Well, I started building my WC loop on my Maximus Formula. Since I don't have an SE, I had no choice but to remove the NB block if I wanted better NB temps on OC'ing than I've been getting while air cooling. (I've been using the board for a month now.)

I went with cold to remove the NB.........but instead of 20 minutes in a freezer, I bought a can of circuit freeze spray (it's used to trace down circuit problems that occur when the circuit heats up....spray the circuit to cool/freeze it down, etc.)

20 seconds of spray onto the block and the NB block popped right off.....no drama at all. I left the SB block in place and will aircool the SB.....the heat pipe lifted out very easily from the block using a small flat blade screwdriver under it and lifting it carefully.

In total, I spent maybe 1.5-2 minutes getting the entire NB heatpipe assembly off the board.

Going onto the board is a Q6600 cpu, 2 x 2GB Mushkin DDR2-1000 RAM, Asus Radeon HD3870 video card....well, it already has those components, actually.

The water cooling loop consists of D-Tek FuZion cpu block, DD Maze 4 for the NB, DDC2 pump w/an XSPC top, Thermochill 120.3 radiator, and a Swiftech MicroRes.