h80i seems too noisy under load.

system specs:

i7 6700k (running at stock)

Maximus VIII Hero

GeForce 980ti

EVGA SuperNOVA 850 P2 80+ Plat PSU

1tb western digital black

120gb crucial SSD

 

Initially, it was also idling really high. After a few days of use, the 2 fans started idling around 1100 & 1400 RPM on Quiet Mode (note: I can't adjust one of the fans speed modes for some reason).

 

Now, it seems under any kind of gaming load I give it, the RPMs boost up to a constant 2700-2800 RPM. It doesn't matter if I have the graphics on Ultra, or the lowest possible settings. So far, I have tried Heroes of the Storm, Diablo 3, H1Z1, Gauntlet, Worms/Worms Armageddon, and other assorted games that shouldn't be very taxing on the system.

 

I am about to start playing Black Desert, and I would like to stream, but I can't imagine running both the game and the streaming software when the fans are already maxing themselves out on these lower load games.

 

Maybe it's normal for the fans to do that? This is my first liquid cooler, so I am not very familiar with them. It just seems like long sessions of the fan running that hard isn't very good for the cooler itself.

 

The temps usually run pretty fine, idle its sitting at 26c, and any of the games listed above, I havent seen it hit over 50 yet, and that was on h1z1.

 

Could anyone give any advice on the subject? Thanks!

What group are the fans set to? If its not grouped or it's grouped to something not related to the coolant temp, i would suggest you change it back to the H80i Temp.

The temps usually run pretty fine, idle its sitting at 26c, and any of the games listed above, I haven't seen it hit over 50 yet, and that was on h1z1.

 

Are those CPU temps? While the fans are running high, what kind of H80i Temperatures (water temp) does LINK show? Or was that the 26-50C range you gave?

 

Is the H80i mounted in the rear exhaust above the 980Ti?

What group are the fans set to? If its not grouped or it's grouped to something not related to the coolant temp, i would suggest you change it back to the H80i Temp.

 

I actually didn't understand what the grouping feature is, as such I left it at default, no changes. I will adjust grouping when I get home to see if I notice a difference. Would this actually affect the fans??

 

Are those CPU temps? While the fans are running high, what kind of H80i Temperatures (water temp) does LINK show? Or was that the 26-50C range you gave?

 

Is the H80i mounted in the rear exhaust above the 980Ti?

 

Those were the CPU temps (25 being low load, and usually around 40 while gaming, I've seen it hit 50 while cranked out gfx on h1z1). I didn't think to post the h80i temps, but I'll get that posted when I get home.

 

 

Yeah, my case is the HAF912, psu at the bottom, 980ti about the middle, and the cooler mounted to the top rear, te radiator is placed higher than the gpu and CPU

In their default status, the fans on the H80 will change speed based on water temperature (H80i Temp or H80iGT Cooler Temp). What I am wondering is if the Ti and all the heat that comes with it is bumping up your water temps while the GPU is under moderate to high load. The fans will hit 100% somewhere around 40C water temp. There are options for dealing with that, but first make sure it isn't something simple like linking the wrong variable to the Group, as suggested above.

Got ya! Makes sense. Alright, once I get home I'll do the grouping, and run a few tests before coming back with the temps and what not.

 

I appreciate assistance

Hmm.. Okay, maybe it does have something to do with grouping?

 

http://i.imgur.com/PJr2edz.png

 

The one that reads "ASUSTeK Motherboard CPU Fan" is definitely one of the fans attached to the h80i. I know this, because when I adjust the mode on "H80iGT Cooler Fan" both fans will adjust together.

 

Sooo, in anycase, my options for "Move to Group" on the ASUSTeK fan :

 

http://i.imgur.com/1OCT1Yt.png

 

I am going out on a limb, and saying I did something wrong here. But what?

The only fan and group you have to worry about is the H80iGT Cooler fan. It needs to be in the H80iGT Cooler Temp group. You can put the pump in there as well. You can also do this from the Groups Tab in the top left. All the other fans are monitor only. You cannot control them from LINK. Use AI Suite or BIOS for that.

 

Looks like your case ambient temperature is around 29-31C. I am assuming this is at desktop with no other high resource programs running. It wouldn't be to hard to get to 40C and 100% fan within 30 minutes of gaming.

