Purchased 3080 Ti - decided to go back to Air cooling whole rig

[xPETEZx]

Im surprised to hear people coming from a custom loop saying its QUIETER going back to air?
I always thought one of the big draws of a custom loop was extremely quiet operation?

I value silence highly, and went full air this time. At first, the fans on my GPU where so loud I seriously considered going custom loop just for some quiet.
Then I re-padded the card / UV'ed .... fan noise much better. But the coil-whine is now loudest and most irritating part.
Which put to bed the custom loop idea.... no point making things even quieter if the coil whine is just going to fill the void!

 

[PurePickage]

My 3090 was 75c on air, now 45c on water and my 3090 had one of the best air coolers on the market (3090 Strix) and that's just the core temp, my memory temp dropped even more - memory temp was up to 108c on air, now 70c on water

Wow that is some crazy temp changes

 

[PurePickage]

Jesus that's insane, soo much smaller! I went from a NZXT Phantom 820 I bought from here in 2011 to a 280x as I wanted to downsize but still wanted to use my AX1200 psu. I feel like its tiny as it is.
Quick question, how did you go about removing the front glass? Also it looks as if your top half is spaced out? Any info if this helps with temps or anything, cheers!

The front glass take 15 mins or so and is done by unclipping the whole front and there is an inner metal frame which you remove and the glass is held in in between the front plastic panel and the metal frame. I’ll make more sense one you start removing the screws.

The top panel I used M10 10mm nylon spacers from eBay

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/401879787794

I also used some rubber feet to raise the whole case up about 10mm’s aswell

More air in through the front without the glass, more air through the bottom rad now it sits higher and more air can be vented through the top.

 

[PurePickage]

Im surprised to hear people coming from a custom loop saying its QUIETER going back to air?
I always thought one of the big draws of a custom loop was extremely quiet operation?

I value silence highly, and went full air this time. At first, the fans on my GPU where so loud I seriously considered going custom loop just for some quiet.
Then I re-padded the card / UV'ed .... fan noise much better. But the coil-whine is now loudest and most irritating part.
Which put to bed the custom loop idea.... no point making things even quieter if the coil whine is just going to fill the void!

What card have you got? Have you tried undervolting to limit the clocks. My 3090 is silent under air but with a waterblock it would have coil whine around 1935mhz

 

[CvrPaddyCvr]

The front glass take 15 mins or so and is done by unclipping the whole front and there is an inner metal frame which you remove and the glass is held in in between the front plastic panel and the metal frame. I’ll make more sense one you start removing the screws.

The top panel I used M10 10mm nylon spacers from eBay

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/401879787794

I also used some rubber feet to raise the whole case up about 10mm’s aswell

More air in through the front without the glass, more air through the bottom rad now it sits higher and more air can be vented through the top.

Absolute gentlemen! Thank you! Literally going to try and do everything you said

 

[PurePickage]

Absolute gentlemen! Thank you! Literally going to try and do everything you said

No worries mate, any other questions feel free to DM me or pop up a project log and I’ll be happy to help

 

[tyler_jrb]

I would agree the difference between air and water these days is pretty minimal.

I only really do it for the hobby of custom loop. I’ve never had one leak over the last several years and 10 or so custom loop systems, so I trust it completely and well definitely more than any AIO.

Have always been tempted by a full air cooled rig though they can look super neat and be just as quiet.

When I had the pc on the desk the radiator fans I had setup so they were switched off at idle and the pump under the midplate at an inaudible rpm, whereas some fan cooled GPU’s and cpu coolers don’t have such a feature if you are in search of silence. All pros and cons I guess.

 

[xPETEZx]

What card have you got? Have you tried undervolting to limit the clocks. My 3090 is silent under air but with a waterblock it would have coil whine around 1935mhz

I have the 3090 FE. Undervolted to 1815 @ 850mv, which did improve the coil whine, but its not gone.
I hoped it would get better over time, but after 2 months of gaming its no better.

 

[Grim5]

Im surprised to hear people coming from a custom loop saying its QUIETER going back to air?
I always thought one of the big draws of a custom loop was extremely quiet operation

Yep doesn't make too much sense unless the loop is undersized which is very possible - everyone wants an itx case these days and then complains when it's noisey.

Basically if your loop is undersized for quiet then the fans have to run loud - the old adage that a loo is quiet requires you to have lots of radiators, but in 2021 everyone wants to build their own custom loop without understanding the principles.

Having done air cooling for over 10 years and then switched to water I noticed a huge difference- water is way quieter, the pump is very quiet and the fans can't be heard - but this is because I understood the principles of watercooling, I did my homework and knew how much radiators I'd need to achieve my goals

 

[PurePickage]

I have the 3090 FE. Undervolted to 1815 @ 850mv, which did improve the coil whine, but its not gone.
I hoped it would get better over time, but after 2 months of gaming its no better.

