Faulty H100i v2 Cooler?

After many years of dissatisfaction with my temperatures and overclocking performance I recently decided to re-position my Corsair H100i v2 AIO radiator/fans as front intake, moving the existing intake fan to a top exhaust.

I did not reseat the cooler, but just moving it had a dramatic impact giving me temps of low 20s idle and 60s under full load, but it seems to work well one day and then reverts to performing poorly on another day without me having changed anything / moved the PC. As I am in the UK I do not believe room temperatures are a factor.

I am currently using adaptive voltage of 1.28+, LLC level 5, everything else auto or unchanged. I have tried various combinations of BIOS, voltage, fan speed etc and often see temperatures of from 30 to 60 under slight load and going above 90 under load. I have tried lowering clock speeds to 40 in the past but the temperatures have still been excessive based on what I have seen is typical for such a configuration.

The cooler seems to be running according to Corsair link, there is no audible sounds beyond the fans, one pipe is often warm the other is cool.

Attached are pictures showing Corsair link with hot temperatures at boot, more settled temperatures 10 minutes after boot, and another showing low temperatures on a different day when it appeared to be operating well.

Specs:

Intel 6700k

Corsair H100i v2 AIO water cooler now configured as front intake

ASUS ROG Maximus Ranger VIII, bios 3703

Fractal R5 with original front and rear exhausts

Corsair RM 850x PSU

Gigabyte 2060 OC Pro

Corsair CMK16GX4M2B3000C15 Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3000MHz C15 XMP 2.0 High Performance Desktop Memory Kit (running at 2133Mhz)

Most components were bought in 2016, except the graphics card and RAM (1 year old).

Another problem I have is with XMP although I am happy to leave this disabled but would be keep to establish if the RAM is OK. Since I upgraded from 8gb to 16gb of the same Corsair 3000 LPX memory, this resulted in an immediate temperature increase and after restart/resume from sleep I get code 00 on the mobo and need to press the CMOS reset button to get it to POST at all. I also tried the motherboards MemOK button at this point which is supposed to tune the timings I believe, but this had no noticeable affect.

The cooler seems to be running according to Corsair link, there is no audible sounds beyond the fans, one pipe is often warm the other is cool.

This is usually a warning sign since the the max difference between the two tubes should be about 2C, a near imperceptible difference to touch. The next time you notice this, try and get a H100i v2 Temp (coolant temperature) reading from Link. Then cycle the pump to the higher speed and see what happens. I can't tell anything from the screen shots. While your room temperature may be generally the same each day, each +1C of ambient equals +1C of coolant temp. The range in your pictures is 26-32C, so we are talking about fine margins. If the cooler was truly blocked, you would be well above 40C and possibly 50C as well. That is another warning sign. Normally idle is about +4-7C above the room temp. If you start seeing idle coolant temps in the mid 30s or it takes 20-60 minutes to get rid of its heat after a load.

Your memory issue is something else entirely. You are not suppose to mix kits and that includes items with the same part number. They are sold as matching sets for a reason and mixing them will usually force you to tune thing by hand, if it is even possible. 3000 was always a wacky speed for the Z170 boards anyway, so this is not too surprising. Try setting manual primary timings and start with 2666. You did not list you kit specs, so I can't give you a starting point.

Can you check to make sure that the pump is powered properly? See section B of the Liquid Cooler FAQ in my sig.

Hi there,

I am fairly sure the power is as it should be. I have disabled Q-FAN control in my ASUS bios and set the CPU_FAN to 100% with PWM.

I set the H100i v2 Pump to Performance mode and it seems to range between 2940 and 3060rpm.

This is usually a warning sign since the the max difference between the two tubes should be about 2C, a near imperceptible difference to touch. The next time you notice this, try and get a H100i v2 Temp (coolant temperature) reading from Link. Then cycle the pump to the higher speed and see what happens. I can't tell anything from the screen shots. While your room temperature may be generally the same each day, each +1C of ambient equals +1C of coolant temp. The range in your pictures is 26-32C, so we are talking about fine margins. If the cooler was truly blocked, you would be well above 40C and possibly 50C as well. That is another warning sign. Normally idle is about +4-7C above the room temp. If you start seeing idle coolant temps in the mid 30s or it takes 20-60 minutes to get rid of its heat after a load.

