Dissappointed with my custom loop

[Greywolf411]

Title says it all. I have 1680 mm worth of Rads ( 2 Black Ice Nemesis L-Series 360 Xtreme Radiators and 2 XSPC TX480 Ultrathin Radiators) cooling a Threadripper 3960x and two (although mostly just one as they aren't running in SLI) 980 ti's with EK-Thermosphere generic VGA waterblocks.

 

My temps for the CPU idle typically around 40, a bit lower and higher but it jumps around quite a bit. The average currently is 43.9 and when I run Cinbench R20 I can get to ~70C. My gpu, however, idles at 31C but will go to ~71 when playing a game. On the stock air coolers it would do about that, although sometimes get up closer to 80's. I have 13 phantek fans, PH-F120MP for the rads, all pushing, and one Noctua NF-P14s 140mm fan on the case push air out of the case. Earlier while playing a game I looked over and saw that HWiNFO64 showed the cpu max as being 104, and I almost died. It wasn't at that temp currently and I have no idea how it got that high during the game as it doesn't stress the cpu out like that nor had cinebench or other rendering workload tests done that.

 

But now I'm just thinking something must be wrong. I used Thermal Grizzly and applied a thin film like shown in the instructions, but wondering if it was TOO thin? I really feel like with the amount of radiator space I have it should be doing better. Also, running the EK-XTOP Revo Dual D5 pwm. I have the pumps running at 100% because if don't the gpu gets even hotter than what I mentioned.

 

Picture doesn't show the 140mm fan in the back of case.

 

Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated. I've purchased a full gpu cover by EK that I'll be installing this week likely, and during that time I may go ahead and re-paste everything and see if that helps.

[Greywolf411]

That has nothing to do with what I'm asking about. I plan on getting a new possibly two amphere cards when they come out, which now will be awhile.

 

 

[The Blackhat]

Your GPU blocks are not properly configured if that's a parallel terminal, which it appears to be. Have your intake tube into the GPUs on the left, and the outflow tube on the right. I am honestly amazed they only hit 70c with that horrible misstep. Intake on the left, outtake on the right, plugs in all other positions.

[Greywolf411]

Blackhat-

 

Yes, and thank you I had configured it in Serial mode as opposed to parallel, but going to switch it when I tear it down for the full waterblock. I will be very happy and astonished actually if that is the miraculous cure all for the system.

[Damascus]

I would check if the pumps are hooked up in the right orientation, dual setups really like everything to be just right, and judging from your symptoms here flow is somewhat lacking.  I would consider testing with only two radiators in the system to verify, as those ultra thin rads are quite restrictive 

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/xspc-tx360/4.html

 

The thermosphere are great either, but they're definitely underperforming here. (Ditto to what blackhat had to say, totally missed it but definitely going to smack performance and flow around quite a bit)

[Guest]

Just now, Greywolf411 said:

Blackhat-

 

Yes, and thank you I had configured it in Serial mode as opposed to parallel, but going to switch it when I tear it down for the full waterblock. I will be very happy and astonished actually if that is the miraculous cure all for the system.

@The Blackhat

 

@OP

 

 

Make sure you use the quote button so that your responses are seen by the person you're talking to.

[The Blackhat]

Just now, Greywolf411 said:

Blackhat-

 

Yes, and thank you I had configured it in Serial mode as opposed to parallel, but going to switch it when I tear it down for the full waterblock. I will be very happy and astonished actually if that is the miraculous cure all for the system.

Honestly, it doesn't even look correct for most of the serial terminals that are out there, but yeah, swap the outflow tube to the right side of the terminal and you'll be golden. Trying to make sense of your routing, but it looks like the top tube should be on the right side of the terminal.

[The Blackhat]

OH GOD. Just noticed you also have the inflow tube on the outflow port of the CPU block. That explains your CPU temps.

[Damascus]

1 minute ago, The Blackhat said:

OH GOD. Just noticed you also have the inflow tube on the outflow port of the CPU block. 

Oh shit, you're right.  Doesn't TR super care about direction as well?

[The Blackhat]

1 minute ago, Damascus said:

Oh shit, you're right.  Doesn't TR super care about direction as well?

To be fair, most blocks super care about direction, but those large fin arrays probably care more, yeah.

[Damascus]

2 minutes ago, The Blackhat said:

To be fair, most blocks super care about direction, but those large fin arrays probably care more, yeah.

IIRC one of the vendors put out a warning that their TR block was basically useless with incorrect flow

[Greywolf411]

6 minutes ago, The Blackhat said:

OH GOD. Just noticed you also have the inflow tube on the outflow port of the CPU block. That explains your CPU temps.

