Is my aio water cooler broken?

[theKumba]

Recently my CPU temps have gone up further and further. Right now they are <95°C while stress testing, which I think is not exactly where they should be. 

I already gave new thermal paste a try, but it somehow even made it worse.

 

So the thing that bugs me the most about this is that even when the CPU and the watercooler show high temperatures, the air that's coming out of the top of the pc is quiet cool. 

Does this mean that the coolers pump has broken? (Though it does give rpm readings in Corsair Link)

 

I'm using an Corsair H100i, purchased ~June 2014

 

 

Thanks in advance.

[airdeano]

verify the pump rpm through the UEFI/BIOS. if less than 2200rpm, then you are having pump issues.

how long does the temperature spike to 95° under load from a normal idle? 1min? 2min? 5min?

[theKumba]

1 hour ago, airdeano said:

verify the pump rpm through the UEFI/BIOS. if less than 2200rpm, then you are having pump issues.

I did, and it's running at a little over 2400 rpm.

 

1 hour ago, airdeano said:

how long does the temperature spike to 95° under load from a normal idle? 1min? 2min? 5min?

Surprisingly it doesn't anymore, at all. Also, it is now going down to ~45° in idle.

After 15 minutes of 100% cpu load, it spiked at 85°C. It took around 1 1/2 minutes to get there from idle temperature.

While doing this, the cooler temperature never went above 60°C though.

[airdeano]

when the temps are high, the air coming form the radiator exhaust is cool, warm or hot?

[theKumba]

2 hours ago, airdeano said:

when the temps are high, the air coming form the radiator exhaust is cool, warm or hot?

After some time of gaming the air is pretty hot, but it usually is cold if under load for less than 30 minutes.

[airdeano]

sounds like there is nothing errored in the AIO, that the CPU just is not cooperative in the thermal area.

one last item to look into is the H100i mod:

 

remove the backplate, install 4mm x 8mm o-rings to space the thread bung away from the mobo, this will apply a firmer clamping force to provide a tighter surface-to-surface contact to the CPU IHS and cold plate of the pump/controller of the H100i.

[theKumba]

On 9.9.2016 at 3:50 AM, airdeano said:

sounds like there is nothing errored in the AIO, that the CPU just is not cooperative in the thermal area.

one last item to look into is the H100i mod:

 

remove the backplate, install 4mm x 8mm o-rings to space the thread bung away from the mobo, this will apply a firmer clamping force to provide a tighter surface-to-surface contact to the CPU IHS and cold plate of the pump/controller of the H100i.

I did just that yesterday, but it didn't really change anything at all.

But I think I figured out the problem.

 

It's my case. The clearance from the radiator to the top part of the case is only a few centimeters,which takes airflow to a somewhat non existent level.

Hopefully this won't hurt my CPU in the long run, but right now there's not much I could do about it.

The spot the radiator is in right now is the only one I can put it in. All the other spots are for 120/140mm radiators only. 

[airdeano]

pictures?

[theKumba]

21 minutes ago, airdeano said:

pictures?

There you go.

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

The attic has about 4cm of clearance, while the radiator takes up a little over 2.5cm of that. So there's only less than 1.5cm left for the air to flow.

One thing that worries me though, is that even with the top and side panels off I only get down to ~45°C in idle and marginally under 70°C when stresstesting, which still seems quite high to me.

So maybe the top cover wasn't the problem after all?

[airdeano]

radiator fans are drawing air into the case or blowing through the radiator as exhaust?

[theKumba]

8 minutes ago, airdeano said:

radiator fans are drawing air into the case or blowing through the radiator as exhaust?

Blowing out, through the radiator.

[airdeano]

for the sake-of-science, flip the fans to intake and retest. with/without roof panel installed.

[tiberiusmoon5]

On 08/09/2016 at 0:12 PM, theKumba said:

Recently my CPU temps have gone up further and further. Right now they are <95°C while stress testing, which I think is not exactly where they should be. 

I already gave new thermal paste a try, but it somehow even made it worse.

 

So the thing that bugs me the most about this is that even when the CPU and the watercooler show high temperatures, the air that's coming out of the top of the pc is quiet cool. 

Does this mean that the coolers pump has broken? (Though it does give rpm readings in Corsair Link)

 

I'm using an Corsair H100i, purchased ~June 2014

 

 

Thanks in advance.

new tim made it worse? what tim are you using and what method of application did you use?

 

the h100's have had alot of issues in the past there was a time OCUK were selling them cheap as they were refurb's,

also i hate AIO's because you cannot clean the loop, for all we know a bit of plastic has decitergrated and circulating inside the pump.

 

you could uninstall the AIO and while holding the block and rad firmly shake the whole AIO to shift any possible blockage.

