AIO cooler, The right way to power my pump sounds wronger.

I'm running my Ryzen 1700 3.0ghz @ 4.0ghz stable.

I initially set my h100i v2 up on my x370 pro AIO header. (which despite corsairs

page telling me fits in my case, it doesn't ) :|.

Corsair link still worked, I couldn't even notice the noise and running a stress test I got maximum 50c on "CPU Package" temps. With 0 discernible pump noise and 0 discernible fan noise.

I then read the stickied post about the pump needing constant 12v so disabled control and set full power.

The pump immediately became 4x as noisy as the stock CPU cooler :(.

I then booted windows, loaded corsair link set quiet profile and ran the same CPUstress test. All fans immediately went full bore on the radiator, the pump went to max RPM and the thing was almost as noisy as a car engine. The temperature reduction from the completely silent cooling mentioned above? 2c!!!!

Thats it.. 2c, for literally 5x the noise levels.

While I appreciate that the pump must require 12v their is something incredibly poor about this software and firmware that requires that much extra noise for a 2c celcius temperature drop.

My question is, How do I rig this so it runs as well as it did before I did it "the official way" because I'm probably going to replace it at this stage. Why cant I lock the settings to quiet? It appears to ignore them under full load. I find the pump noise much more irritating then the stock cooler fan noise.

In fact quiet is sitll not as quiet when controlling voltage from the AIO header on the motherboard, Probably because "quiet" mode became quieter then corsair link intended.

Theirs no option to control the radiator fans, and the massively increased pump speed and noise provided no discernible performance benefit.

You tell me running the pump less then 12v shortens its life, Doesnt running it at 1000rpm higher then it needs to be to adequately work point to terrible engineering/software/firmware? And potentially a shorter life from the higher RPM?

For $150 I'm happy for the pump to die , as long as I configure proper thermal protections in BIOS.

If I select quiet, let me run it on quiet locked to it, especially if its only 2c hotter...

It sounds like you might be running the fans based off CPU temperature instead of coolant temperature (H100i v2 Temp) in Link. When properly set to coolant temp, the fans only change when the coolant temp changes. The coolant temperature is the effective base CPU temperature. The fans help remove heat from the coolant stream, so you only need fan speed when the coolant temperature rises -- not when the CPU temp spikes up and down and all over the place. The CPU transmits its heat through the lid, TIM, and cold plate. The rate of thermal transfer is more or less physical and no cooler settings will affect it. The difference is the water cooler is like a holding tank. You can absorb a lot more heat before it negatively affects the CPU, unlike an air tower which needs to shed its heat in seconds. Run your fans slow, it doesn't matter and that is the point.

The other trick is the presets in Link cannot adjust themselves for room temperature variance. If you boot up in a 35C room, the coolant is already 35C before the power comes on. This would make the fans run faster than needed, but no matter what they still can't reduce the temp below 35C so you are spinning your wheels for nothing. Boot up in a 17C room and things will be much cooler, about 18C in fact. Nothing new there, the CPU runs hotter in a hot room. However, it does mean you want to make your own custom fan curves and not rely on the Link presets. Those are based on a standard 20-23C room temp and certainly tweaked toward winning a cooler shootout, not for the unique environment of your case. Figure out where your top coolant temp hits, set your comfortable fan speed for just above it, then make a sharp rise a few degrees later. This will give you an auditory warning if things are out the zone. When judging fan speed effectiveness, look at the coolant temp delta. If you start a 29C H100i Temp and it goes up to 33C, the most you can possible reduce the coolant temp is 4C back to 29C. In reality, 100% efficiency is never possible and when it comes to 2000 rpm for a 2C reduction versus 900 for 1C, that is an easy choice. Keep the fan speed down. You do not need it except for long, continuous CPU loads. Also note that you might see larger coolant temp number when combined with a GPU load (renders/gaming) than a straight CPU stress test. The GPU heats up the case, increasing the coolant temp basis as the case temp goes up. 35C case temp = 35C min coolant temp. Nothing you can do about that with the cooler fans. More rear exhaust maybe. Just keep that in mind when setting up a curve.

Set the pump to Quiet and leave it there. Flow rate should not matter for anything but heavy, long duration continuous loads or possibly benchmarking.

A water system is never going to be as quiet a small air cooler. You can't make the fans bigger, use more of them, add in a mechanical pump, then stick a giant screen over them and expect it to be quieter. If absolute quiet is your goal, you need to stick to air towers. The advantage of the water system is a drastically higher capacity to hold heat in any one moment and the ability to directly transport the heat out the case.

Thanks for the advice on the air cooler, Might be time to bin this and stop buying Corsair (seeing as the RMA site is down)

It sounds like you might be running the fans based off CPU temperature instead of coolant temperature (H100i v2 Temp) in Link. When properly set to coolant temp, the fans only change when the coolant temp changes. The coolant temperature is the effective base CPU temperature.

Link gives me no option to choose a metric to adjust performance on for the AIO Pump but I followed your tip and now the fans arent ridiculous. However the fans don't bother me, Its the electric toothbrush sound of the pump and the fact that at 1000 rpm , way lower then quiet goes to it still adequately cools the CPU to < 51c , When it sounds like an electric toothbrush on steroids it manages < 49c. That's ridiculous.

Even quiet mode it sounds like an incredibly irritating buzzing noise. This has to be due to air bubbles, Improper/cheap/cost cutting filling of the unit (cheap pump)

I tried to lodge an RMA but Corsairs support site is broken, When you put in your part number either exactly as per the box or without the hyphen it states "I need to put in the part number" clicking "search for part" doesnt work either.

To make things worse as well as them making it impossible to lodge a support query/RMA, The top of the page states "they are taking longer then usual to respond"

Dont think I'm bashing corsair, My NVME, SSD, Ram, Mouse, Case & AIO are all Corsair and i WAS going to buy the $1500 AUD Corsair/MSI seahawk AIO gtx 1080ti. I'm pretty much over any company who is too lazy or stupid to test a web form before putting it on the production site especially one that handles support issues.

Not to mention them stating this AIO compatible with my case, 400r, Which it isnt. One fan is outside of the case on the top. Doesn't help the noise.

However the fans don't bother me, Its the electric toothbrush sound of the pump and the fact that at 1000 rpm , way lower then quiet goes to it still adequately cools the CPU to < 51c , When it sounds like an electric toothbrush on steroids it manages < 49c. That's ridiculous.

 

Even quiet mode it sounds like an incredibly irritating buzzing noise. This has to be due to air bubbles, Improper/cheap/cost cutting filling of the unit (cheap pump)

This is a common complaint on that model and I look forward to seeing its replacement in the near future. Unfortunately, there is no cure for that buzz. I suspect it is not bubbles. That will bring more of an inconsistent or variable sound. Not all models do this. If it is that loud, I would also try to RMA or return the unit to the purchase vendor, if that is still an option. When you cut power to the pump by reducing the BIOS signal on a DC slider, you are reducing the working voltage on the unit. This will effect both the pump and the fans. If you can't/don't want to exchange the unit and go this course, take the fans off the pump and run them from the board. You can then cut the pump voltage without strain on the internal fan controller. However, from experience I have to warn you this is a slippery slope. You cut the voltage a little and it works for a while. Then the buzz comes back. You cut a little more. It follows. Soon your down at 60% and can't go any lower. This may save a few headaches in the short term, but it is generally not a long term solution.

I don't know what to tell you about the tech support site. I have not used it since the revamp and there are some things still being sorted. Perhaps someone from Corsair can help. If it makes you feel any better, NZXT also just upgraded their help site and I am now waiting 10 days for action from them as well.

However, from experience I have to warn you this is a slippery slope. You cut the voltage a little and it works for a while. Then the buzz comes back. You cut a little more. It follows. Soon your down at 60% and can't go any lower. This may save a few headaches in the short term, but it is generally not a long term solution.

I appreciate the advice, I do have it on full 12v at the moment. Or as I like to call it, "Gnome in my case brushing his teeth"

Can you recommend another brand that actually cares about noise? The obvious one would seem to be "be quiet".

Unfortunately due to Corsairs complete lack of care for support and my support of their business through purchases, Most of my system is now unable to get support if it has issues. It would be great if they paid someone $100 instead of spending $250,000 - (however many millions) marketing products to you tubers and e-sports teams. They've turned into 0 substance %100 marketing. As evidenced by a broken support page that forces internationals to dial an expensive number that states "longer support times then expected"

They've lost about $50,000 revenue from my lifetime of potential purchases as a result. I hope their glad they used an intern to write the web form/ back end API to process it. Huge savings! (no seriously, they must be dropping customers by the thousands by doing this, its unbelievably stupid.)

Which cooler is it?

h100i v2, I used the p/n part number from the box on the web form but the search button was also broken. I'm used to vendors blaming Linux so this was on Chrome in Windows 10. The penguin cant be blamed there.

Miraculously, Although not particularly encouraging that it will last after running on performance mode for a couple of hours quiet mode actually became quiet!

I've heard similar things, that also it becomes noisy again. But for now the electric toothbrush gnome is gone.

Corsair, Please fix your support site so when any of the other parts my "Fan-man" corsair build contains breaks your warranty actually means something. Also, Your not an ISP reselling a wholesale supply of something you cant control. YOU MAKE YOUR PRODUCTS, Theirs no excuse to put a "Support queries are taking longer then normal" caveat on your support page, while I see hundreds of sponsored youtube channels and your e-sports team taking up your time. Support should be number 1 priority!!!

Worked for me just now. Are you getting "ERROR PART NUMBER IS REQUIRED" ? If so, hit the Search Part Number button and then select the part number.

As for marketing vs support, those are 2 entirely different teams with different skill sets. Dunno about you, but I wouldn't want to see a marketing guy do support, or a support guy do marketing.

Fair warning: If you choose to write defamations on the forum again, you'll be banned. We don't tolerate that here.