Sudden Increase in Temps?

[esperai]

Hi All,

 

I'm very new to water cooling and this is the first time I've owned a desktop in about 10 years so apologies in advance if I sound stupid or if I miss anything. 

 

In 12/2014 I got myself a custom loop water cooled build because I came into the one-off chance to get a "money is no object" kind of gaming PC.

 

I got the following specs:

 

Corsair 16GB Vengeance 2666Mhz DDR4

Asus X99-Deluxe Socket 2011

Intel i7-5930K 3.5 Ghz Six Core LGA2011

2 x Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 4GB GDDR5 in SLI

Samsung 840 Series Evo 1TB SSD

Corsair AX1200i Modular 1200Watt 80 Plus Patinum

Samsung 840 Series Evo 1TB SSD (Operating System)

Western Digital 2TB Caviar Green (File Storage)

BitFenix Recon Fan Controller

8 x Corsair Airflow Series - Quiet Edition Fans (3 x 140mm, 5 x 120mm)

Corsair 900D Case

 

It has a custom loop that includes an EK D5 Bay Res/Pump combo and includes 2 thick radiators - a 240 below and a 360 up top. I don't have it overclocked right now (it was previously at 4.6 GHz)

 

My loop flows as follows: Pump/Bay Res -> CPU -> 360 Rad -> GPU 1 -> GPU 2 -> 240 Rad -> Pump/Bay Res

 

I live in Australia and even in the height of summer (45°C outside, ambient temps of 25°C with aircon), the BitFenix display never went above 32°C and auto-tuned my fans between 800-900 RPM.

 

It's now the middle of winter and 10°C outside, ambient temps of 15-20°C with aircon) and suddenly the BitFenix display has begun to climb as high as 45°C under load and manually setting the fans to 1500 RPM doesn't bring the temps down more than 3-4°C. At idle it was sitting on 35°C which is higher than previous under-load temps displayed.

 

My loop definitely has enough coolant in it (I'm using the EK provided coolant) with the res at max level and I can't see any residue or issues and I've done shake tests/tapped all my tubing for potential bubbles so I'm not sure what is causing the sudden increase in temperatures? I've done a full clean out of all fans and grills with compressed air just in case it was an air flow issue but it shouldn't be with that many fans/rads?

 

The Asus software tells me the following temps:

 

IDLE:

CPU 27°C

VRM 33°C

PCH 39°C

Motherboard 25°C

 

LOAD (1 hr of Guild Wars 2 on max settings @ 4k - capped to 60 FPS):

CPU 45°C

VRM 59°C

PCH 50°C

Motherboard 35°C

 

I'm not sure what could have happened in the last couple of days with the whole system being only 8 months old that could have suddenly caused this spike in temperatures by 10-15°C? I haven't moved the tower (it's a 900D so it's not going anywhere without multiple people lifting it), I haven't done anything different to what I normally do, I haven't installed any new hardware. I've been using laptops for such a long time due to necessity that I don't remember if these load temps are still within acceptable boundaries for water cooling or if there definitely seems to be a problem in the system somewhere?

 

Any help and advice would be really greatly appreciated, the enthusiast company I bought the system from has pretty poor customer service for the prices they charge so I'd rather avoid having to deal with them for warranty if I can help it. I've attached a picture of my setup as it came from their company (no changes made since this pic was taken).

 

Thanks in advance!

[astranger200]

re-apply the thermal paste

[esperai]

re-apply the thermal paste

 

On which (the CPU or the GPUs or both)? Would it really need re-application of thermal pastes after only 8 months? Previous air-cooled desktops I had back in the day only needed a reapplication on the CPU every 18 months or so, I'm surprised this would need reapplication in less than half that time?  :blink:

[astranger200]

On which (the CPU or the GPUs or both)? Would it really need re-application of thermal pastes after only 8 months? Previous air-cooled desktops I had back in the day only needed a reapplication on the CPU every 18 months or so, I'm surprised this would need reapplication in less than half that time?  :blink:

It was just an idea... and it cant hurt to try on both

[esperai]

Following on from this, one thing I've noticed is that the top 360 rad seems to stay fairly cool / ambient temperatures, would this possibly mean that my D5 pump/bay res combo is starting to fail? It seems to be flowing right now from what I can see on the front of my res panel, but could it be that it's started to lose effectiveness and may be the beginning of a part failure?

