I have an MSI GTX 1080 Aero non OC, and am looking to swap out the cooler for a universal GPU waterblock. I noticed you can take off the top shroud and then the main heatsink and leave the single blower fan for extra juice on the VRMs, however it leaves that little price of plastic on the bottom shroud covering the full length of the card. Would I have to remove that bottom half of the shroud in order to mount a waterblock, or would I be able to keep that on. My point of asking is a single universal GPU block looks kind of ugly, and I would like to be able to mount the cooler over with holes cut out of the top for the tubing.

Here there are pictures to help you understand what I’m talking about. http://electrostingz.com/2017/10/msi-gtx-1080-aero-with-arctic-accelero-xtreme-iv-cooler/

Also would a universal GPU waterblock, with its own mounting on the back, work with a custom backplate?

Whoops misspelled GPU, my bad