liquidcooling I Know Practically Nothing About Liquid Cooling

[Zach467]

As the title stated, I know nothing. But, I have a Cooler Master Liquid Lite liquid cooler for my CPU and in the BIOS I can't find any data for the pump's RPM and I have no control over it in the BIOS. My issue isn't necessarily that I need the control over it (although I would like to have it), my concern is whether or not the pump and liquid cooling is actually working. From looking in my PC I can see the fans the pump is connected to are in fact powered and running so whatever the case I know the fans are at least working and it is getting power. What I believe the issue to be is that the liquid cooler is potentially plugged into the wrong port with my evidence being that in the picture shown with the post is has a cable coming from the CPU Cooling going straight into the CPU_FAN slot rather than the AIO_PUMP slot. What I need to know is, is this correct and the solution is simply just switching the cable to the other port or is there more to it that I'm not seeing, understand, or aren't aware of. I would also like to know more about the potential maintenance of liquid cooling and what I need to keep an eye on to avoid future issues and potential malfunctions and what to do to avoid them.

[Bartholomew]

13 minutes ago, Zach467 said:

As the title stated, I know nothing. But, I have a Cooler Master Liquid Lite liquid cooler for my CPU and in the BIOS I can't find any data for the pump's RPM and I have no control over it in the BIOS. My issue isn't necessarily that I need the control over it (although I would like to have it), my concern is whether or not the pump and liquid cooling is actually working. From looking in my PC I can see the fans the pump is connected to are in fact powered and running so whatever the case I know the fans are at least working and it is getting power. What I believe the issue to be is that the liquid cooler is potentially plugged into the wrong port with my evidence being that in the picture shown with the post is has a cable coming from the CPU Cooling going straight into the CPU_FAN slot rather than the AIO_PUMP slot. What I need to know is, is this correct and the solution is simply just switching the cable to the other port or is there more to it that I'm not seeing, understand, or aren't aware of. I would also like to know more about the potential maintenance of liquid cooling and what I need to keep an eye on to avoid future issues and potential malfunctions and what to do to avoid them.

 

Yeah looks like its kn the wrong header.

The pump header can deliver more power and allows better control.

 

Maintenance of aio is basically 0 unless in dusty environment, in which case keep the radiator and fans clean.

Malfunction will be the pump going out eventually, between now and let say max 3 years or so, often without warning, and with bad luck taking out the cpu because of instant overheating.

 

That can be prevented only by timely replacememt (assuming it doesnt fail early) or, by using a air cooler.

 

Aios have no detachable or self-maintenance possible parts aside from the fans that can be replaced.

 

[For Science!]

37 minutes ago, Zach467 said:

As the title stated, I know nothing. But, I have a Cooler Master Liquid Lite liquid cooler for my CPU and in the BIOS I can't find any data for the pump's RPM and I have no control over it in the BIOS. My issue isn't necessarily that I need the control over it (although I would like to have it), my concern is whether or not the pump and liquid cooling is actually working. From looking in my PC I can see the fans the pump is connected to are in fact powered and running so whatever the case I know the fans are at least working and it is getting power. What I believe the issue to be is that the liquid cooler is potentially plugged into the wrong port with my evidence being that in the picture shown with the post is has a cable coming from the CPU Cooling going straight into the CPU_FAN slot rather than the AIO_PUMP slot. What I need to know is, is this correct and the solution is simply just switching the cable to the other port or is there more to it that I'm not seeing, understand, or aren't aware of. I would also like to know more about the potential maintenance of liquid cooling and what I need to keep an eye on to avoid future issues and potential malfunctions and what to do to avoid them.

 

This is fine and is in fact my recommended place for you to plug it in. Do you see an RPM reading for CPU_FAN in bios? this would be the pump speed normally. To control the pump, you must ensure the header is in DC mode. Having said that pump speed should be kept at 100% for these AIOs for optimal performance (i.e. 100% fanspeed across all temperatures).

[For Science!]

21 minutes ago, Bartholomew said:

The pump header can deliver more power and allows better control.

The pump header can indeed deliver more power, but not in a relevant way for AIO pumps. The header control is the same since the DC/PWM range does not change with header. Furthermore, as you can see, this pump is a 3-pin and therefore is only DC controlled anyway, and more AIO_PUMP headers are defaulted to 12V with 100% duty cycle anyway and requires digging in the BIOS to enable control at all.

