watercooling setup has high temps

buttkinz

buttkinz

buttkinz

Associate
Joined
12 Nov 2009
Posts
966
Location
Buxton, UK
Hi Guys, iv been pulling my hair out for ages now trying to work out why my rig is running a little warm, it idles with all fans at maximum around 38-41 and loads at 47, although if i take the fans lower then it quickly heats up to above 50. has anyone got any idea what could be the issue or if one of the components is not suited to the rig.

its running 3 xigmatek crystal white led fans (1500rpm) on a black ice triple rad (the one with really high fpi tightly spaced fins) on the rear of the case and 2 noctua fans(ns-f12-1200rpm) on a swiftech double rad in the front. laing ddc 10w pump with xspc combines top and res, swiftech apogee gt cpu block, nvidia 470 aquacomputer aquagraFX full cover block.

running a phenom II x2 550 unlocked to a quad @ 3.4ghz, 1.45v, NB at stock 2000mhz, all voltages set as auto in bios, just the cpu voltage changed.

I was using a xspc delta v3 block but i got worse temps by a fair few degrees than the swiftech one, strange as that block by the reviews is pretty good, I just took it at the time that the small step on the base wasnt large enough to conduct the heat properly.

any ideas as its stumped me lol!
 
buttkinz said:
Hi Guys, iv been pulling my hair out for ages now trying to work out why my rig is running a little warm, it idles with all fans at maximum around 38-41 and loads at 47, although if i take the fans lower then it quickly heats up to above 50. has anyone got any idea what could be the issue or if one of the components is not suited to the rig.

its running 3 xigmatek crystal white led fans (1500rpm) on a black ice triple rad (the one with really high fpi tightly spaced fins) on the rear of the case and 2 noctua fans(ns-f12-1200rpm) on a swiftech double rad in the front. laing ddc 10w pump with xspc combines top and res, swiftech apogee gt cpu block, nvidia 470 aquacomputer aquagraFX full cover block.

running a phenom II x2 550 unlocked to a quad @ 3.4ghz, 1.45v, NB at stock 2000mhz, all voltages set as auto in bios, just the cpu voltage changed.

I was using a xspc delta v3 block but i got worse temps by a fair few degrees than the swiftech one, strange as that block by the reviews is pretty good, I just took it at the time that the small step on the base wasnt large enough to conduct the heat properly.

any ideas as its stumped me lol!
Click to expand...

Maybe a simple answer as I know little about water cooling, but could there be a bottleneck somewhere in your water system? Something which is stopping flow of heat or something similar? And have you tried taking all the water cooling stuff out and putting it back in?
 
Sounds like a lot for the pump to cope with to me, I believe the swiftech is quite a restrictive block as are GPU blocks generally.

Have you tried re-seating the CPU block with fresh paste and ensuring rads aren't full of dust.
 
buttkinz said:
Hi Guys, iv been pulling my hair out for ages now trying to work out why my rig is running a little warm, it idles with all fans at maximum around 38-41 and loads at 47, although if i take the fans lower then it quickly heats up to above 50. has anyone got any idea what could be the issue or if one of the components is not suited to the rig.

its running 3 xigmatek crystal white led fans (1500rpm) on a black ice triple rad (the one with really high fpi tightly spaced fins) on the rear of the case and 2 noctua fans(ns-f12-1200rpm) on a swiftech double rad in the front. laing ddc 10w pump with xspc combines top and res, swiftech apogee gt cpu block, nvidia 470 aquacomputer aquagraFX full cover block.

running a phenom II x2 550 unlocked to a quad @ 3.4ghz, 1.45v, NB at stock 2000mhz, all voltages set as auto in bios, just the cpu voltage changed.

I was using a xspc delta v3 block but i got worse temps by a fair few degrees than the swiftech one, strange as that block by the reviews is pretty good, I just took it at the time that the small step on the base wasnt large enough to conduct the heat properly.

any ideas as its stumped me lol!
Click to expand...

I would start looking at two things.

firstly check for dust fluff etc blocking the air flow through the fins of each of your rads.

secondly i would re-check for trapped air in the system

as for your pump i read elsewhere in the thread it could be the cause of lack of water flow for your loop. Im no expert on water coolling although i do have a custom loop i setup myself on a Phenom II 940 and 8800GT currently being cooled by 1 thermochill 120.2 Rad and 1 thermochill 120.1 rad current temps 49c for cpu and 45c for gpu both running at 100% 24/7 run by a swiftech D4 pump which is form what ive read slightly more powerfull than your current pump.

Looking at the specs of you loop it should be able to keep your system a few degrees cooler than mines whilst haveing the fans running slower.
It is possible with the amount of rad and the slightly more restrictive cpu block you have that the pump is strugling slightly
 
ok, il mod the pump today from 10w to 18w, im sure iv seen a thread or 10 on google about it and check back with the changes. have reseated cpu block multiple times and both rads are clear of any debris, checked the easy things first :)

just spotted the pump is a swiftech mcp 355 branded one, any idea to check if its the 10w version before i pull it apart from the loop?
 
