DIY Custom Water Cooling for VGA?

[Thaid]

I have a little question about GPU water cooling.. specifically the water blocks that cover the processor area only like this (http://ncix.ca/products/?sku=72233&vpn=MCW82&manufacture=Swiftech).

Is it possible to keep the original heatsink casing and take out the fan and shove a water block in it's place (by means of cutting the case if it doesn't fit)? For example, the Radeon HD 7970 (http://ncix.ca/products/?sku=67627&vpn=FX797ATNBC&manufacture=XFX) has a blower fan to cool the processor. Can you take out that fan and put in a water block? Is there enough room? Has anyone been wild enough to try this or to think about this? I don't have a water block cooler at hand so I can't take measurements. Any thoughts would be great! Thanks.

P.S. I have no intentions of cutting open a 7970... maybe a cheaper card though :D

Edit:
I opened up a 6870 and found that the blower fan is nowhere near the chipset. :(

[f33dme]

anandtech forums. they should be able to answer your questions.

[Fantaz]

If you get just a GPU waterblock you're going to need to use thermal adhesive to permanently attach RAM sinks (heatsinks) on your card's memory.

[Thaid]

That's what I'm trying to avoid. Why put on aftermarket ram sinks when you can just use the original heat sinks? Drilling through the heat sinks to the chipset and putting a GPU Water block would be more aesthetically pleasing since you get to keep your original cover.

Thanks F33DME, I'll check out anandtech.