h115i Temps

[alluminati115]

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.

[Stahlmann]

Sounds to me that your pump is failing.

Did you hear any whining noise before noticing the high temps?

[alluminati115]

The only noise I have noticed is just the fans. The Corsair Link is showing that the Pump is running at 3120-3180 RPM and it fluctuates enough that I would believe it is reading the actual sensor. I had considered a bad pump, but I thought a bad pump would be more of a catastrophic failure and would not work at all instead of what I am seeing now.

[CommanderAlex]

17 minutes ago, Stahlmann98 said:

Sounds to me that your pump is failing.

Did you hear any whining noise before noticing the high temps?

Totally agree with this one and since it is out of warranty now, I'd replace the cooler outright. If this has been gradually going if you noticed (I know you said that you don't remember when it started) Check to see the radiator is not covered in dust as this will impact the cooling ability. 

 

Going with an air cooler is the way to go .

[Stahlmann]

14 minutes ago, alluminati115 said:

The only noise I have noticed is just the fans. The Corsair Link is showing that the Pump is running at 3120-3180 RPM and it fluctuates enough that I would believe it is reading the actual sensor. I had considered a bad pump, but I thought a bad pump would be more of a catastrophic failure and would not work at all instead of what I am seeing now.

If it's been running for 3.5 years it could be cured thermal compound. (idk what quality thermal paste corsair put on back then).

In this case I'd recommend to remount it with new paste.

[CommanderAlex]

1 minute ago, Stahlmann98 said:

If it's been running for 3.5 years it could be cured thermal compound. (idk what quality thermal paste corsair put on back then).

In this case I'd recommend to remount it with new paste.

This can also be the case with the thermal paste going out. Not going to provide the transfer of heat from IHS to the block. 

[Stahlmann]

Did you thouroughly clean your radiator from dust anytime soon?

When the water temp rises so much it sounds like the heat is getting transferred away from the CPU but not from the water in the radiator.

[alluminati115]

48 minutes ago, CommanderAlex said:

This can also be the case with the thermal paste going out. Not going to provide the transfer of heat from IHS to the block. 

I was wondering about that, but the fact that the water temps do rise so rapidly made me think that the paste was probably okay.

 

45 minutes ago, Stahlmann98 said:

Did you thouroughly clean your radiator from dust anytime soon?

When the water temp rises so much it sounds like the heat is getting transferred away from the CPU but not from the water in the radiator.

This may be the case. I will see if I can find some time this weekend to clean the rad and see if that helps. I would really love to see a graph of reasonable water temp to cpu core temp to get a better gauge of if that is the problem. Does anyone know of such a resource? Or just common wisdom on what cpu temp translates to what water temp?

[Stahlmann]

1 minute ago, alluminati115 said:

I was wondering about that, but the fact that the water temps do rise so rapidly made me think that the paste was probably okay.

 

This may be the case. I will see if I can find some time this weekend to clean the rad and see if that helps. I would really love to see a graph of reasonable water temp to cpu core temp to get a better gauge of if that is the problem. Does anyone know of such a resource? Or just common wisdom on what cpu temp translates to what water temp?

This is not the same CPU or cooler but i think it will be a good baseline of what water temps should roughly look like. (tldr: More in the mid 20s)

[alluminati115]

That's really helpful, thanks!

[alluminati115]

Pulled the radiator enough out of the case to dust it off with some compressed air. Couldn't get it quite as clean as I would like, but it was the best I could do without pulling it off the CPU which is a problem for another day. I haven't run anything very heavy yet, but I appear to be idling in the 28-29 range as opposed to the 33-35 range I was before. I am going to call this good enough for now. Thanks for the advice!