Kraken G10 High Temps

[PudgyAstronaut]

I just installed a kraken g10 and a corsair H50 on my R9 290 and it seems alrightish at idle in the low 30s but when I go into unigine valley it pops up to 80 then slowly rises to 94 which is the thermal limit I think, once I alt-tab out it reports instantly dropping to the 50s. I tried my pump straight into the PSU and in a fan header and tried a few different fan profiles to try to make sure the pump is going full speed, and I also checked my fan on the rad to make sure that it is doing alright. I thought this was strange behavior, and wondered if anyone knew what the cause might be. I felt like I tightened it down adequately, and would think the temperature would rise faster if the problem was with the cpu block (gpu in this case).

[Necrodead]

Sounds like the coldplate isn't in proper contact with the die. Did you check the thermal paste spead when you took the kraken off? Also from experience it seems you have to tighten the mounting screws on the kraken pretty tight. I removed the rubber washers becasue they twisted and wouldn't let me get it as tight as it needed to be. This is from my experience of using the g10+h50 on my 290. Also I had to leave the fans going on a faster setting than I would have liked to keep the gpu at sub 80C.

 

edit: also air bubbles in the pump head could constrict the flow of coolant. Try running with the radiator above the pump and shaking/tilting it a bit to dislodge the air bubbles.

[PudgyAstronaut]

Sounds like the coldplate isn't in proper contact with the die. Did you check the thermal paste spead when you took the kraken off? Also from experience it seems you have to tighten the mounting screws on the kraken pretty tight. I removed the rubber washers becasue they twisted and wouldn't let me get it as tight as it needed to be. This is from my experience of using the g10+h50 on my 290. Also I had to leave the fans going on a faster setting than I would have liked to keep the gpu at sub 80C.

 

edit: also air bubbles in the pump head could constrict the flow of coolant. Try running with the radiator above the pump and shaking/tilting it a bit to dislodge the air bubbles.

 

Interesting insights. Thank you very much, I will try giving the rad a gentle shake and elevating it. I mounted the cooler several times trying to figure out how I wanted the layout to go and I think the first time I was a tad skimpy on the thermal compound, but the others it had spread to a thin layer covering the entire GPU but not really overflowing, so I feel like the amount of compound isn't the problem. I will try tightening it down tighter as I was mainly concerned the rubber pieces would tear off if I went too far. You are certain it doesn't cause issues if those are gone? Also, that's a little disappointing that it still hits 80C, the air cooler my card came with keeps it in the low 70s generally, but I did this mod for noise reasons primarily and anything is quieter than a suffocating GPU at 80% fan speed I guess haha.

[Necrodead]

Interesting insights. Thank you very much, I will try giving the rad a gentle shake and elevating it. I mounted the cooler several times trying to figure out how I wanted the layout to go and I think the first time I was a tad skimpy on the thermal compound, but the others it had spread to a thin layer covering the entire GPU but not really overflowing, so I feel like the amount of compound isn't the problem. I will try tightening it down tighter as I was mainly concerned the rubber pieces would tear off if I went too far. You are certain it doesn't cause issues if those are gone? Also, that's a little disappointing that it still hits 80C, the air cooler my card came with keeps it in the low 70s generally, but I did this mod for noise reasons primarily and anything is quieter than a suffocating GPU at 80% fan speed I guess haha.

 

You don't need the rubber washers, I think they are just to prevent scratches. Mine worked fine without, just make sure you tighten the screws very evenly for best temps. I used my fingers to get a grip and then turned until it slipped, and tried to repeat for the other screws the same way. I'm remembering now how hard it was to get the coldplate to get completly even contact with the die. I even did a bit of fiddeling with it while it was running to see how temps reacted, but I wouldn't reccommend that ever. Also a bit extra thermal paste can help in this situation, as the extra paste will make a better contact on an uneven coldplate.

 

And I should mention that it only hit 79C when overclocked to 1180 while running furmark, it never hit anything past 60 usually in normal gaming I don't think. I also have very low tolerance for noise in my computer, so slightly audible to me might be completly silent to you.

[PudgyAstronaut]

You don't need the rubber washers, I think they are just to prevent scratches. Mine worked fine without, just make sure you tighten the screws very evenly for best temps. I used my fingers to get a grip and then turned until it slipped, and tried to repeat for the other screws the same way. I'm remembering now how hard it was to get the coldplate to get completly even contact with the die. I even did a bit of fiddeling with it while it was running to see how temps reacted, but I wouldn't reccommend that ever. Also a bit extra thermal paste can help in this situation, as the extra paste will make a better contact on an uneven coldplate.

 

And I should mention that it only hit 79C when overclocked to 1180 while running furmark, it never hit anything past 60 usually in normal gaming I don't think. I also have very low tolerance for noise in my computer, so slightly audible to me might be completly silent to you.

 

Ah high overclock in furmark is acceptable. Did you have to up the power limit to hit 1180? Regarding noise, again that's the main reason I did this since my old cooler did the job fine temperature wise so I will also be trying to find a good compromise of noise and temperature. The VRM temps are already better even with a moderate fan speed on the kraken fan, because my card includes a heat sink on the vrm already. I just hope I can get the mount figured out so the GPU stays below 70 or so in games/benchmarks without requiring supefast fanspeedd

[Necrodead]

I had to set the power to +88mv in MSI afterburner to be stable at that speed. Although with stock power settings I can run at 1060 with no problem.

 

You won't need fast fans if you manage to seat it correctly and manage to get any air out of the pump, I think I ran 2x bitfenix spectre pros on my h50 and set them at about 800-900rpm, although this was the loudest part of my pc at the time it was still pretty quiet. I could only hear it with my headphones off. (also I blame the spectres for being louder than my other cougar fans at the same speed) Oh and I also remembered that my h50 was drawing warm air from my CPU cooler and from the internals of the case as well, if you have it as an intake you will probably get better temps.

[PudgyAstronaut]

I had to set the power to +88mv in MSI afterburner to be stable at that speed. Although with stock power settings I can run at 1060 with no problem.

 

You won't need fast fans if you manage to seat it correctly and manage to get any air out of the pump, I think I ran 2x bitfenix spectre pros on my h50 and set them at about 800-900rpm, although this was the loudest part of my pc at the time it was still pretty quiet. I could only hear it with my headphones off. (also I blame the spectres for being louder than my other cougar fans at the same speed) Oh and I also remembered that my h50 was drawing warm air from my CPU cooler and from the internals of the case as well, if you have it as an intake you will probably get better temps.

 

Thanks for the tip, I ended up tightening it down a bit more and that totally solved the issue. It is sitting here at 64/65C while folding and stayed below 70 mostly in Unigine Valley except when overclocking (I hit 72C at 1150MHz and my rad is an intake). So it was the obvious solution after all I just felt like it was snug enough before, now I tightened them until I felt a change in resistance, then backed them off about a half a turn because it seemed as though the board was bending. But all in all I am happy with the result, the temps improved by a non-negligible amount over stock (7-8C probably) and most importantly I can fold without getting strange looks from roomates ;-p I do appreciate the quiet.