• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Poor Corsair H100 Temps

Jakg

Jakg

Jakg

Associate
Joined
16 Oct 2008
Posts
36
Location
Suffolk, UK
TL;DR - Fitted an H100 today and the temps are no better than my old air cooler. Ideas?


I have an i7 3770k, running at 4.8 GHz at 1.28v, with a Coolermaster Hyper 212. Now the weathers warming up, it's starting to get hot (83° C under load) and I bought a Corsair H100 on eBay to see if that would help.

I fitted it this morning, but I noticed the waterblock's face was all scratched so I lapped it at the same time, and did the CPU as well. Didn't get a mirror finish (only got to 1000 grit) but it did help (H100 was convex, CPU was ok).

However, been running it on the max setting, and under load it's hitting 81° C - basically the same as before!

Any ideas?

My thoughts were:
Poor TIM application - the AS5 I used was old, maybe I need to buy some new thermal paste and try again (recommendations on the best stuff to use?)
Poor lapping - I've bought some 2500 grit to take it a bit further (I've never lapped anything before to feel free to redicule!)
Poor mounting - I screwed the H100 down all the way but it appeared to run out of the thread on the screws before it went too tight


Some pictures.


CPU:

nKwYxma.jpg


IMnU6bf.jpg


Waterblock (it did get a little better than this)

e3Sf1Wu.jpg


Fitment:

X1HYiHb.jpg


NpygHNS.jpg
 
I have the H100i and I had to use extra washers on the backplate to get it to make proper contact, so that may be an issue. Better lapping, quad 3rd party fans in push/pull and something like liquid pro will also help. But you need to manage your expectations, the H100 was never much better performance wise than high end air to start with.

If you want really good cooling then you need to start looking at a custom loops. But either way 4.8ghz is a pretty damn good oc, those temps are to be expected with any AIO or air cooler tbh.
 
Last edited:
4.8 @ 1.28??? That's a nice OC. I'd be happy with that. I need to get some washers for my H100i as I'm having the same issue.
Thing is, the more I mess about with it the more I think I should just bite the bullet and get a proper custom loop and be done with it. The only reason I haven't already is that I'm not sure if I'm gonna go for another card in SLI or sell the first and buy a better single card.
 
Your temps are right for the o/c and cooler your using, sorry.

If you really want to get yiur temps down delid your cpu and replace the thermal paste Intel used with your as5 and you should find fall right down.
 
You might find it is the under-IHS TIM that Intel has used - my friend on custom water was getting temps of 90+ at 1.3v, delidded and still hasn't gone over 75 on 1.43v or something similar. This is running with a 7950 in the loop with a 2x120 rad with fans on low.
 
As Rooster says, the paste intel used is rubbish. Seeing as the op has lapped the cpu the warranty is already gone. So delidding the chip would be the next best step.
 
Update:

Did some more lapping and cleaned the surfaces up a bit more.

Rotated the backplate so that the cutout in the backplated lined up with the screws on the back of the CPU socket (as pointed out on OCN, and as NOT pointed out in the instructions!)

Used different thermal paste (Arctic Cooling MX-4)

Added some extra fans (Push-Pull on the rad using some Zalman and Xigmatek fans, both have good static pressures although both are running on the lowest settings)

Modified the mounting - the backplate comes "through" the motherboard however it's so thick that even with the standoffs screwed all the way it won't hold fixed. A few washers on the backplate sorted this out and held it nice and steady.



After all this work, I'm now getting load temps of ~65° C on the lowest setting which is a lot better! Still not amazing, though...
 
65c is pretty good tbh, particularly at the clockspeed your running. You could drop temps even further by delidding and using liquid metal paste between the cores and the heatspreader, and below the cpu cooler. Even the latter may help a bit.
 
setter said:
65c is pretty good tbh, particularly at the clockspeed your running. You could drop temps even further by delidding and using liquid metal paste between the cores and the heatspreader, and below the cpu cooler. Even the latter may help a bit.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom