Seeking Custom Loop Advice from experts

[lowr1d3r]

Hello gang,

I wanted to seek advice on a possible custom loop I'd like to put together.
Currently I have a H110i GT on an i7 4790k...I am not happy with the cooling performance though, and the cpu does tend to get hot like a beast. I'd like to keep this cpu for a couple more years though as it's doing pretty well in 4.6ghz.
I am thinking of selling the H110i GT and putting together a custom loop but I've been away from the custom loop world and unsure what the best parts to build one are.
Here are the criteria i'd like to follow:

1)It must be compact, and fit all in my NZXT S340 case. 
2)It must be parts that I can reuse when eventually in a year or two from now I upgrade my system
3)I'd like advice on best waterblock that can fit LGA 1150 as well as future proof, Best 280mm rad with integrated pump (if such thing exists) , any way I can skip having a reservoir/pump just to reduce amount of parts that need to be fitted in the case?

4)at this stage i am only interested for CPU cooling and not GPU

Look forward to your tips.

[W-L]

11 minutes ago, lowr1d3r said:

-SNIP-

Going from a 280mm AIO vs a 280mm custom loop will yield little to no difference, as you aren't increasing the actual surface area for potential cooling. That being said what voltage are you running your overclock at and temps are you getting currently?

[lowr1d3r]

6 minutes ago, W-L said:

Going from a 280mm AIO vs a 280mm custom loop will yield little to no difference, as you aren't increasing the actual surface area for potential cooling. That being said what voltage are you running your overclock at and temps are you getting currently?

1.23 volts, during hot weather (32-33 ambient) it would hit 100C while transcoding in plex which is weird. I'm certain it's touching well on the CPU and i've recently installed liquidmetal between die and IHT...I think the H110i GT isn't performing properly as the temperature on the waterblock shows about 40c...60c delta between CPU and waterblock temp is excessive isn't it?... Aren't there better waterblocks that are faster in the heat transfer?

[W-L]

Just now, lowr1d3r said:

1.23 volts, during hot weather (32-33 ambient) it would hit 100C while transcoding in plex which is weird. I'm certain it's touching well on the CPU and i've recently installed liquidmetal between die and IHT...I think the H110i GT isn't performing properly...

That's a good voltage for the overclock. Since it's the S340 it'd be front mounted, try removing the front panel to see if you get a significant drop in temps it's not unheard of for that case to have poor airflow due to the solid front panel and narrow air channel.

[lowr1d3r]

Just now, W-L said:

That's a good voltage for the overclock. Since it's the S340 it'd be front mounted, try removing the front panel to see if you get a significant drop in temps it's not unheard of for that case to have poor airflow due to the solid front panel and narrow air channel.

Yeah I made a test with the rad out of the case and it didn't change much...maybe 1C?...still as I just edited in my previous message, there is a delta of 60C between waterblock temp reading and cpu temperature which I think is excessive....don't you think?

[W-L]

7 minutes ago, lowr1d3r said:

Yeah I made a test with the rad out of the case and it didn't change much...maybe 1C?...still as I just edited in my previous message, there is a delta of 60C between waterblock temp reading and cpu temperature which I think is excessive....don't you think?

What's your idle temps? If they are fairly high it may be a bad mount or lack of mounting pressure. 

[lowr1d3r]

8 minutes ago, W-L said:

What's your idle temps? If they are fairly high it may be a bad mount or lack of mounting pressure. 

I thought the same however checked paste imprint and looks fine, and it's as tight as it can be....tried so many times to remount it, it doens't fix the issue. I thnk the H110i is just crap. Idle temps are 10-15C above ambient.

[AngryBeaver]

1 hour ago, lowr1d3r said:

Hello gang,

I wanted to seek advice on a possible custom loop I'd like to put together.
Currently I have a H110i GT on an i7 4790k...I am not happy with the cooling performance though, and the cpu does tend to get hot like a beast. I'd like to keep this cpu for a couple more years though as it's doing pretty well in 4.6ghz.
I am thinking of selling the H110i GT and putting together a custom loop but I've been away from the custom loop world and unsure what the best parts to build one are.
Here are the criteria i'd like to follow:

1)It must be compact, and fit all in my NZXT S340 case. 
2)It must be parts that I can reuse when eventually in a year or two from now I upgrade my system
3)I'd like advice on best waterblock that can fit LGA 1150 as well as future proof, Best 280mm rad with integrated pump (if such thing exists) , any way I can skip having a reservoir/pump just to reduce amount of parts that need to be fitted in the case?

4)at this stage i am only interested for CPU cooling and not GPU

Look forward to your tips.

From what you are asking for I would get a swiftech h280 x3. It is technically an AIO, but is expandable because it uses custom loop quality parts. It will set you back 150-200 depending on which you pick, but the performance will be good and you can easily add another radiator or gpu block in the future if you choose.