 

[theKumba]

19 hours ago, airdeano said:

for the sake-of-science, flip the fans to intake and retest. with/without roof panel installed.

With the fans turned the other way I the temps are hovering at about 70°C with the cover off and 77°C with the cover on.

 

15 hours ago, TiberiusMoon said:

new tim made it worse? what tim are you using and what method of application did you use?

 

the h100's have had alot of issues in the past there was a time OCUK were selling them cheap as they were refurb's,

also i hate AIO's because you cannot clean the loop, for all we know a bit of plastic has decitergrated and circulating inside the pump.

 

you could uninstall the AIO and while holding the block and rad firmly shake the whole AIO to shift any possible blockage.

 

I'm going to give it a try. I did give it a try and it made the whole situation a lot worse, once more. I now get idle temps of just under 60°C.

 

About the tim. I am not really sure what tim stands for, but I'm assuming you mean thermal compound. 

I'm using Arctic MX-4 Thermal Compound and I applied it by putting a little bit of it on the middle of the CPU and then applying the cooler. From the looks of it, it did spread evenly.

[theKumba]

I'm now officially fed up with this now most likely completely broken piece of cooling equipment.

After getting close to 100°C after not more than half a minute put the intel stock cooler and ordered a Noctua NH-D14.

 

Thank you for the help, but I guess it was all for a dying aio water cooler.

[tiberiusmoon5]

1 hour ago, theKumba said:

I'm now officially fed up with this now most likely completely broken piece of cooling equipment.

After getting close to 100°C after not more than half a minute put the intel stock cooler and ordered a Noctua NH-D14.

 

Thank you for the help, but I guess it was all for a dying aio water cooler.

no problem kumba but just keep this in mind,

the corsair h100 was amoungst the earlier units and like all new tech are prone to bugs,

if you ever reconsider AIO's look for ones that look like prebuilt custom loops,

this will make it easier to replace a broken part in the long term.

[tiberiusmoon5]

 

that cooler has a 5 year warranty

[theKumba]

2 hours ago, TiberiusMoon said:

that cooler has a 5 year warranty

Holy...

Thanks for telling me, seriously. I would have probably thrown it out if I didn't know that.

 

Just submitted a support ticket.

[pyrojoe34]

Are you running AIDA64 or HWINFO? You have to change some settings for them to play nice with Corsair Link or the fans and pump will not work correctly.

[theKumba]

3 minutes ago, pyrojoe34 said:

Are you running AIDA64 or HWINFO? You have to change some settings for them to play nice with Corsair Link or the fans and pump will not work correctly.

I was using HWMonitor and corsair link, as well as the MSI command center to monitor everything, while stress testing with heavy load. I believe that as long as the sensor readings weren't wrong, the pumps, as well as the fans were running at the correct rpm.

[pyrojoe34]

3 minutes ago, theKumba said:

I was using HWMonitor to monitor everything, while stress testing with heavy load. Judging from these programs both, pumps and fans where on the correct speeds all the time.

OK that's good. I only tried AIDA64 and HWINFO but if you don't turn off monitoring on the AIO and change a setting in them they fight Link for control on some Corsair AIOs and the you can hear the fans fluctuate a bunch (almost fried one of my CPUs during a stress test because the fans/pump were giving out).

 

A good way to test is to set the fan speed to max in Link. If they stay at a steady 100% then there's no issue, if they fluctuate a bunch then there's an issue. Then change the settings back to your fan curve.

[pyrojoe34]

9 minutes ago, theKumba said:

I was using HWMonitor and corsair link, as well as the MSI command center to monitor everything, while stress testing with heavy load. I believe that as long as the sensor readings weren't wrong, the pumps, as well as the fans were running at the correct rpm.

I also had an issue with a poorly seated cooler because I kept trying to mount it with the mobo and rad already in the case. The stiff tubes made it impossible to get a flush seating of the cooler. When I mounted it outside the case so the tubes weren't stressed, I got a perfect seat and my temps dropped 20-30C.

[theKumba]

1 minute ago, pyrojoe34 said:

OK that's good. I only tried AIDA64 and HWINFO but if you don't turn off monitoring on the AIO and change a setting in them they fight Link for control on some Corsair AIOs and the you can hear the fans fluctuate a bunch (almost fried one of my CPUs during a stress test because the fans/pump were giving out).

 

A good way to test is to set the fan speed to max in Link. If they stay at a steady 100% then there's no issue, if they fluctuate a bunch then there's an issue. Then change the settings back to your fan curve.

That sounds way more entertaining than it probably was, but definitely good to know.

But I have to say that I didn't experience anything alike. Of course the fans were hovering around the set rpm, though I guess that this is to be expected.