GTX260 65nm water cooling question

[Cobra92fs]

Hello everyone,

 

I am new to the subject of water cooling and have a few questions about what components need to be cooled on my XFX GTX260 video card. I have been a machinist for a little more than six years and own a small CNC mill (finishing conversion) and want to make my own water blocks. This is mainly due to the cost of buying, around $300 for full cover blocks for my two cards, vs. milling them out myself, plus it sounds like a fun project that will test my mill programming skills. My main goal in the conversion to water cooling is performance, with a reduction in noise. With that said, in the picture posted below, do the components circled in yellow need to have water flow to them, or will indirect cooling through an extension off of the main water block be adequate? These components had thermal pads over them in the factory setup. Obviously I plan to design and machine the block to cover the GPU and memory modules on the top and bottom of the board (65nm). Obviously the design and machining of the block would be much simpler without having to run water directly over them. Let me know your opinions.