Yeesh, ok, yeah...thank you so much for pointing that one out as well! Well there will be lots to change and hopefully lots of improve upon!

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Greywolf411 said:

Yeesh, ok, yeah...thank you so much for pointing that one out as well! Well there will be lots to change and hopefully lots of improve upon!

It'll be a real champ when you get it sorted.

I'm running something in same ballpark and it's fantastic.

[The Blackhat]

1 minute ago, Greywolf411 said:

Yeesh, ok, yeah...thank you so much for pointing that one out as well! Well there will be lots to change and hopefully lots of improve upon!

No problem. Surprisingly common mistake on blocks that aren't marked, such as the TR EK. You pretty much have to read the manual if you haven't used lots of blocks and know that the intake is usually the one closest to the center.

[Boomwebsearch]

34 minutes ago, Greywolf411 said:

Title says it all. I have 1680 mm worth of Rads ( 2 Black Ice Nemesis L-Series 360 Xtreme Radiators and 2 XSPC TX480 Ultrathin Radiators) cooling a Threadripper 3960x and two (although mostly just one as they aren't running in SLI) 980 ti's with EK-Thermosphere generic VGA waterblocks.

 

My temps for the CPU idle typically around 40, a bit lower and higher but it jumps around quite a bit. The average currently is 43.9 and when I run Cinbench R20 I can get to ~70C. My gpu, however, idles at 31C but will go to ~71 when playing a game. On the stock air coolers it would do about that, although sometimes get up closer to 80's. I have 13 phantek fans, PH-F120MP for the rads, all pushing, and one Noctua NF-P14s 140mm fan on the case push air out of the case. Earlier while playing a game I looked over and saw that HWiNFO64 showed the cpu max as being 104, and I almost died. It wasn't at that temp currently and I have no idea how it got that high during the game as it doesn't stress the cpu out like that nor had cinebench or other rendering workload tests done that.

 

But now I'm just thinking something must be wrong. I used Thermal Grizzly and applied a thin film like shown in the instructions, but wondering if it was TOO thin? I really feel like with the amount of radiator space I have it should be doing better. Also, running the EK-XTOP Revo Dual D5 pwm. I have the pumps running at 100% because if don't the gpu gets even hotter than what I mentioned.

 

Picture doesn't show the 140mm fan in the back of case.

 

Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated. I've purchased a full gpu cover by EK that I'll be installing this week likely, and during that time I may go ahead and re-paste everything and see if that helps.

For most optimal heat dissipation and to protect and ensure the longevity of your cooling system, I would recommend using a purpose-designed coolant instead of distilled water.

 

https://www.ekwb.com/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-coolants/

 

https://www.amazon.com/EKWB-EK-CryoFuel-Concentrate-Coolant-Electric/dp/B07HYGG9H7/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=concentrate+coolant&qid=1585699115&s=electronics&sr=1-6

 

 

[The Blackhat]

8 minutes ago, Boomwebsearch said:

For most optimal heat dissipation and to protect and ensure the longevity of your cooling system, I would recommend using a purpose-designed coolant instead of distilled water.

 

https://www.ekwb.com/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-coolants/

 

https://www.amazon.com/EKWB-EK-CryoFuel-Concentrate-Coolant-Electric/dp/B07HYGG9H7/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=concentrate+coolant&qid=1585699115&s=electronics&sr=1-6

 

 

I can say without a shadow of a doubt this is incorrect. Yes, dedicated purpose designed coolant, such as the ones Koolance sell, do allow a loop to run basically indefinitely and will never have buildup of anything. But this is a tradeoff. Your thermal dissipation goes down, not up, as you get a lower and lower concentration of water, unless we are discussing exotic coolants, not something like Cryofuel or Koolance 702.

[Boomwebsearch]

25 minutes ago, The Blackhat said:

I can say without a shadow of a doubt this is incorrect. Yes, dedicated purpose designed coolant, such as the ones Koolance sell, do allow a loop to run basically indefinitely and will never have buildup of anything. But this is a tradeoff. Your thermal dissipation goes down, not up, as you get a lower and lower concentration of water, unless we are discussing exotic coolants, not something like Cryofuel or Koolance 702.

Overtime, the damage done to your cooling system and build-up of contaminants will lower your cooling system's ability to dissipate heat. This probably won't be as noticeable in the short term (in fact as you mentioned, the performance may even be slightly lower with it), although for the long-term (maintained performance and longevity), you would want to use a purpose designed coolant.

[The Blackhat]

2 minutes ago, Boomwebsearch said:

Overtime, the damage done to your cooling system and build-up of contaminants will lower your cooling system's ability to dissipate heat. This probably won't be as noticeable in the short term (in fact as you mentioned, the performance may even be slightly lower with it), although for the long-term (maintained performance and longevity), you would want to use a purpose designed coolant.

For the most part, this still is not correct. Now, explain, you say that the build up of contaminants in the loop will lower the performance. If it's pure distilled water, there are no contaminants. The only real obstacles distilled water faces is bacterial growth and corrosion. Bacterial growth is solved by using a few drops of concentrated biocide, which does not affect the overall thermal dissipation of the loop, and corrosion is solved by using a single metal for the whole loop or by a corrosion inhibitor additive if for some reason you mixed metals. These additives basically just turn distilled water into a designed coolant though, as a majority of them are almost entirely water, with biocide and a corrosion inhibitor, with some ethylene glycol in addition depending on just what kind of coolant you buy. But this is all irrelevant if you're following proper loop maintenance. If you want to run a system for 5 years uptime without ever flushing and refilling the loop, yes, that is the optimal usage of something like Koolance's coolants. But for the average user who will do proper maintenance, like OP appears to be, judging by his drain valve, you will flush and refill the loop regularly, so any buildup of anything, were it to occur, would be flushed out during regular maintenance. 

[Whiro]

2 hours ago, Greywolf411 said:

I've purchased a full gpu cover by EK

Do you mean full cover block?? Thermosphere is great at keeping gpu die at low temps but check your memory temps, I have it installed on gtx 970, gpu is max at 44c but when I run my funs at lowest speed my vrm hits 116c , I had my game crush twice already cos of that. 

[Greywolf411]

32 minutes ago, Whiro said:

Do you mean full cover block?? Thermosphere is great at keeping gpu die at low temps but check your memory temps, I have it installed on gtx 970, gpu is max at 44c but when I run my funs at lowest speed my vrm hits 116c , I had my game crush twice already cos of that. 

Yeah, got an EK-FC Titan X for the main 980 ti. And my Thermosphere's weren't / aren't doing as well, or really nearly as well as I'm sure they should be doing. I don't see gpu vrm heat in HWiNFO64, however, so not sure what they and the memory are at presently.

[Whiro]

8 minutes ago, Greywolf411 said:

Yeah, got an EK-FC Titan X for the main 980 ti. And my Thermosphere's weren't / aren't doing as well, or really nearly as well as I'm sure they should be doing. I don't see gpu vrm heat in HWiNFO64, however, so not sure what they and the memory are at presently.

HWinfo64 showing vrm temps. 
Also when you gonna swap blocks on gpus I would rearrange the loop a bit, with so many rads try to put some in between gpu and cpu.

 

[Greywolf411]

57 minutes ago, Whiro said:

HWinfo64 showing vrm temps. 
Also when you gonna swap blocks on gpus I would rearrange the loop a bit, with so many rads try to put some in between gpu and cpu.

 

Oddly I don't have that available in what I'm seeing in my HWiNFO64, I'm using v6.22-4060, and I don't see it nor do I see it available for me to switch on either.

 

Also...this and my own understanding of thermodynamics is why I'll probably keep my loop order as is for now, 

[Greywolf411]

6 hours ago, The Blackhat said:

To be fair, most blocks super care about direction, but those large fin arrays probably care more, yeah.

I should've been paying more attention to that part though, but I think I was having a bit of build fatigue at that point.

 

As far as flow, from the dual revo pump, it goes out from the pump over to the bottom rad, then out from bottom rad to gpus, from gpus to cpu, from cpu to top rad with connector near motherboard, then out from rad to front/side rad top, then from that top to the front rad bottom, out from front rad bottom to the rez.

 

There is also a splitter coming off the first rad exit that goes to a drain port in the front of the case.

[The Blackhat]

56 minutes ago, Greywolf411 said:

I should've been paying more attention to that part though, but I think I was having a bit of build fatigue at that point.

 

As far as flow, from the dual revo pump, it goes out from the pump over to the bottom rad, then out from bottom rad to gpus, from gpus to cpu, from cpu to top rad with connector near motherboard, then out from rad to front/side rad top, then from that top to the front rad bottom, out from front rad bottom to the rez.

 

There is also a splitter coming off the first rad exit that goes to a drain port in the front of the case.

Yes, that is what I could gather by looking at the image. As far as the dude trying to tell you to look at your VRM temps, not all cards have such sensors. Matter of fact, most don't. Just keep the stock baseplate on and have a fan pointed at them while using the Thermospheres. The Thermosphere ain't great, it's essentially a Supremacy EVO slapped on a GPU, but it should do the job once you get water actually running through the blocks and not over them.