 

looks like they might have discontinued the 280 in the x3 line, but they do have it in the x2 line.

 

https://www.swiftech.com/drive-x3-aio.aspx

[W-L]

45 minutes ago, lowr1d3r said:

I thought the same however checked paste imprint and looks fine, and it's as tight as it can be....tried so many times to remount it, it doens't fix the issue. I thnk the H110i is just crap. Idle temps are 10-15C above ambient.

Usually around 5-10C is pretty good, at +30C for ambient being quite high it will not help. My only guess would be that the mount isn't sufficient you can try using the oring method to help apply enough mounting pressure. 

[lowr1d3r]

11 minutes ago, W-L said:

Usually around 5-10C is pretty good, at +30C for ambient being quite high it will not help. My only guess would be that the mount isn't sufficient you can try using the oring method to help apply enough mounting pressure. 

Ooh oring method never heard before... Why would this help?? To reduce the movement of the back plate? 

[W-L]

12 minutes ago, lowr1d3r said:

Ooh oring method never heard before... Why would this help?? To reduce the movement of the back plate? 

It would help to apply more pressure between the CPU and block, ideally you would have no movement if it was applying high enough pressure. The main reason it's limited is because of different motherboard PCB thickness and the possibility of bending thinner motherboards if one was to apply too much pressure. 

[lowr1d3r]

I'll give it a go.. Let's see if I manage to improve it... Do you think lapping the h110i is worth it? If so any guides? 

[SolarNova]

Its also possible that in internal TIM has gone of. Consider its rather old now chances are the internal contact isnt great.

 

Consider Delidding if all else fails. A delid tools is rather cheap compared to a open loop.

[W-L]

19 hours ago, lowr1d3r said:

I'll give it a go.. Let's see if I manage to improve it... Do you think lapping the h110i is worth it? If so any guides? 

Give it a go, I don't think you will see much difference with the h110i unless the unit you have is somehow faulty. With the current idle temps I don't believe it is cause it will get very hot very quick if the pump wasn't running for example.

[lowr1d3r]

On 8/18/2019 at 8:49 PM, W-L said:

Give it a go, I don't think you will see much difference with the h110i unless the unit you have is somehow faulty. With the current idle temps I don't believe it is cause it will get very hot very quick if the pump wasn't running for example.

Guys i haven't changed my rad, but I did get the rockit cool copper IHS delid kit and just installed it today with liquid metal. Holy shit, massive 20C difference under load. I am now using small ftts in prime 95 which is the worst thing you can probably throw at this chip that doesn't really like p95...and it doesn't go beyond 85C. I think if it stays so I am ok for a year or two until I fully upgrade my rig and pass to a new platform (with new case and everything). Do you think 85c tops (that's only 1 core the others are below 80, around 75 to 77c) for an overclocked chip @ 4.6ghz with 1.2vcore during small ftts prime 95 is a decent result?

 

Thanks to everyone that tried to help!

[W-L]

2 hours ago, lowr1d3r said:

Guys i haven't changed my rad, but I did get the rockit cool copper IHS delid kit and just installed it today with liquid metal. Holy shit, massive 20C difference under load. I am now using small ftts in prime 95 which is the worst thing you can probably throw at this chip that doesn't really like p95...and it doesn't go beyond 85C. I think if it stays so I am ok for a year or two until I fully upgrade my rig and pass to a new platform (with new case and everything). Do you think 85c tops (that's only 1 core the others are below 80, around 75 to 77c) for an overclocked chip @ 4.6ghz with 1.2vcore during small ftts prime 95 is a decent result?

 

Thanks to everyone that tried to help!

That’s not bad given that you are running it hard with prime 95, for a real world stress test it should see around 5-10c less. You should be able to push your chip to 4.7 and stay below 1.3V

[lowr1d3r]

45 minutes ago, W-L said:

That’s not bad given that you are running it hard with prime 95, for a real world stress test it should see around 5-10c less. You should be able to push your chip to 4.7 and stay below 1.3V

I'll try 4.7. Let's see if the chip can take it. Thanks W-L!

[SolarNova]

3 hours ago, lowr1d3r said:

Guys i haven't changed my rad, but I did get the rockit cool copper IHS delid kit and just installed it today with liquid metal. Holy shit, massive 20C difference under load. I am now using small ftts in prime 95 which is the worst thing you can probably throw at this chip that doesn't really like p95...and it doesn't go beyond 85C. I think if it stays so I am ok for a year or two until I fully upgrade my rig and pass to a new platform (with new case and everything). Do you think 85c tops (that's only 1 core the others are below 80, around 75 to 77c) for an overclocked chip @ 4.6ghz with 1.2vcore during small ftts prime 95 is a decent result?

 

Thanks to everyone that tried to help!

Glad to hear delidding worked.