[Ryoku]

Following on from this, one thing I've noticed is that the top 360 rad seems to stay fairly cool / ambient temperatures, would this possibly mean that my D5 pump/bay res combo is starting to fail? It seems to be flowing right now from what I can see on the front of my res panel, but could it be that it's started to lose effectiveness and may be the beginning of a part failure?

 

These temps aren't bad by any means.  When was the last time to cleaned the dust out of your rads?

[W-L]

-SNIP-

 

Check to see if there is dust build up or anything in the rads but also what tubing are you using, and during initial installation did you clean all the rads and parts of dust and debris.

[esperai]

Check to see if there is dust build up or anything in the rads but also what tubing are you using, and during initial installation did you clean all the rads and parts of dust and debris.

 

It came to me pre-filled but the people that built it advised me they ran the loop for 3 days beforehand to flush it and also test for leakages so it should have been thoroughly cleaned, all I've done with it so far is top up the radiator with the extra EK coolant once the air bubbles from transit movement settled down (and I've never seen any debris floating in either the res or the case). I just took a look however into the rads themselves and it almost looks like there is a little bit of rust or something in the radiator fins (I can see little bits of copperish/rusty colour here and there in the fins - not at the very front but about 1 cm further into the radiator fins...is that just a result of the paint job not totally covering the radiator or would that be some kind of problem with the radiators?

[W-L]

It came to me pre-filled but the people that built it advised me they ran the loop for 3 days beforehand to flush it and also test for leakages so it should have been thoroughly cleaned, all I've done with it so far is top up the radiator once the air bubbles from transit movement settled down (and I've never seen any debris floating in either the res or the case). I just took a look however into the rads themselves and it almost looks like there is a little bit of rust or something in the radiator fins (I can see little bits of copperish/rusty colour here and there in the fins - not at the very front but about 1 cm further into the radiator fins...is that just a result of the paint job not totally covering the radiator or would that be some kind of problem with the radiators?

 

That color is just the copper they usually only coat the edges of the fins.

 

The reason why I asked what tubing you were using if it's not plasticizer free tubing it can gunk up the blocks and affect cooling performance, unfortunately you can't see since you have opaque tubing and blocks, but if you notice anything passing through the res or a white powder in the inside of the tubing it's probably plasticizer.

 

Are you just running distilled water and biocide?

[esperai]

It's the white PrimoChill PrimoFlex Advanced soft LRT acrylic that EKWB sells on their site and I'm using the EK Koolant in UV white along with it. All fittings/res/pump/tubing/radiators/waterblocks are all EKWB.

[W-L]

It's the white PrimoChill PrimoFlex Advanced soft LRT acrylic that EKWB sells on their site and I'm using the EK Koolant in UV white along with it.

 

Yea your pretty much good there, hmm kinda stumped then on what could be causing the problem.

[esperai]

Yea your pretty much good there, hmm kinda stumped then on what could be causing the problem.

 

A friend of mine suggested that the pump might be starting to fail because the top rad is staying cool/ambient temp now whereas before it would have some heat coming off it, would that be possible? There's definitely a difference between the previous temps of the top rad and what it is putting out now under the same usage. I'm comforted a bit by Ryoku saying that the temps are within acceptable ranges but with how much was spent on this system if there is an issue starting to develop I'd rather get on top of it before I end up with a crack in a waterblock or damage to parts from overheating  :unsure: I have seen some youtube videos where people say that while the D5 is a great pump on it's own, the EK Pump/Res combo apparently isn't that great?

[W-L]

A friend of mine suggested that the pump might be starting to fail because the top rad is staying cool/ambient temp now whereas before it would have some heat coming off it, would that be possible? There's definitely a difference between the previous temps of the top rad and what it is putting out now under the same usage. I'm comforted a bit by Ryoku saying that the temps are within acceptable ranges but with how much was spent on this system if there is an issue starting to develop I'd rather get on top of it before I end up with a crack in a waterblock or damage to parts from overheating  :unsure: I have seen some youtube videos where people say that while the D5 is a great pump on it's own, the EK Pump/Res combo apparently isn't that great?

 

Ek's bay res and D5 are some of the best bay units out there so I wouldn't think so, but yes your temps are within safe range as Ryoku said but a bit baffling where the ambient temps have dropped seasonally but the system temps have risen.