Several issues with new water-cooling

[SpencerK]

Hey all,

 

I've been building computers for a couple years now, but last week I finally took the dive into water cooling. 

 

My system is up and running fine, but I have a few issues that I am unsure about how to fix. 

 

First, a little about my rig. 

 

Im running a 1080ti and an i5 8600k on an ASUS ROG motherboard. 

My cooling system includes a full GPU block and a CPU block. I have a single 360mm radiator with a 6 fan push-pull in the front, and one exhaust fan at the back of the case. 

 

Now here are the problems. 

 

1. No matter what I change in bios, when I start gaming and the load gets high, my pump cycles extremely fast. Its super loud and really annoying.

 

2. My temps just seem a little too high. My idle temps seem good, CPU: 32 and GPU: 28 Cs. Under full load my GPU hangs in the high 50s and my CPU hangs low 60s. These both seem way too hot for my rig. And, this is with my fans running full speed, which I would really really prefer to lower. When I run my fans on silent, the temps are about 10 degrees higher, which is definitely too hot.

 

3. Since water cooling I've noticed an increase in half second screen flickers. Its not often, and only while gaming. The two games I've noticed it so far is in Dying light where it happens every 10 minutes or so. And Madden where it happens much less frequently. 

 

Any tips would be appreciated! 

[Bananasplit_00]

temps seem fine to me, about what i get at stock clocks. Got my fan speed at whatever "normal" means in ASRocks BIOS, seems to be around 50%. Keep in mind temps are kinda useless without an ambient, i dont know if your room is 20C, 40C or maybe its outside in -10C.

 

not sure what the screen flicker is from, try running DDU and installing fresh video drivers

[Firewrath9]

"high 50s" "low 60s"

for a single 360mm rad, that seems great?

I get 75c on a 280mm AIO even with a delid.

 

[SpencerK]

On 1/18/2019 at 3:29 PM, Bananasplit_00 said:

temps seem fine to me, about what i get at stock clocks. Got my fan speed at whatever "normal" means in ASRocks BIOS, seems to be around 50%. Keep in mind temps are kinda useless without an ambient, i dont know if your room is 20C, 40C or maybe its outside in -10C.

 

not sure what the screen flicker is from, try running DDU and installing fresh video drivers

Ambient is 18C. 

 

Thank you for the feedback on temps. I guess I will just drop my fan speeds to silent and let the temps go higher. 

[Bananasplit_00]

Just now, SpencerK said:

Ambient is 18C. 

about the same as mine then, like i said they seem perfectly fine to me. I was dissapointed too but with a 1080 and an I7 4790K im still at about those temps. CPU is mid 70s when overclocked to 5GHz 1.375V and GPU sitts at 85C running 2.1GHz core and +500 mem offset from stock.

[SpencerK]

Just now, Bananasplit_00 said:

about the same as mine then, like i said they seem perfectly fine to me. I was dissapointed too but with a 1080 and an I7 4790K im still at about those temps. CPU is mid 70s when overclocked to 5GHz 1.375V and GPU sitts at 85C running 2.1GHz core and +500 mem offset from stock.

Ok. If I drop my fans to 50%, I think that is very close to where my temps will be. 

 

Now to figure out the pump problem....

[Bananasplit_00]

Just now, SpencerK said:

Ok. If I drop my fans to 50%, I think that is very close to where my temps will be. 

 

Now to figure out the pump problem....

plug the pump into some other header or set it to static 100% or whatever you want in BIOS. What blocks, rads, fans and case do you have? If you want a more silent build you could maybe throw in another 280mm rad. If you have airflow fans you are also just going to have a bad time, you want static pressure fans for radiators as they are quite the restriction on airflow  

[For Science!]

2 minutes ago, SpencerK said:

Ok. If I drop my fans to 50%, I think that is very close to where my temps will be. 

 

Now to figure out the pump problem....

By default ASUS motherboards trigger all fans to go to 100% when CPU temperatures goes over 75 degrees. Maybe this is triggering this for the pump? Which header is it plugged into, and which temperature source do you have it linked to. These settings should ideally be changed inside the BIOS.

[SpencerK]

1 minute ago, For Science! said:

By default ASUS motherboards trigger all fans to go to 100% when CPU temperatures goes over 75 degrees. Maybe this is triggering this for the pump? Which header is it plugged into, and which temperature source do you have it linked to. These settings should ideally be changed inside the BIOS.

I've got it plugged in to the CPU fan header, which is where the manual says to plug in pumps. Its not doing it when it hits 75 degrees though. Its doing it when it hits somewhere in the low 50s, or as I suspect, a cpu load percentage. Ive customized all the bios to keep it at a lower speed, and it didn't change much. 

[narrdarr]

set up q fan in the bios

[SpencerK]

On 1/18/2019 at 3:41 PM, narrdarr said:

set up q fan in the bios

Tried that. Didn't change much. 

 

On 1/18/2019 at 3:38 PM, Bananasplit_00 said:

plug the pump into some other header or set it to static 100% or whatever you want in BIOS. What blocks, rads, fans and case do you have? If you want a more silent build you could maybe throw in another 280mm rad. If you have airflow fans you are also just going to have a bad time, you want static pressure fans for radiators as they are quite the restriction on airflow  

Let's see. 

 

Block is some thermaltake 360 mm. Not sure. Bought it used. 

Fans are all thermaltake. The exhaust and push fans are stock case fans, and the pull are thermaltake radiator fans.

The case is thermaltake view 27. Not the best for airflow.  

[For Science!]

Just now, SpencerK said:

Tried that. Didn't change much. 

Assuming you don't have accessory fan control programs (AI Suite, or Speedfan, for example) then the pump should be obeying CPU temperatures. The CPU_FAN header is special in that it is always tied to the core temperature and cannot be changed. Assuming you have tweaked the fan curve accordingly, I can only assume that the BIOS detects minor spikes in temperatures. When your pump goes to 100%, does it go to 100% and stay there for a long time, or is it fairly instantaneous.

 

If it is for short bursts, you should think about adjusting the hysteresis of the curve.

[Bananasplit_00]

1 minute ago, SpencerK said:

Let's see. 

 

Block is some thermaltake 360 mm. Not sure. Bought it used. 

 

Fans are all thermaltake. The exhaust and push fans are stock case fans, and the pull are thermaltake radiator fans.

 

The case is thermaltake view 27. Not the best for airflow.  

but what is on your CPU and GPU, the 360mm is the radiator  Personally id never trust TT with literally anything but they have gotten better i think. you want to make sure you have the same fanns oposite to eachother on the rad so you dont sandwich two diffrent fans as they wont have the same specs. im not sure what comes with the thermal take View 27 but i doubt they are especially good radiator fans

[SpencerK]

23 hours ago, For Science! said:

Assuming you don't have accessory fan control programs (AI Suite, or Speedfan, for example) then the pump should be obeying CPU temperatures. The CPU_FAN header is special in that it is always tied to the core temperature and cannot be changed. Assuming you have tweaked the fan curve accordingly, I can only assume that the BIOS detects minor spikes in temperatures. When your pump goes to 100%, does it go to 100% and stay there for a long time, or is it fairly instantaneous.

 

If it is for short bursts, you should think about adjusting the hysteresis of the curve.

Its short bursts. I have it set to around 35%, which it stays at until I hit full load, then it cycles between short bursts of 100% and lower speeds. 

 

How do I go about adjusting the hysteresis? Is that in the bios?  And at this point, should I even have the pump plugged into the cpu fan? I could plug it into my fan controller and have it at a constant speed I think. 

 

23 hours ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

but what is on your CPU and GPU, the 360mm is the radiator  Personally id never trust TT with literally anything but they have gotten better i think. you want to make sure you have the same fanns oposite to eachother on the rad so you dont sandwich two diffrent fans as they wont have the same specs. im not sure what comes with the thermal take View 27 but i doubt they are especially good radiator fans

Oops, sorry my mind was stuck on radiator. GPU block is phantek. CPU block is thermaltake F35 or something. I didn't go thermaltake by choice, but I got it for really really cheap. 

[For Science!]

23 hours ago, SpencerK said:

-

I forget what the setting for it was, so you'll ahve to look it up yourself. Changing the header is a feasible solution, but you do lose the nice feature of your PC not booting if your pump is dead. The choice is up to you, but I think in this situation, assuming you have a decent pump such as a D5, I would personally be comfortable with it plugged into a different fan header and set to a constant speed.

PS, Hopefully you aren't using a Thermaltake RL Pacific radiator, since these are aluminium.

[SpencerK]

23 hours ago, For Science! said:

I forget what the setting for it was, so you'll ahve to look it up yourself. Changing the header is a feasible solution, but you do lose the nice feature of your PC not booting if your pump is dead. The choice is up to you, but I think in this situation, assuming you have a decent pump such as a D5, I would personally be comfortable with it plugged into a different fan header and set to a constant speed.

This is either the exact pump or pretty close. Not quite a D5, but by what I understand, one of the better sub $100 pumps. Think that is high enough quality? It already has about a year of moderate use. 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4RE4S36482&ignorebbr=1&source=region&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleMKP-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleMKP-PC-_-pla-Corn+Electronics-_-AT+-+Cooling+%26+Water+Pump+Tools-_-9SIA4RE4S36482&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpYCzuqj43wIVGx-tBh1JbQU_EAQYBCABEgKMl_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

23 hours ago, For Science! said:

PS, Hopefully you aren't using a Thermaltake RL Pacific radiator, since these are aluminium.

I checked that. Definitely not aluminium. I bought it used from a guy who had been running it for a year. Its had a nice patina on the inside.

[Bananasplit_00]

3 minutes ago, SpencerK said:

Oops, sorry my mind was stuck on radiator. GPU block is phantek. CPU block is thermaltake F35 or something. I didn't go thermaltake by choice, but I got it for really really cheap. 

Phanteks GPU blocks are pretty mediocre performance wise but not bad, not finding any CPU block called that. If you got it for cheap im thinking that the thermaltake stuff is aluminium tbh which you shouldnt mix with copper without quite a lot of corosion inhibitor in the coolant

[For Science!]

Most probably fine. As long as the user is fine to keep an eye for potential temp and know when a pump is dead. I.e. if it was my system, I would be fine with putting the pump on a different header.

[SpencerK]

23 hours ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

Phanteks GPU blocks are pretty mediocre performance wise but not bad, not finding any CPU block called that. If you got it for cheap im thinking that the thermaltake stuff is aluminium tbh which you shouldnt mix with copper without quite a lot of corosion inhibitor in the coolant

Yeah, I knew that phantek wasn't amazing performance wise. Bought it for the looks. 

 

The Thermaltake is a pacific w-1. Its copper. Double checked. I do also have corrosion inhibitor in my loop due to the used parts, and not being able to be sure they weren't ran with aluminum.  

 

23 hours ago, For Science! said:

Most probably fine. As long as the user is fine to keep an eye for potential temp and know when a pump is dead. I.e. if it was my system, I would be fine with putting the pump on a different header.

Perfect. I run speedfan to keep an eye on temps. Not to control fan speed though, I just go straight to bios. 

[Bananasplit_00]

Just now, SpencerK said:

Yeah, I knew that phantek wasn't amazing performance wise. Bought it for the looks. 

 

The Thermaltake is a pacific w-1. Its copper. Double checked. I do also have corrosion inhibitor in my loop due to the used parts, and not being able to be sure they weren't ran with aluminum.  

ok good good. thats my alu fears out of the picture   if you didnt clean the CPU block you could have a performance drop from it being gunked up but at this point its pretty much just get another case or new fans if you want a better performance system unless you want to also consider a superthicc rad but im guessing not

[SpencerK]

1 minute ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

ok good good. thats my alu fears out of the picture   if you didnt clean the CPU block you could have a performance drop from it being gunked up but at this point its pretty much just get another case or new fans if you want a better performance system unless you want to also consider a superthicc rad but im guessing not

Nah. Im not a thermal junky. As long as Im not damaging my tubing or any thing like that, Im fine. I just wanted to make sure they weren't too hot and i didn't mess something up. Eventually the build will go in a open-style tempered glass case. But thats a few years away probably.  

[Mick Naughty]

I assume you have ai suite installed and made appropriate curves for the fans and pump. 

 

Temps seem great for using a 360 in that case. Horrid airflow overall. I’d be concerned with the fluid temps. 

[AngryBeaver]

Temps arent terrible, but for the airflow and rad size constraints you have they are good.

 

As to setting the pump speed you can do it via QFan setup in bios. I will have to remember where it is... there are 2 places you can do it and the one you want takes text input.

 

If I remember correct you type in a low, mid, and high temp and the % they should be running at for those temps. I believe you can also set a static % to there. Either way you should aim for a 60% pump speed in all 3 settings or as static.

 

You want to have enough flow for a little turbulence. So with a custom loop anything over about 1-1.2 gpm should be fine. You won't really see any temp gains after that as the water spends the same time in the components. 

[SpencerK]

On 1/18/2019 at 9:20 PM, Mick Naughty said:

I assume you have ai suite installed and made appropriate curves for the fans and pump. 

 

Temps seem great for using a 360 in that case. Horrid airflow overall. I’d be concerned with the fluid temps. 

I actually have no idea what you mean in your first sentence. 

 

And yeah, airflow in this case is nightmare. 

[Mick Naughty]

33 minutes ago, SpencerK said:

I actually have no idea what you mean in your first sentence. 

 

And yeah, airflow in this case is nightmare. 

You have an Asus mobo, so did you use the disk it came with to install its software and drivers? What’s controlling the fan/pump speeds while in windows?