Last edited:
buttkinz said:
ok, il mod the pump today from 10w to 18w, im sure iv seen a thread or 10 on google about it and check back with the changes. have reseated cpu block multiple times and both rads are clear of any debris, checked the easy things first :)

just spotted the pump is a swiftech mcp 355 branded one, any idea to check if its the 10w version before i pull it apart from the loop?
Click to expand...

The MCP355 is the 18W pump, which would suggest something else is the 'problem'.

When you say the temps are 47°C, is that on the CPU, GPU? Or is it the raw water temp? What are ambient temperatures?
 
yup, realised that when i cracked it open lol.

47c, thats on cpu under prime95 after ~30mins. no gpu stress. water temps are lower than that but rads are deffo warm to the touch after 30mins of prime with hot air being extracted from both rads. ambients are around 23 at the moment i guess, hot summer days :)

just lapping the cpu to rule out that but after 30mins iv noticed amd's cpu's are anything but flat -_-
 
buttkinz said:
yup, realised that when i cracked it open lol.

47c, thats on cpu under prime95 after ~30mins. no gpu stress. water temps are lower than that but rads are deffo warm to the touch after 30mins of prime with hot air being extracted from both rads. ambients are around 23 at the moment i guess, hot summer days :)

just lapping the cpu to rule out that but after 30mins iv noticed amd's cpu's are anything but flat -_-
Click to expand...

So we're looking at a 23°C Ambient-CPU temp Delta. To be perfectly honest, that doesn't sound unreasonable to me for an unlocked PII X2, considering it's not the lowest voltage either.

See what it's like after lapping, but I wouldn't be concerned, unless the temperatures continue rising after 30 mins, if so you need to wait until they level off to give a good representation.
 
there is only 6 degrees between between idle and load which is great, but those idle temps i would expect to be 10C lower on the CPU, im running a worse pump than you with a x6@4ghz and a 6950@6970 with a EK 240 and a 120 feser and im getting better temps at low fan speeds.
Check CPU mount first i know its a pain in the arse but its what i would do, im not sure about your block but does it have an inlet and outlet?
How is your loop run? if your CPU is directly after your GPU this would make the idle temps higher.
Can you take a photo of your setup?
Can you see water being pumped into your Res? does it come in a steady flow?
 
Do you have your pump sensor connected to a fan header that you can read the rpm's from, for reference my 10w laing is currently at 3667rpm
 
The black ice triple rad needs high speed fans with high static pressure to get the best out of it & looking at what info I can find on the xigmatek fans they may not have the static pressure needed. I have not been able to find a value for their static pressure but a couple of reviews showed their airflow drop dramatically when trying to push air through anything slightly restrictive which would indicate a lack of static pressure. Also the NF-S12 fans are not designed for mounting on a rad (& noctua recomend they are only used as case fans) as they have a low static pressure so wont move much air through the swiftech rad.

You might want to load the gpu & see what temps it reaches to give an indication if there is just a problem with the cpu cooling or if the whole watercooling setup is under performing.
 
Someone said:
The black ice triple rad needs high speed fans with high static pressure to get the best out of it & looking at what info I can find on the xigmatek fans they may not have the static pressure needed. I have not been able to find a value for their static pressure but a couple of reviews showed their airflow drop dramatically when trying to push air through anything slightly restrictive which would indicate a lack of static pressure. Also the NF-S12 fans are not designed for mounting on a rad (& noctua recomend they are only used as case fans) as they have a low static pressure so wont move much air through the swiftech rad.

You might want to load the gpu & see what temps it reaches to give an indication if there is just a problem with the cpu cooling or if the whole watercooling setup is under performing.
Click to expand...

You can reduce the static pressure requirement using push pull to reduce air pressure within the rad.
 
Push pull could be another option rather than swapping the current fans for different high speed high static pressure fans & push pull with low speed fans will be quieter than having high speed fans, but my previous point still stands that the current fan setup may not be upto the job of providing enough airflow through the radiators.
 
Vipers work very well on BI GTS Rads, had x3 on a BI GTS 360 they never went over 1500rpm with a 470 in the same loop.
 
cheers for all the advice guys, checked the rpm of the pump, its dead on 4500rpm, lapped the cpu which was horribley bowed and also took the step off the xspc delta v3 cpu block so it contacted the whole cpu.

happy to report after 30 mins prime in about 20-21 ambient, 42deg full load and idle temps of 33. Much better result, although like a lot of you have said my fans leave a lot to be desired haha.

May be worth if you have bad temps to check the flatness of the heatsink :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom