Custom Water Loop not performing as expected

[Shiznit]

Hey guys,

 

I'm relatively new to the custom water loop world, but have dabbled with AIOs for a while. I recently decided to make the jump into a custom loop over my x62 Kraken because i wanted more head room to OC my 7700k.

 

Come to find out after making the switch that the custom water loop didnt drop my temperatures by much. After 1 hour of use, my CPU stays at about 60C under load. Stock boost clock of 4.5GHz. Interestingly enough, ive noticed the temp jumps about 10-15 degrees (high of 75C) if i open Chrome browser with 1 tab open. Anyway, that is roughly 5 degrees cooler than i got from the x62 Kraken AIO. Not enough headroom to 5GHz. 

 

I have applied and reapplied thermal paste 2x now,

 

I know intel CPUs are notorious for running hot, i delidded the 7700k back when i was still using the AIO. Should i be worried about hitting 80C if i overclock? Did intel take their own heat problem into account when designing these CPUs?

 

The GPU only gets to about 65C max under load and is air cooled.

 

Specs:

Corsair 570x 

i7 7700k delidded (water cooled)

MSI z270 Gaming M5 

16gb DDR4 3200

GTX 1080 ti (air cooled)

Thermaltake reservoir/pump combo

Thermaltake CPU water block

EK XE240 Radiator 240x60mm (mounted as exhaust up top)

6x Corsair LL120s (default fan curve)

 

Other relevant information: ambient air temps stay are around 26C, and i am in a desert climate (Phoenix, Arizona).

 

Is my only option to try messing with fan curves? I havent even tried to 

[W-L]

2 minutes ago, Shiznit said:

-SNIP-

With only a 240mm rad you didn't really make a large jump from the AIO, a larger as in longer not thicker rad would help marginally but in general if your temps are high only under load the limiting factor is the rate at which heat can leave the CPU and make it into the waterblock. Delidding and changing it with better thermal compound or liquid metal can help. 

[Shiznit]

3 minutes ago, W-L said:

With only a 240mm rad you didn't really make a large jump from the AIO, a larger as in longer not thicker rad would help marginally but in general if your temps are high only under load the limiting factor is the rate at which heat can leave the CPU and make it into the waterblock. Delidding and changing it with better thermal compound or liquid metal can help. 

The CPU is delidded using Conductonaut... that was a tremendous improvement, it dropped my idle by about 15C. 

 

I think you are correct though. I dont think the radiator is able to pull heat away from the water efficient enough.. that is a total bummer because i only have room for one more 360mm radiator but was planning on adding that when i added a water block for my GPU. now im not sure i have the headroom to cool that as well.

[Shiznit]

i suppose i can add a 3rd 120mm on the back exhaust port...

[W-L]

10 minutes ago, Shiznit said:

The CPU is delidded using Conductonaut... that was a tremendous improvement, it dropped my idle by about 15C. 

 

I think you are correct though. I dont think the radiator is able to pull heat away from the water efficient enough.. that is a total bummer because i only have room for one more 360mm radiator but was planning on adding that when i added a water block for my GPU. now im not sure i have the headroom to cool that as well.

It will be more than enough, a single 360mm can cool both a CPU and GPU but if you want to go for silence more rad space is ideal. If you can add in a 360mm rad go for that, longer thinner rads are better than shorter thicker ones. 

[Motifator]

1 hour ago, W-L said:

With only a 240mm rad you didn't really make a large jump from the AIO, a larger as in longer not thicker rad would help marginally but in general if your temps are high only under load the limiting factor is the rate at which heat can leave the CPU and make it into the waterblock. Delidding and changing it with better thermal compound or liquid metal can help. 

I wish you had a clue what you were talking about. Going by the thickness and the specs of the rad ALONE, that rad will cool TWO delidded overclocked 7700Ks as long as the room is AC'ed, you have good airflow going, suffice water flow w/e. The chip is very efficient and because it's delidded, that rad is NOT his limiting factor, but his ambient is. The higher the ambient, the worse the loop will perform. Look at here and read this:

https://www.ekwb.com/blog/radiators-part-2-performance/

[W-L]

17 minutes ago, Motifator said:

I wish you had a clue what you were talking about. Going by the thickness and the specs of the rad ALONE, that rad will cool TWO delidded overclocked 7700Ks as long as the room is AC'ed, you have good airflow going, suffice water flow w/e. The chip is very efficient and because it's delidded, that rad is NOT his limiting factor, but his ambient is. The higher the ambient, the worse the loop will perform. Look at here and read this:

https://www.ekwb.com/blog/radiators-part-2-performance/

That rad of course can cool a lot more than just a single CPU if you wanted a single 120mm rad can cool a whole system but at the end of it your going to have to compensate with much higher RPM fans since you only have so much surface area regardless of what you do. His rad was never the limiting factor the limiting factor is the rate at which the heat from the CPU to transfer into the waterblock itself, never stated that the rad was the problem.