Yeah, I guess the grouping is okay then. And you are correct, that was very minimal load. I think I had vlc media player and chrome open.

 

I guess I am still concerned here though.. I was under the impression one picks up liquid cooling if they are looking to over clock their machine. If the cooler is running at 100% capacity while playing a light game like heroes of the storm, with stock PC settings, and not utilizing the highest graphics, how on earth am I able to overclock the machine, or play a game that will be gpu/CPU intensive?

 

I've only seen positive things about the h80i, so I have to assume the problem is either somethig I've done, or a faulty device.

 

After spending so much money on all the parts listed above, I definitely didn't think the cooling unit would be the biggest issue I experience ><

 

I did install Ai Suite 3 and will try to slowly adjust the fan there, if possible once I am home.

You are equating the high fan speed to some sort of error, when it fact is is doing what it is supposed to do -- keep your CPU cool. You haven't broken 50C on your peak core temps and usually lower. Those are good numbers, especially considering the additional heat being put into the case from the 980 Ti. And that I'm afraid is the cause of your fan speed, not the CPU.

 

I'd like to see some gaming water temperatures (H80i GT Cooler Temp) to be sure, but when you game and the monster Ti starts putting out an enormous amount of heat, you are raising the temperature of everything around it. This includes the water inside the radiator right above it. This is a common issue with the Ti. You can compare the water temperature to your drive and motherboard temps to see how much higher the water is than the rest of the case when at play. Either way, the H80 can't distinguish CPU heat from environmental heat and speeds up the fans to cool the water. That is the fans' job - remove heat from the water. The water will remove the heat from the CPU and it doesn't require the fans to do that.

 

Even though the CPU temps are good, I imagine the real complaint is the fans are too loud. There are two ways you can address this.

 

1) If you have some top exhaust fans in your case, speed them up. Hopefully, this moves a little more GPU waste heat out the top, instead of the radiator. Additionally, you will need to modify the water temperature to fan speed in Corsair Link. I can't say for certain without some water temp data, but my estimate is you need to move the whole curve up +5C. This should slow the fans down in most circumstances. The trade-off in CPU temps should be slight, if anything. Very high fans speeds have diminishing returns in water cooling.

 

2) With limited other exhaust possibilities or simply as an alternative preference, the second thing you can do is set a fixed fan speed in LINK. Pick something you can stand while gaming, set that speed as "fixed" in LINK, and then save it as a profile. When you are ready to start gaming, load the profile. When done, put it back on Quiet mode. You are still going to get efficient CPU cooling. I used this for several years on a H80i and i930 overclocked right to the edge. I never came anywhere close to the 80C mark. In fact, my CPU only stress test number were in the low top mid 50's. Gaming always produced higher numbers than Prime 95 because of the highly overclocked GPU's and limited exhaust. This is likely going to be true for you as well.

 

If your Ti is one of the "zero fan" models, override that when gaming using Afterburner, EVGA Precision, Asus Tweak (whatever). While possibly useful at the desktop, it is not beneficial when gaming. Even a paltry 15 or 20% fan speed will reduce your Ti VRM temps considerably and also move some of the heat straight out the back, bypassing the radiator. If you wondering if you made a mistake with this, don't -- you would be in the same position with an air tower. The Ti would be dumping it's heat right into the cage.

You are right in that regard. Definitely equating the fan speed to the overall issue. I'll hop on h1z1 tonight, get some better temp numbers and post that up.

 

The underlying issue is definitely the noise, however; if that's just how it is, and it's not at risk of blowing up or something, I can probably deal with that. The fans being loud just scare the crap out of me, it sounds like a jet engine lol(over exaggeration).

 

I was also considering the water cooling addition for the 980ti (using an evga sc+)

 

I also have room for the exhaust fan, I just needed to order one. Any suggestions? I believe my 912 can fit a 120mm on the top , with a small modification.

 

I am typing this on my phone, so any left out details, I'll get those posted tonight once I do some testing with h1zq.

 

 

Again, thanks for the assistance here!

OK, it sounds like option 2 is the best for the time being. I don't think a single 120mm in the roof will be able to make too much of a difference, but that can be an alternate plan.

