I have been running an h115i on my stock speed i7-6700k for about 3.5 years now. I can't remember when it started, but I have been noticing high temps under load - running stress tests or heavy duty processes (file scans) hits 100C at 100% load, but even gaming at ~50% load I am hitting mid 80s-low 90s regularly. Idle I can sit in the mid 30s as I would expect, but occasional processes (high load on startup, running a file scan, etc) can send the temps rushing up. The h115i itself has seen water temps reaching ~45-47 when running at load/gaming. This leads to some very loud fans on the rad. The rad is mounted on the top of a phanteks enthoo evolv case as exhaust with pull fans. I know this case in particular has terrible top exhaust, but I see these temps even with the top of the case removed.
1. Are these temps to be expected? The idle and medium load seem reasonable, but the peaks seem to high to me.
2. What would I go about trying to change to keep the temps down?
3. What is a safe water temp? Could I turn the fan speeds down and just run at higher temps but quieter?
I was watching this video and it was making me regret the h115i. I was debating spending the money to buy a Noctua NH-U12S/A and just replace the rad outright, but I figured I would check the general wisdom first. This cpu needs to last another ~3-5 years at least, so if a $70-100 investment on a new cooler makes that more reasonable then I'll take the bait.