH-D14 cooler)
PSU- Antec HCG-750w
OS- Windows 8.1

-I like to test my watercooling setups BEFORE I power them on inside of a $1500+ system and the way this one is wired via its own connector type to the GPU PCB board, made me not want to do that. If I could find documentation on the pump wiring or if I were crazy enough to open the pump housing and connect leads, then i'm sure it'd be doable but thats not going to happen. Made me a little nervous but EVGA did not let me down, I had no problems with leakage of any kind, whatsoever.

-Since I dislike the looks of the shroud I will probably modify my stock reference shroud and run the hoses out the side of that since it would look a million times better. The angle of the hoses is not conducive to this since by default the hoses go out where the LED's are on the stock shroud but it seems that if one were to remove the outermost ring of screws on the bottom of the gpu block (not in the copper but in the plastic) then you could rotate the pump within the metal bracket so that the hoses could exit the card nearer the I/O plate but still on the side resulting in a way better look.

-install was not very difficult but instructions could be a lot better. There were parts in the bags that were not on any literature (small, sticky, plastic washers, I used them on the bracket to dampen vibrations to the case, I assume that was their intended purpose) AND I also had several screws left over which is always unnerving but I spent an hour+ trying to figure out where they could possibly go, completely disassembled, and came up with nothing, checked install videos on youtube, reviews, nothing. This is not my first GPU dis assembly either, electronics dis assembly like is a hobby to me.

Pros: I installed this on my reference design ASUS 980 GTX. In my case I noticed temps cut literally in half. Under load I was hitting 81C. Now I can't get it to get hotter than 42C. I'm now able to able to see unthrottled performance from this card. It's a great, cost effective solution, short of going to a custom loop. Where you could easily spend upwards of 3.5x the cost of this unit.

Is it all positive? No

Cons: Ease of purchasing:
Let's face it, availability is horrendous. I was very lucky to get mine and considering this will work on every reference design 980, 980ti, and the Titan, there should be more produced. Getting a card from EVGA that his this preinstalled is even more difficult.

Installation or more specifically, the manual:
If you're tech minded and have fairly decent problem solving skills you'll figure out the missing bits. There' plenty out there in regards to the literature included so I won't harp on it.

The fan cable and its length. It's better to have more than enough than not much at all.

The pump power connector:
I really would have liked to have seen this be a 4-pin that you could run to a motherboard fan header than it drawing power off of the same source as the memory/powerstage fan on the card itself. Just a personal preference

Other Thoughts: Regardless of the cons, they are actually more or less nitpicks w/ the exception of the availability, I am extremely happy w/ my purchase. If you are considering one of these I do recommend that you get one while you can. Prior to install I would also recommend that you watch videos on YouTube and read the manual, as bad as it is, so you can get an idea of what you're in for.

THANK YOU EVGA for making a great product that does more than I expected!