spaynton

Agreed. I have a set of Logitech Z-5500's which for games and movies are fantastic. I would never plug a pair of my headphones into them though. The headphone amp in these systems is added as an afterthought and usually isn't of very high quality. If you have decent onboard audio on your motherboard, such as the audio on my Gigabyte Z97x-Gaming 5 which has high quality caps and a dedicated 600ohm capable headphone amp you would likely be much better off using that output for your headphones. If your onboard sound doesn't sound all that good to you get an external dac/amp combo for around $100, it will likely provide a much better experience than either on-board or the built in amp of your creative speakers.

I've just used compressed air and if it's a really nasty pc a combination of having a vacuum going sucking in the air near the pc and using compressed air to blast dust towards the vacuum, or just take it outside for the initial cleaning of heavy buildup. I've never needed to actually vacuum out any of my PC's. Always run filters over inlets and run positive case pressure. This prevents a ton of dust build-up. Also, I take my fan filters off once a month (or more if windows in house have been open) and rinse them out under the tap and dry them. They look like brand new after.

Thanks martward! I was playing Fallout 4 last night and had it monitor the whole time. At 3440x1440 at max settings with 2x msaa I hit 71 on the top card as the highest temp over a few hours. Water temperature in the radiator got up 32C, and the CPU package temp didn't break 55C. I'm happy with that for air cooled SLI. This was with a fairly quiet fan profile too. I could get a few degrees cooler overall with a more aggro fan profile, but honestly, I don't want to sacrifice how quiet this is at the moment. I have central air conditioning, and the unit is behind a door in the same room. The AC is louder when it kicks on than the PC is right now under full load. At idle the thing is almost silent, just a low hum.

Another shot showing the front fan locations and the gpu spacing... I could run 3x 120mm in the front instead of the 2x 140mm which would put a bit more airflow down lower...

Thanks for the replies everyone! I won't worry too much about it. When gaming the top card doesn't even hit 70 most of the time. Ya, I didn't think it was too bad as it's not thermal throttling or coming close to max set on the card (83 before throttle). When run as a single card it runs at 65 max with the same fan profiles under the same conditions. SLI really cooks the top card, but 5 degree difference isn't all that bad based on my reading so far. I wish I had a lower x16 slot, but unfortunately I only have the two x16 slots on this mobo, at least its 3x spaced. Here is a photo of the setup

Hey everyone, Just wondering how these temps look for an air cooled/aio water cooled build? I have a 4790k Overclocked to 4.6, two Gigabyte G1 Gaming 980ti's in SLI in an Air540. I have two Corsair AF140 QE fans as front intake, 1 AF140QE fan as a rear exhaust and two 140mm corsair fans that came with the H115i as top exhaust. I ran valley for about 35 minutes to let the temperature stabilize. I also ran Aida64 for 10-15 minutes to "pre-heat" the radiator to see a worst case scenario while gaming. What do you guys think? They look okay?

Ya that's a pretty extreme bend... Although I've had corsair RMA two H105's for me and ended up replacing it with an H115i two years after purchase. First RMA was for cosmetic finish issues, second was because the replacement unit's pump buzzed annoyingly so they sent me the H115i at my request for free and covered the return shipping on the second unit. Corsair has AMAZING customer service and fantastic RMA program, however I wouldn't suggest attempting to make a claim because honestly I think you stressed the hoses beyond what they really should be. At this point I feel like you would just be abusing their RMA system, especially as a second hand item.

Hey guys, I just wanted to get some opinions on how I have set my cooling up. Everything is installed in a Corsair Air540 case. I have 2 intake AF140 Quiet Editions in the front and 1 exhaust Af140 Q.E. at the rear. I just installed a Corsiar H115i 280mm AIO cooler in the top with the fans as a push exhaust config using the stock fans come with the H115i (I had a H105 with two SP120's before switching to the h115i). The processor is a 4790k, currently at stock clocks while I test the cooler. I also have two Gigabyte G1 Gaming 980ti's in SLI which have windforce 3x fans which recirculate the air within the case, this is key. So that makes 2 unobstructed 140 mm intakes, 1 unobstructed 140mm exhaust and 2 140mm fans mounted on the radiator as exhaust. With the rest of the case fans at 100% and the rad fans closer to 60-70% I should be maintaining a positive pressure in my case. I currently use speefan to control the case fans and corsair link to control the radiator pump speed and fans. I have corsair link controlling the radiator fans based purely on water temp in the loop. With some testing last night I found that under Aida64 stress test the processor temps hit about 50-60C once the loop temp stabilizes at about 33-34C and it holds it pretty consistently. By this point the rad fans spin up a bit to compensate for the increase water temp and it seems pretty stable at this point. (Idle temps are about 33-34C on CPU package, water temp is about 28C, room temp is about 23-24 (depending if AC kicked on or not). So I think these should be good Delta-T of 3-5C... Please correct me if I'm wrong! The rest of the case fans are controlled by CPU package temp and GPU temp by speedfan. If either the GPU or CPU are hot the rest of the AF140's pretty much just kick up to 80-100%, which is pretty silent so I'm OK with that. For example, if GPU temp raises above 50C the case fans spin up to 90-100%, if a processor core temp breaks 50C the same thing happens. Since the water temp takes a while to increase to a point where the rad fans spin up, the 2 intake and 1 exhaust fans seem to maintain positive pressure within the case very well. Personally I really like how this setup functions with regular use. It stays quiet unless an increased load is detected and the fans kick in almost right away, within seconds of starting a benchmark or stressful game. Previously when I just set all the fans manually when I started to play a game my top GPU would hit upwards of 80C and start throttling. Now I rarely see it get about 75, even after long multi-hour gaming sessions. My GPU's also have a fairly aggressive fan profile on them to help cool them before any sort of heat soak sets in within the case. Can any of you guys see any flaws in how I've set up my cooling system? Any suggestions or comments? I've spent a long time tinkering with this system and the fan curves and would love some input!

Good to know about the side panels. I am so afraid to scratch mine, good to know they are good about replacements or even have them available separately!

Interesting, I would love to see a test show the noise and performance difference of running 4 vs 2 fans on a rad.

I've never had a power supply fail in the last 15 years I've had my own computers. All entry level PC's were contained seasonic PSU's... When I built my first "serious" gaming rig it was with a 500w ULTRA modular power supply (one of the first, back in 03'). That lasted over 5 years of heavy use, first as gaming pc, then as a HTPC. The rest of my PC's have all contained Corsair power supplies. My current rig has an RM1000X. How the heck did you have several failures in only 2 years?!

Much better Now you can upgrade your GPU with confidence!

Just wanted to give a shout out for Corsair. They replaced my two year old H105 that had a failing finish issue (cosmetic only) with another H105 that had a bit of a noisy pump. I messaged them today and within 5 minutes he authorized the replacement of the H105 with an H115i for free as I commented saying I was thinking of buying the H115i to simply replace the H105. They even covered return shipping on the second replacement... Rock solid customer service and support.

I just upgraded to Shaw Wide Open 150 last night. I had 60Mbit before and was able to download form Steam at about 7.5-8 MB/sec. Now I'm getting over 21MB/sec from steam. It's glorious and it's $15 a month less than what I was paying before!