 

Furthemore AIO_PUMP headers do not have any built-in safety, the BIOS will let the PC boot without an RPM sense on the AIO_PUMP header (of course, since not everybody has AIOs) but will prevent a boot if CPU_FAN doesn't register an RPM signal. This means that by plugging the AIO into the CPU_FAN header, you benefit from the CPU_FAN fail boot error when the AIO died unexpectedly.

[Bartholomew]

4 minutes ago, For Science! said:

This is fine and is in fact my recommended place for you to plug it in. Do you see an RPM reading for CPU_FAN in bios? this would be the pump speed normally. To control the pump, you must ensure the header is in DC mode. Having said that pump speed should be kept at 100% for these AIOs for optimal performance (i.e. 100% fanspeed across all temperatures).

I stand corrected. Due to using boards only that had ful hybrid headers, thought that ioa header was always controllable, but seeing your response and researching it, you are right, as some boards only do 100% on aio header, giving less control on those boards.

 

I see we crossposted

thanks for takkng the effort to explain better for both op and me

 

[Zach467]

3 minutes ago, For Science! said:

This is fine and is in fact my recommended place for you to plug it in. Do you see an RPM reading for CPU_FAN in bios? this would be the pump speed normally. To control the pump, you must ensure the header is in DC mode. Having said that pump speed should be kept at 100% for these AIOs for optimal performance (i.e. 100% fanspeed across all temperatures).

Yes, there is an RPM reading for the  CPU_FAN in BIOS, just not for the pump. Also, so I decided to be bold and try moving it to the AIO_PUMP and it ended up switching it from reading exclusively CPU_FAN to AIO_PUMP and was almost double the RPM and I also could hear a liquid drip after doing this which makes me believe the pump did work. However, after doing that it failed to recognize that I had any CPU Fans and kept forcing me to attempt to set them up. As I'm writing this reply I have already switched it back. What I assume to be the case is that they somehow configured all of the fans and the liquid cooling together on one port rather than put each section of the 6 fans and the single liquid cooler on separate channels but I don't really know why. I believe the CPU_FAN is in DC for all of the fans, but after I submit my reply I'll double check and make sure. One concern I have is whether or not I should be able to hear the drip of it with it connected to the fan CPU because I only heard it when I connected it to the AIO PUMP Port/Slot/Whatever?

[For Science!]

Just now, Zach467 said:

Yes, there is an RPM reading for the  CPU_FAN in BIOS, just not for the pump. Also, so I decided to be bold and try moving it to the AIO_PUMP and it ended up switching it from reading exclusively CPU_FAN to AIO_PUMP and was almost double the RPM and I also could hear a liquid drip after doing this which makes me believe the pump did work. However, after doing that it failed to recognize that I had any CPU Fans and kept forcing me to attempt to set them up. As I'm writing this reply I have already switched it back. What I assume to be the case is that they somehow configured all of the fans and the liquid cooling together on one port rather than put each section of the 6 fans and the single liquid cooler on separate channels but I don't really know why. I believe the CPU_FAN is in DC for all of the fans, but after I submit my reply I'll double check and make sure. One concern I have is whether or not I should be able to hear the drip of it with it connected to the fan CPU because I only heard it when I connected it to the AIO PUMP Port/Slot/Whatever?

The RPM reading is for the pump, not the fans. The reason why it is slower is because of the fan curve associated with CPU_FAN. 

 

The headers have no idea if what is connected to them is a fan, pump, tachometer, etc etc. It just reports what is plugged into it. Just because it says its a "fan" does not mean it is a fan. This is a very important point to understand.

 

To have you pump work properly, you need to disable any fan curve associated with CPU_FAN, i.e. have the "fan" spin at 100% all the time. Sometimes there is a "full speed mode", but you may have to set it up manually.

[For Science!]

As a side note, which header did you plug the fan into?

[Zach467]

1 hour ago, For Science! said:

As a side note, which header did you plug the fan into?

I personally just switched the plug between the two slots or pins in the attached image of the original post. The PC is a pre-built from CyberPower so I am unsure about what header it is actually plugged into. But at the moment it is in the CPU_FAN pins.

[j Malukker]

Do you have connected the Pump to a Splitter of the Fans? What Model you use? I use Cooler master ML240 AIO this one actually you attach the Pump to a differed Header than the fans.

However, if you attached the Pump to the Fan Splitter of the Fans you won’t be able to control Pump and see the RPM. 

Anyway I always would advise this technique if you want full control. 

[j Malukker]

From what I see of you picture you actually connected the Pump to Y Splitter of the Fans. Disconnect the Pump and connect it to the Header below the CPU Fan called AIO Pump.