Water Temps with this setup ok?

[Fantasmorie]

I've build my first water cooled loop now, or let's say my second. But the first was 14 years ago.  A Pentium 4 with soft tubes and i think an aquarium pump.

 

Well, i know the pump can handle 60° max. as water temperature, but...

 

What is cooled:

AMD Ryzen7 1800X and a 1080Ti. Both non OC for now.

Cooled by two rads, one EK-Coolstream CE280 and the other one same brand but 420.

The small one on top, the big one in front. Yes, not the best setup, because the small one recycles the warm air from the front rad also.

My question is if the temps are "normal" for such a setup or if there is something i have to think about it. (Besides another case... i know.)

The case i use is the Lian Li Alpha 550. Also not the best in senses of airflow... but it looks so nice!

 

Idle with 26.4°C ambient is 36.3°C. ~10°C over ambient.

Under load the temperatures rising to ~20 - 22°C over ambient (~48°C) with around 60 to 70% fanspeed. At 100% the temps are balanced between 18 to 20°C (~45°C)over ambient.

 

I've read that such water temps are quite high. But all of this peope used mostly, as i understood, cases with good/optimized airflow and water cooling friendly cases. (Well, i hope so. That makes it not as bad as it seems for me, haha.)

I think that setup with that cooling capacity could also reach this temps but in that case, with that rad setup (and this fans, Corsair LL140s... *caugh*) it is maybe very limited?

 

Am i wrong and the crux is something else or is that simply the temp i have to handle if i use THAT specific setup?

Like i said, is this the temperature i has to deal with without buying another case or change the setup? (Front exhaust maybe, or the back fan as intake etc.)

 

BTW: 

If i realy stresstest the system, the CPU reaches 75°C and starts throttling, haha. Prime95 Small FTT and Furmark burn in at the same time. 

Water temps rising to 54°C while the GPU was about 56°C. 

If i only stress test the CPU it won't reach over 63°C. (But also quite high for a water cooled one i guess.)

When idling the CPU temps are usual 1-2°C over the watertemperature messured directly in the CPU waterblock. (The hottest spot, because the GPU feeds into the CPU block... yaaaah.)

The GPU is normally 2°C bellow the watertemperature in the CPU Waterblock.

Well, under normal load it won't reach that temperatures, but it was interesting to see what an oven that case realy is for such a setup in my case. Or i f***** up something.

Oh, thermal paste is cryonaut on the CPU and i also tested it if the paste was spread enough and that i don't used to much before i put all together, so i think that part should be ok.

 

 

PS:

The setup is a rainbow right now, yes. Haha, sorry for that. I know some people don't like the RGB Hype.

 

 

 

 

 

[Srnewbee]

lol, anyone with that level of expertise do not need any advice. If you are fishing for compliements, thats a really nice looking rig buddy!

[Tam3n]

As you know, it's simply bad airflow and difficult to improve in that case. Have you tried what happens when you take off the side panel? It could give you some clues. Though I think the main culprit is the air path to and from the radiators that seems just a bit too restrictive for effective radiator airflow.

[Dschijn]

10K over ambient is quite high! Seems to me like your rads are suffocating. Improve airflow and remove restrictions for the air.

[Fantasmorie]

2 hours ago, Srnewbee said:

lol, anyone with that level of expertise do not need any advice. If you are fishing for compliements, thats a really nice looking rig buddy!

No, not realy. I'm unsure, that's it. I haven't done a water cooled system for years now. So i lack of experience. And i wanted to ask if my clues have any evidence.
Or if something else is done wrong i don't thought of?

And thanks though. If i look into the "Show your water cooled system" there are way more impressive systems. Some of them are incredible made.

 

1 hour ago, Tam3n said:

As you know, it's simply bad airflow and difficult to improve in that case. Have you tried what happens when you take off the side panel? It could give you some clues. Though I think the main culprit is the air path to and from the radiators that seems just a bit too restrictive for effective radiator airflow.

Sound plausible, thanks. Well, like i said above my experience with water cooled loops is quite small. I only have this system and well sure i had that clues, it was logical.

When i put off the sidepanel the temps go down, yes. Tested it minutes before that answer as i read you comment.
I thought the airflow wouldn't be as bad as it looks now, pewh... that's odd. Because i like that case lookwise.

That bothers me now. More or less all the work for "bad" temperatures. Yeah!

 

1 hour ago, Dschijn said:

10K over ambient is quite high! Seems to me like your rads are suffocating. Improve airflow and remove restrictions for the air.

The only thing i could do, take off the front and top panel. Haha.

I can't change the position of the pump or reservoir.
If there would be a case with a similar look but better placement for the rads... maybe that would be an option. But most cases look way bigger and more industrial likeish. The Thermaltake Core X71 as an example. 

 

Edit:

I will try something. I put off the front and top panel and the sidepanel and look how the temperatures go.

