High temperatures. Need some advice.

MindArlekin · July 24, 2021

It's almost 7.00 AM at my place, what started as a evening gaming session turned to all-night troubleshooting session. I didn't found a source of this problem.

Specs:

R5 5600x + RTX 2060

Asus TUF Gaming B550-Plus

"china's finest" blocks for cpu\gpu (I know that this block is not ideal for 5600x due to fin density (i bought it for R5 1600 and with it it worked well), but at this moment I can't spare 25 bucks for better one.)

360 rad + 240 rad, DDC-like pump, mish mash of fittings (all brass though)

3 Noctua NF-P12 1700 + 2 Arctic P12 PWM

90% distilled water + 10% automotive coolant for growth and corrosion prevention

Early 2000's InWin case, modded to fit everything (zero f's about looks)

Nothing is overclocked right now, CPU is undervolted by 0,1V

Spoiler

I started to have high temps. I didn't had them before. When I assembled this loop (half a year ago), I tested it by running Prime+FurMark for a couple of hours at a time, temps where ~52 on a GPU, 75 on CPU. All of that was with GPU overclock + Agressive PBO on CPU. Currently I have 84 on a GPU and 96 on CPU in a mildly tasking workload (gaming).

I'ts summer time, and I don't have conditioning in my room, so ambient temps are high at a times (30+ C), but l there was only 10 C rise across both CPU\GPU in previous years in summer with only one 360 rad. At night with an open window I have less than 20 C in my room, and there is no difference in temps compared to daytime with 32 C .

All loop hardware made of brass or copper(blocks), + there is some automotive coolant in a system, so there is (I THINK SO) no way corrosion is an culprit. I do not see any particles in a liquid, CPU block or res. + I run combination of this 360 rad, blocks and fittings with a same coolant mix before for more than a year, and thre were no problems.

I checked component temps by touching them. Essentially, if i split system horisontally, like on a picture below, parts underneath of this line are cool to a touch, but when I touching GPU outlet fittings and higer, temps gradually (but fast) rising to the point that when I touch CPU block base, I can't hold my finger on it for more than 5-7 seconds. Top of 360 rad is also very hot. But lowest part of 360 rad is cold to the touch. So, water is cooling down, and there is flow, + I see pump spinning as it should.

Spoiler

I pulled back everything related to overclocking, tweaked my fan curves, undervolted a CPU. Then I pulled up CPU block and reseated it with new termalpaste, applying as much pressure as safely possible. Then tried to tilt and turn system to try move air bubbles, if there was some there (there was none).

At this point, system is stable, it not shutdowns because of thermals, I can work/play, etc. But, I not comfortable with his state of it. Now my consern is that temps can become worse than now, or that high of a temps can in a long term damage something. Plus, I loosing quite a lot of perfomance.

So, did I screwed something, when I planned this loop, or there is something that I miss/don't know/don't understand (or everything at a same time)?

Thanks in advance.

Posting this and going to sleep a couple of hours.

fonzz1e · July 24, 2021

sounds like yer pump flow rate has drop drastically OR there's stuff stuck in your GPU block

i had similar issue when there's air bubble trapped in my gpu block

if yer gpu block is not plexi, u might wanna disassemble it to have a look

MindArlekin · July 24, 2021

RIP pump. It worked for more than 2 years and was killed due to the fact that liquid dripped onto its cable ( probably while I was filling
the loop) and went into internals. F.