Pretty much the same undervolt as I was running on mine when water cooled. 1835 @ 825mv. That made it run cooler and eliminated the coil whine

 

[xPETEZx]

Pretty much the same undervolt as I was running on mine when water cooled. 1835 @ 825mv. That made it run cooler and eliminated the coil whine

Just tried to go to 1835 @ 825mv, Metro Exodus crashed after just 5 minutes. Coil whine was ever so slightly quieter though. Not fully gone, but touch less.
Might try see what frequency I can stay stable at 825mv.

Are you adjusting anything else? Like power or temp limit?

 

[PurePickage]

Just tried to go to 1835 @ 825mv, Metro Exodus crashed after just 5 minutes. Coil whine was ever so slightly quieter though. Not fully gone, but touch less.
Might try see what frequency I can stay stable at 825mv.

Are you adjusting anything else? Like power or temp limit?

Nope not adjusting anything else. I tried 1800mhz at 825 first and then raised it by 10mhz until 100% stable then knocked it back 10mhz to be on the safe side

 

[xPETEZx]

Nope not adjusting anything else. I tried 1800mhz at 825 first and then raised it by 10mhz until 100% stable then knocked it back 10mhz to be on the safe side

What did you use to establish "100% stability" ?

I got kinda fed up messing with the UV after I thought mine was 100% at 1850@850. (3dmark stress test 20 loops / heaven for 1hr / superposition / PureRayTracing 45m loop) Then crashed mid heist on GTA V!

 

[Wrinkly]

What did you use to establish "100% stability" ?

I got kinda fed up messing with the UV after I thought mine was 100% at 1850@850. (3dmark stress test 20 loops / heaven for 1hr / superposition / PureRayTracing 45m loop) Then crashed mid heist on GTA V!

I've found a maxed out CP2077 to be the best way to test an undervolt where my 3080 will do 1920 @ 900mV. Other titles were able to run at over 2GHz.

 

[heatonpkmassive]

Prefer a fat air cooler myself.

 

[xPETEZx]

I've found a maxed out CP2077 to be the best way to test an undervolt where my 3080 will do 1920 @ 900mV. Other titles were able to run at over 2GHz.

I dont have CP2077 yet
For now... Ill use Metro Enhanced. That seems about as taxing as they come. Especially as its using RT & DLSS. Coil-whine is worst in it too... if that indicates anything.

Prefer a fat air cooler myself.

You and me both. Love my Dark Rock 4 Pro.
I like the look of a big tower cooler too. Makes the case seem "filled out". Not keen on some of the larger cases because components tend to look so lost in them. Tower cooler helps!

 

[PurePickage]

What did you use to establish "100% stability" ?

I got kinda fed up messing with the UV after I thought mine was 100% at 1850@850. (3dmark stress test 20 loops / heaven for 1hr / superposition / PureRayTracing 45m loop) Then crashed mid heist on GTA V!

Play the games I play for an hour or two. If it doesn’t crash then jobs a gooden

 

[Grim5]

I dont have CP2077 yet
For now... Ill use Metro Enhanced. That seems about as taxing as they come. Especially as its using RT & DLSS. Coil-whine is worst in it too... if that indicates anything.

You and me both. Love my Dark Rock 4 Pro.
I like the look of a big tower cooler too. Makes the case seem "filled out". Not keen on some of the larger cases because components tend to look so lost in them. Tower cooler helps!

Water cooling does the same thing, quickly turns a full tower into Full instead of empty, air coolers don't help much - see all the funny pictures of O11 XL cases with air cooling lol it's like a 5ft size 6 girls driving in a humvee

 

[Grim5]

Play the games I play for an hour or two. If it doesn’t crash then jobs a gooden

depends on the game, with gpu overclocks it's tricky - it can be rock solid in one game then. Crash in the next one

 

[heatonpkmassive]

You and me both. Love my Dark Rock 4 Pro.
I like the look of a big tower cooler too. Makes the case seem "filled out". Not keen on some of the larger cases because components tend to look so lost in them. Tower cooler helps!

It's such a good cooler. And with that and the 9 PWM fans all running at low revs when idle and kicking up a little bit when loaded, this CPU runs at about 60C when gaming and 70C at full Cinebench load. Graphics card runs at 70C gaming load. It's a super silent system, probably quieter than a lot of water cooling solutions. I get why people like water, I might have done myself in my younger days.

But silent air cooling and no risk of leaks is where I'm at nowadays.