That should negate the restrictions, if this is the problem. And i/we should know if the case is realy as bad as it looks for such a water cooled setup.

(Seems the looks were the important part as Lian Li produced that case.)

[Mick Naughty]

I don't let my water go above 38c. Depends on the rig though. My older card rig dumps more heat so Im ok with that temp. My newer card rig, which only uses one card sits around 34c on the water. I only sacrifice noise for water temps. Half of my fans are off till the cpu hits 50c anyway.

[Fantasmorie]

On 15.6.2018 at 2:54 PM, Mick Naughty said:

I don't let my water go above 38c. Depends on the rig though. My older card rig dumps more heat so Im ok with that temp. My newer card rig, which only uses one card sits around 34c on the water. I only sacrifice noise for water temps. Half of my fans are off till the cpu hits 50c anyway.

Like Tam3n said. If i remove the top and front panel the temps are by far better.

That case is simply just a worse case (haha) for water cooling, it seems. That's so odd... but i had to know this before.

Don't know why Lian Li does such a thing and call it water cooling ready. (Well, it is. But a very bad choice. Like the P500 tagged as "High Airflow".)

But i got no information about it as i searched for it. It was very new at this time and i found only one other person who planned a watercooled rig with it but with another setup. (Only one rad.)

Well, try and error it seems. Haha.

So, my case is a good example that anyone who wants also good temps should avoid that thing. (Well, with such a setup maybe.)

Otherwise you have to deal with it. 

 

 

Edit:

The Watertemperature in the CPU socket is without the front and back panels around 41°C stable. So the overall watertemp should be around 37°C or even less, depends were you are measuring it though.

The GPU sits around 44°C and the CPU around 66°C.

Well, if i want it to become even better i would have to use Fans with more air pressure i asume.
Soooo... well... bad case. Haha.

[Fantasmorie]

Small update:

I decided to change the front and top panel with a custom cut perforated aluminum mesh.

Painted in white or entirely black, maybe with some Lian Li logo, have to see.

That should solve the problem for a good amount hopefully.

 

 

 

[Fantasmorie]

Temperatures will follow if it is finished. I have to get the meshes first ordered.
 

But also a "problem" are the fans itself.

The LL Series seems to lack enough air pressure significantly, even more with low RPM. They have to be at higher RPM to be as active as dedicated fans for radiators at far lower RPMs. Meh...

[Fantasmorie]

After a while now, a small status update. 

Due to time restraints i wasn't able to fully work the system now.

But i got some concepts from a company for the front and top panel now. Costs about 100 € for fully custom made meshes who will fit into the place of the glas.

Have to talk about the material and color now. (I will go with black for now.)

 

Btw, temps are without the panels absolutely nice now, even for this fans.

Ambient now 30°C in my room... (i don't have an air conditioner here). Watertemp on Res is about ~1°C over ambient in idle till it reaches the GPU.

Water rises about 1-2°C and goes to the CPU. There it rises to 35°C, while the CPU sits one degree above the water temperature in idle (36°C).

The GPU sits around 32-33°C in idle.

 

Under load the Watertemperature rises in an average point of 34-36°C. When it passes the second radiator back to the res it sits nearly on ambient temps again (32°C watertemp), while the GPU sits around 44-47°C under full load with Furmark Burnin and CPU tortured with Prime small FFT at the same time.

Prime stress test lets the CPU go up to 54°C with ambient temp of 31°C. (So 13°C over ambient) without GPU stress testing, with GPU on Furmark it rises to ~62°C after some time.

But that is a worse case scenario to be honest. I don't see such temps in normal use, even with benchmarking, to be honest.

 

I think these are nice numbers for now. Compared to my roomtemps and full stresstest.

 

The problem of my numbers before are that i only read the temps from the sensor in the CPU block and here it measures the temp AFTER it passes the micro fins and got the heat from the CPU. So the water temp is obviously higher. Out of the GPU it is normally few degrees cooler. Less on idle as more under load, logically.

So my water was never reaching 50°C even with the panels, i asume. Well... never finishing learning. 

 

The interesting thing is that the 280mm rad alone is enough to get the system relatively cool. The second 480mm is overkill, sure.

(And i had a lot of stress to get this thing into this case, i tell you that...)

 

Hope i will get the meshes finished in the next several days.

 

PS:

My fancurves from the iCUE, if someone is interested in it.

25°C to 35°C 800rpm

45°C 900rpm 

55°C 1100rpm

65°C 1500rpm

 

With that adjustment the cooling gives me the numbers above and also provides some quite time. 
The question is if you will get better numbers with proper Radiator fans.

But the most important for that case, if someone has a watercooled loop in mind with some beefy hardware in it, get rid of these glas panels.

Even with mesh front and top it would look quite nice. 

But the glas chokes the fans completely. (Even more than in the Cooler Master H500P i asume >_>.)