7700k 7700K Custom Loop Temps

[evil_noodles]

Good morning / afternoon / evening people,

 

I recently finished a new mini-itx build which features a customer water cooling loop. I completed installing Windows a few days ago and was eager to test out some benchmarking and checking out the temperatures to see if everything was stable. I'm running everything at stock at the moment and I'm getting insanely high temperatures when any kind of load is added to the CPU, I have read lots of threads online about how the 7700K has potentially terrible temp-spikes but wasn't expecting this bad on a custom loop.

 

My parts are;

Corsair SF600

ASUS Strix z270i

7700K (de-lidded)

Corsair DDR4 32GB Dominator

EVGA GTX 1080 Ti SC2 FTW3 Hydro Copper

 

PrimoChill CTR + D5 Combo

Nemesis GTS 240mm Rad

Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 12 x 2

Nemesis 92mm Rad

Noctua 92mm

EKWB z270i Monoblock

 

Loop order: Rez > Pump > 240mm Rad > GFX > 92mm Rad > CPU > Rez

 

With everything stock, my idle temps are around 30 - 40 degrees which seems fine to me. However when I run any kind of benchmark (Prime95, or 3dMark, heck even a game...) the CPU temperature can reach well into high 90's to 100 degrees, which is clearly not OK!

I've reseated the CPU three times, replacing the NT-H1 paste. Each time the CPU / Monoblock has had an even spread on the touching surfaces. I have replaced the TIM with Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra twice, and again, on both occasions the TIM has neatly covered the Dye and the cover neatly and evenly. The second time, I did not apply sealant and have left the cover clamped by the CPU housing on the motherboard.

 

This is my first custom water cooling build and I'm worried I've made some horrendous rookie mistake.

 

Anyone have any ideas?

 

Cheers

[Senzelian]

I guess you made the mistake of putting a lot high end hardware into a tiny space.

 

I'm running a 6700K and a GTX 1080 on a 360mm rad and the CPU usually reaches almost 70°C.

Now considering that you're basically dealing with less radiator surface and probably worse airflow because of your smaller case and the fact that the 7700k clocks higher than my 6700k, then those temperatures don't seem so suprising anymore.

 

Otherwise I really don't know what the problem could be.

 

One possible solution to your problem could be to undervolt the CPU.

This should not result in any loss in performance but in lower temperatures.

[Rolling Potatoe]

Does the temperature instantly go to 90°C ot does it climb there slowly over several minutes?

As I understand it it goes up fast under load, so your cpu is not making proper contact somewhere or there is almost no flow

through the cpu block (or your mobo sets the cpu to a stupid voltage under load). If there is left over glue on the cpu/heatspreader it might cause a gap, anyway try a generous helping of

normal thermal paste if you cannot make liquid metal work (still better than stock tim :D). That should help if you dont make proper

die contact.

[evil_noodles]

Thanks for the input guys, I'll try lowering the volts a bit on the CPU to see if that helps at the top end.

 

So the temp jumps to maybe 70 and then climbs slowly as the loop warms up - it just doesn't appear to stop yet...

 

I had considered that the loop wasn't the best but I've seen other peoples builds of similar components listing 70/80 under load. Perhaps I need to rein in my expectations a bit. Also it's worth noting it's stable, it's not crashed once, but the temps are scary and I know the components are not designed to work at those temps at all.

 

[evil_noodles]

Just to follow up on this, I changed the direction of my pull-exhaust fan on the 92mm Rad and the temperatures have dropped by almost 20 degrees so looks like the fan wasn't performing well in the pull configuration. It's now in push-intake and things are slowly getting more stable.