 

Ambient temps are a factor but being at only 26C and AC it's not a problem since it's capacity for cooling is still very large

Edited August 23, 2018 by W-L

[Motifator]

Desert climate 26C is going to be hot regardless of what, it's not a cool ambient. I'm going to throw out an idea and say the Thermaltake WC gear is being restrictive along with that, ending up in those temps.

[Shiznit]

Just curious, what are your ambient temperatures at in comparison to mine? 26C is only 3C away from room temperature. I find it hard to believe 3 degree difference is responsible for the CPU running at 70C under load. I'm thinking this is more of an airflow problem.

 

Can you name a good fan brand to use with a radiator? What is recommended? i want to benchmark my LL's to them.

[W-L]

1 hour ago, Shiznit said:

Just curious, what are your ambient temperatures at in comparison to mine? 26C is only 3C away from room temperature. I find it hard to believe 3 degree difference is responsible for the CPU running at 70C under load. I'm thinking this is more of an airflow problem.

 

Can you name a good fan brand to use with a radiator? What is recommended? i want to benchmark my LL's to them.

The LL fans are decent but for pressure optimized fans, the Noctia NF-A12's, NF-F12's, Bequiet silent Wings 3 are all good options. 

 

Try and take off the front and top panel while under load to see if it makes a big jump in temps. 

[SolarNova]

Buy another 240mm rad and do this

Spoiler

Your load temps, what are temps like in the first 5 minutes ?

 

If they are significantly lower, then the loop isnt cooling the fluid enough to keep liquid temps down. So increase ur fan speed or if your already running them high, grab another radiator. Though as others have said a 240 rad should be enough.

 

If the temps hit those same 1 hour temps relativly quickly then , if ur not already, try running your pump at max speed.

 

[For Science!]

1 hour ago, Shiznit said:

-

I have a 7700K delidded running at 4.9 GHz using a max recorded Vcore of 1.4 V (Measured by HWinfo64 during AIDA64 stress test). Not the golden chip, but my board (Prime Z270-A) may also have something to do with the relatively poor stability at lower voltages.

 

To keep this cool, I have a full custom loop that incoorporates both the CPU, 1080 in SLI, and the board VRMs that are kept cool by 1x 240 HWlabs GTS and  1x 360 HWLabs GTS in a single loop powered by a D5 pump. Fans on my radiator are Noctua iPPCs, and the whole system is normally kept very quiet (fans at <500 rpm, pump at 1500 rpm)

 

I have an ambient temperature of 28.5 degrees and with my normal fan control settings (i.e. near silent), my fluid temperatures are about 33-36 degrees under light loads (Chrome. Bash on Windows, Steam, etc). Which puts my CPU at about 43 degrees. Running AIDA64 under these conditions sends my CPU into the 90's and so this is the limit of the thermal transfer between the die/IHS and waterblock.

 

If I put my fans to full whack (honestly, louder than I am comfortable with) then my idle water temps are 31 degrees and a CPU idle temperature of 33-35 degrees. If I turn on AIDA under these conditions (CPU, FPU, cache), my CPU temps go to about 80 degrees or so after equilibrium over 15 minutes or so.

 

Not sure what I'm trying to get to here, but I hope my temps can give you an indication as to where you are. I think you're fine, perhaps just check your voltages.

[Shiznit]

On 8/23/2018 at 2:12 PM, SolarNova said:

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I'm not opposed to that! Yeah, pump is already running at max (actually i am assuming this because it is plugged in via a molex connector)

 

Yeah, so on system boot, my CPU temps will be around 38-40

 

After an hour they will be about 50C at idle

 

After an hour under load, if i let the CPU idle, the temps will be 55-60C

 

Interestingly enough... i've noticed that Chrome browser will increase temps from 50 to 60C with 1 tab open and no other programs... what a resource hog!

[Shiznit]

On 8/23/2018 at 2:42 PM, For Science! said:

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How are you monitoring fluid temps?

 

I mostly play World of Warcraft, which is supposedly a very CPU intense game. While playing, i will normally have Chrome browser open in the background for quick referencing. I noticed that if only WoW is open then my CPU and GPU temps will be relatively similar at around 60 degrees. If i open Chrome then the CPU will jump to 70 degrees. 

 

My water pump has a molex power connector so im not sure i can adjust the speed that it operates at.

[Motifator]

2 minutes ago, Shiznit said:

How are you monitoring fluid temps?

You need a fluid temp sensor for that.

[For Science!]

1 minute ago, Shiznit said:

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I have a 2-pin temperature sensor stop plug in my loop, this plugs into my motherboard and I have my fan curve adjusted to the sensor value in BIOS. Again, 60 degrees is fine for gaming loads, and will not have any harmful impact on your CPU.