I'd be more worried of the loss of turbulence on the blocks themselves because when you split your pressure with 4 cards in parallel, you're losing all that pressure. Fluid dynamics brah. The closer a moving fluid is to a solid object, the slower it moves, and slower moving fluid = less cooler fluid over the hot block pins over a period of time = hotter gpu
I honestly don't expect it to make much of a difference - if MadHacker's got 6 blocks in parallel and he's getting good temps, my eventual 4 cards should be more than fine. As for the semantics..
Consider the specific heat of water - about 4 joules/gram °C - or how much energy is required to raise the temp of 1 gram of water by 1C. We'll take an example of 4 cards where each card is able to transfer exactly that 4 joules to a gram of water flowing through at 1gpm:
- In series, flow at 1gpm through all 4 cards, 30C water exits the loop at 34C, as each card has provided 4 joules or 1C.
- In parallel, with flow at 1/4gpm through each card, each raises the temp 4C (by providing 16 joules) - still the 30C water exits the loop at 34C.
So with the same overall flow rate through the loop, the water is raised by the same total temperature regardless of whether it's series or parallel.
However, in the series example, the the last card gets warmer water - consistently 3C higher than the first card. In parallel, each card gets the same incoming 30C water, so temperatures should be the same across all cards.
Additionally, in series each water block drops the overall pressure, meaning the pump must work harder to maintain 1gpm. In parallel, the pressure drop should be roughly the same as just one block, perhaps even less if the total channel width through the blocks is more than the width of the tubing. The pump doesn't need to work as hard.
So all together, parallel seems like the better plan - more even temps on each card, and a smaller overall pressure drop.
[edit] And I realize now I've just reiterated DeathAndTaxes' last post.. lmao. Anyway as long as the flow decrease through the cards in parallel isn't so great that the water simply can't absorb any more heat, the cards should not 'run hotter' in parallel.