High temps on custom loop

stellaguy

stellaguy

stellaguy

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Joined
16 Sep 2009
Posts
11
Hi guys,
I was hoping someone could help me with a strange cooling issue I am having with my watercooling loop.
A bit of background on my system - for the past 2 years or so I have been running a 4770k & GTX 1070 on my watercooling loop. (360 rad in the top, 240 rad in the bottom, Laing (Swiftech) D5 pump and reservoir)
Temps were excellent and the GPU rarely seen 50 degrees. CPU was a similar story so all was well.

I decided it was time for an upgrade so bought myself a Z370 Aorus K3 motherboard and a 8700K i7. I added 16GB DDR4 Corsair Venegance RGB and rebuilt the system with the same watercooling loop. I decided to drain and refill as I have to remove some hoses in order to get the board in. I filled the loop as I always do and left the power to the system off while it primed for around 3 days. I finally started it up and installed Windows without issue but this is where the problems started. If I run Furmark the 1070 shoots into the 90's straight away and and is in 3 figures within minutes. The CPU is the same - starts thermal throttling after a few minutes and all cores are in the high 90s withing a minute or so of Prime95.

I assumed I had air in the system so went through the usual checks - various tilting of the case, ramping the speed of the pump up and down, tapping hoses etc. but still no improvement. I even drained the system and started again but if anything it is now worse! Another odd thing is when I start the system the reservoir dropped rapidly about 2 inch and refills when I power down.

I realise the 8700K runs hot but I still think there is another issue going on here. It's been over a week now and no joy so getting a bit worried it's going to do some damage.

Any help appreciated to get to the bottom of this issue.

(I am trying to add images but it's not letting me just now for some reason!?)

Cheers.
 
I would say you have a major air bubble possibly in your blocks. Have you tried flushing it through with some Blitz?

Worth also checking to make sure the blocks are seated correctly.
 
Defiantly. Water doesn't compress as easily as air does so for you to be losing 2 inches means you have an airlock somewhere. With that amount it may well be in your rads.
 
Thanks all for the suggestions. I did suspect air as it didn't seem to take a lot of coolant to fill and it is quite a big loop using 3/4" tubing.
I will look into using Blitz to clean it through but as it was running so cool before I thought it would be okay. No harm in trying it though.

As for the blocks I have re seated the CPU block a couple of times but I think it's fine. Under load I stupidly put my finger on the block and insanely hot so looks like the coolant isn't moving through and instead boiling up on top. The 1070 is factory fitted with the waterblock so I assume everything is okay there. It was awesome on my last build.

It may be the way I have the loop running thats the issue. When i try and upload images its asking for a URL. Do I need to upload to say Imgur etc to add photos as I think this will help get to the bottom of this.

Thanks again for everyone's help!
 
I would say you’re right, the fluid will hit a very high temperature quite rapidly with no/poor flow. The fact it doesn’t exceed 90 suggests it’s moving just not much, have you run the pump full and taken the top off the res whilst running?
 
Airlock/incomplete fill sounds right. Is your return path for liquid above the res, or somewhere "inside" the water level? If you ensure the liquid returns to the reservoir's existing supply, that should help. Then, the air in top of the reservoir is just a buffer to collect air from the loop, but the water flow is more "closed".

Is liquid actually returning into the res i.e. do you have flow throughout the whole loop? It sounds like it isn't actually leaving the pump maybe.
 
Any way of viewing the actual flow? On my old loop i had my return into the top of the res to give me some kind of idea if i dropped the level down slightly.

Failing that drain it completely and put the pump on a slowest speed as you can. And as it fills watch the speed at which its filling and the rate at which the res is dropping. Keep on filling and pumping until it slows down dramatically to give you an idea on where the blockage may be (if there is one).

I had an issue once with my top rad where it would get to the top rad and literally grind to a halt and come out the opposite port at a trickle even with the pump maxed. Took out, cleaned out and refilled and back to normal.
 
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