 

If you are not using AI Suite and don't need it's fan controls, don't install it. It may or may not conflict with LINK, but either way if you don't have a need for it, there is no reason to have it sucking up resources.

http://i.imgur.com/DXf0QY1.png

This was 10 minutes into a match of Overwatch with the settings set to "Epic"

 

http://i.imgur.com/tEYty34.jpg

This was after the game had ended

 

http://i.imgur.com/FaQith3.png

This was during game play, after the match had ended GPU info

 

http://i.imgur.com/n4cw9iP.jpg

And this was when I closed the game.

 

I havent messed with the fixed speed yet. When I set a fixed speed earlier, it looks like it defaulted back to 0.

Well good news and bad news. The good news is the cooler is working and everything looks to be in order. The high fans speeds are in accordance with the elevated water temperature.

 

The bad news is it looks like you are already in quiet mode. That is capping your fan speed at a ~1440 --- about 1000 rpm below max. If you put it in performance or balanced mode, it will get much louder, like at the 100% fan start up test when you power on. If the 1440 is too loud, than it may be time to talk about other fan options. Besides a change on the radiator, it looks like a 200mm top fan may fit. Do you have anything in the side door right now? Rather than use it as intake, it may work better as exhaust to move some heat out the side.

Would you look at that. I can actually replace my two front fans (I just tossed them in there cause I had them) I don't think they are particularly good, and I don't think they go past 1k rpm lol. It looks like a 200mm fan will also fit in the top, above the radiator.

 

As for the side case, I have a solid door with no attachments (smooth flat surface) I think if I were to put a fan here, I woul need to replace the actual door (wouldn't be an issue).

 

Are there any particular fans you would suggest? While I am semi-tech savvy; I've never really thought too much into the fans. I don't know why some are adjustable, while others only run at stock. It'd be nice to have adjustable speed fans for both front and top.

 

I'd like to also point out; I'm not so concerned about noise (it's inconvenient, but I don't hear it unless headphones are off) while id prefer it to run quietly, if the fans are just loud by nature, and they aren't actually about to blow up, I am gravy. Lol.

 

On topic of some fan additions, the reason I haven't put the top 120mm on is cause I don't have the long black screws. Any idea what those are specifically called ? Ha

Oh yes, and for the front -- would you suggest a single 200, or some nicer dual 120s?

Well, I ended up snagging 2 200mm phanteks. Looks like the only other option was cooler master megaflows. Both had the same specs. Then I snagged a dual pack of corsair 120mm high static airflow.

 

I was thinking about 1 200mm front, 1 200mm top, and 1 120mm side. Alternatively, 2 120mm front, 1 120mm side and 1 200mm top.

 

I'm sure it will be a trial and error to see what's best, if you have a suggestion for preferred setup, I'd definitely love to hear it though :)

Sorry, I am not sure how I missed the reply. Perhaps I pulled up the wrong model case for you. I thought there was a opening on the side door for a 120 or 140mm fan.

 

You have several options now. The 200mm in the roof should be exhaust. 200mm fans are great. They spin slowly and still move a lot of air.

 

Obviously the front fans should be intake. I didn't realize a 200mm was possible. It may not be necessary. Whether it is the 200 or 2x120m, it should be intake.

 

Now to the choice:

 

a) H80i as exhaust. Side fan as intake. This is the more traditional flow pattern with clear intake and exhaust. Blowing air onto the GPU won't really cool the GPU VRM temperature, but it will help move the radiant heat out of the system. This should result in lower overall case temperatures (and water temp). The downside is you are still exhausting warm air through the H80i. However, you have a ton of CPU temp headroom and most people use their H80i are exhaust without issue.

 

b) Turn the H80i fans around to bring air into the case. Using external air may bring your CPU temps down 2-4C (not meaningful when you are at 40-50C) and then the waste heat is immediately exhausted out the top. Turn the side door fan as exhaust. You want to use this fan to evacuate some of the GPU heat directly out and keeping water and case temps down. This set-up may not work well if you need to push the case back against a wall. In that scenario, the intake air for the H80i won't be any cooler than the case air. Best to give it at least 6 inches of space from the wall, regardless of H80i fan direction.

 

Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing which set-up will work best. This is theoretical and sometimes you get surprised. Pick one and try it. It works out, great. If you're curious, change it up.

Haha. Is no problem at all. I appreciate your time!

 

Yeah I figure from here I'll just need to test to see what works best. I'll give a few things a whirl and see what helps.