 

 

Your memory issue is something else entirely. You are not suppose to mix kits and that includes items with the same part number. They are sold as matching sets for a reason and mixing them will usually force you to tune thing by hand, if it is even possible. 3000 was always a wacky speed for the Z170 boards anyway, so this is not too surprising. Try setting manual primary timings and start with 2666. You did not list you kit specs, so I can't give you a starting point.

Hi,

I will come back with some more details on the coolant temperatures.

On the memory front, I should have been clearer. I swapped 2x4gb for a 2x8gb kit. The new one is:

Corsair CMK16GX4M2B3000C15 Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4 3000 MHz C15 XMP 2.0 High Performance Desktop Memory Kit, Black

I may try to manual set the timings at some point but I will leave at 2133 until I have the CPU temps in control I think.

Here is a sample of Corsair Link logs showing RealBench Handbrake encode running from 3:27:19pm. The package temperature gradually rises to 79 before the short test finishes and the temperatures lower again. I will provide another upload after a period of prolonged heavy usage.

http://www.sharecsv.com/s/35309bf2564cbe4cb13df93ad72ca3e0/Corsair_Link_20190415_15_24_19.csv

Here is a link after moderate load (~50% CPU usage), my H100i v2 Temp rises to 45 and CPU is 76 degrees at this time, does this suggest a problem?

http://www.sharecsv.com/s/c8d2b89a82e6dced987a9834fcd5b542/CL.csv

Hard to say if that's indicative of a problem. First, your fan speeds are still low for that temp, so the radiator may not dissipate heat efficiently. Second, we don't know the ambient temperature. Third, we need to get a better idea of case and airflow configuration as well as the internal case temperature.

You seem to be trying to look at the cooler in isolation. You can't do that. It's a part of a full system and environment.

In particular note the room temps, as mentioned above. Your two runs have a 10C coolant differential. In equal conditions, that would be alarming. However, changes in room temperature combined with length of time in use (more case temp) can certainly reach that level.

A classic warning sign is the cooler won't shed heat after the the load stops. Looking at the afternoon run, it appears the cooler is able to shed the heat, dropping 2C in the first 90 seconds after the load stops, then a few more degrees over the next several minutes. The evening run is not as clear cut. This could be because something change with the cooler or it could be the case is hot and it can't drop below the local ambient. The original complaint was erratic behavior, but make you sure you compare or otherwise account for changes in local temperature.

Is it making strange noises? Gurgling, static pops, etc?

Hello,

I have continued to try and reduce the temperatures to no avail. I have applied new Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut and connected the fan to the dedicated water pump (runs 100%) header on my motherboard but neither has had a noticeable impact.

Attached is typical temperatures I am seeing on boot which seems abnormal at around 80/90, room temperature is low 20s.

Would some info on the airflow/pictures of case be useful for someone to advise? I am not sure these are the problem as the internal air temperature should be room at start so wouldn't explain the above?

Hot from boot.txt

Hot from boot 2.txt

Yes, info on the airflow and the case would be helpful. One would think that the internal air temp would be close to room temp at start but I can think of circumstances where that might not be completely accurate.

Taking a look at one of the CSV files you provided ...

- Voltage are a little high (above stock) but not absurdly so. Higher temps are directly associated with higher vCPU.

- Coolant temps rise and fall pretty quickly, settling in the mid 30's.

- CPU Package settles down as well, into the upper 30's to low 40's.

- Overall temps seem a little higher than I'd expect but not absurdly so. There may be a partial blockage but the data isn't conclusive at this point.

- Do you know what the motherboard temps are? While some are clear, others - not so much. Having temp sensors that you can control placement of is super-helpful in this kind of analysis.

Take a look at the chart below. I've added a moving average to the CPU Package temp as those are just inherently jumpy.