H100i v2/Maximus IX Hero/Obisidian 750D

I am building a computer right now and I have everything installed inside my tower, including the h100i v2. When I boot up and go into bios, the cpu temperature starts rising, steadily until it hits 89 degrees and stops. It fluctuates between 88 and 89 celsius. When I restart the computer, I get an error that the cpu overheated. All fans are working inside the case. The two on the radiator itself are spinning. As the cpu temperature increases, I can hear the fans on the radiator spin faster. I do not hear anything from the block. No water flow. I place my hand on the hoses to feel for vibration and I can't tell if it is from the fans spinning so fast or if the water is flowing through. If it were the water, my cpu temperature would not be that high.

 

So let's talk about my connections I have made. The obsidian series 750d has two usb 3.0 ports on the front. As well as two usb 2.0 ports, too. This bundled set of cables are all plugged into the motherboard. I don't know if this is related to the overheating issue or not, but the Corsair Link cable has nowhere to plug in on this motherboard. I do not have any other usb header that will fit a 9 pin connector. That header is being used by the usb 2.0 on the front io panel. At the top of the motherboard, I see AIO pump, CPU opt, and CPU Fan....I am assuming this is where the h100i v2 hooks up at. The only problem with that is, I cannot plug the Corsair Link cable into any of those either. The plug and the pins do not match any of it. How I have it hooked up now.....the 3 pin connector coming out of the side of the water block on the cpu is plugged into the aio pump spot. Doing this at least gives it power. The two fans on the radiator are plugged into cpu opt and cpu fan. I don't know what to do with the splitter cable. Inside bios, it doesn't even detect the actual pump. But it does detect the fans on the radiator. I have removed the water block on the cpu and reapplied the thermal paste 3 separate times now. I have made sure the backplate is not moving. I have made sure not to overtighten the thumb screws on the water block and only finger tightened to a snug position. After doing all of this, I am still getting these high temperature readings. Can someone please tell me how to hook this h100i v2 cooler up to my motherboard properly? Please take into consideration of my motherboard and the case itself, too. It could be a faulty pump as well.....

 

Also, I wanted to say, I do not have anything installed on the 500gb ssd. As I said, I am building this pc from scratch. I can't access the corsair software.

 

Corsair Obsidian 750d Air Flow Edition

Asus ROG Maximus IX Hero LGA 1151

Intel i5 7600k LGA 1151

Corsair H100i v2 cpu cooler

Usually if you can watch the CPU temps climb right in front of you (45-50-55-60-65...etc), you are looking at a severe flow problem. Most often that is a failed pump or less commonly an extreme blockage of some type. If you have a contact problem between the CPU and cold plate (bad bracket, bad TIM, too loose, etc.) the CPU temps will instantly hit 80-90C and then drop when the voltage steps down. You do not see a progressive rise in CPU temp and if appears more jagged, jumpy, or erratic in nature.

 

For your situation, you set the cooler up right. The USB cable enables the cooler and motherboard to exchange information, but it is not required for the cooler to function. It is highly desirable if you are going to use the pump's built in fan controller for the radiator fans. That is what the splitter was for. However, without the USB, I would not choose this option and you would have no control over the fans. It would still work, but I am not one to give up control. Your arrangement of the H100i v2 lead to the AIO header (constant 12v) and the radiator fans to CPU and it's copycat OPT was correct. You will be limited to using CPU temp as the control variable, but that is a workable arrangement. The H100i v2 needs a constant 12v at the pump and most certainly when it is also powering a pair of fans. The AIO header automatically defaults to this "Full Speed" or Disabled 100% setting, but make sure it did not get changed.

 

Everything you have described suggests pump failure (or similar). Do you have lights at the pump? If you put two fingers on it, can you feel a little vibration? No pump is undetectable so if you can't feel it or hear it, it almost certainly is not running. You can also try moving it to another motherboard header to be thorough. Make sure you set the CHA_FAN header (or wherever) to Full Speed or 100% in the Q-Fan BIOS.

 

Link is not required to make these coolers work, but does offer the option of regulating by coolant temperature. That is the most efficient variable. It is also necessary for changing the LED colors, patterns, etc. There are other ways to get a free USB 2.0 header, most often with a splitter or USB junction box. This 1 x 2.0 header on a board thing is almost standard now, while the number of devices that plug into USB 3.0 remain low.

I saw the same behavior from when my pump failed; it does sound like you have a failed pump. It was also impossible to boot to Windows as it would have a BSOD right off the bat ... when the BIOS didn't give an immediate temperature warning.

For connection, I've had mine plugged in to the AIO Pump Header (works) and the CPU Header (also works). If you plug into the CPU Fan Header, you need to go into the BIOS and set to PWM Mode or DC Mode 100% or Disable Fan Control. To do this, you'll need to go into Advanced mode in the BIOS, select "Monitor" and look for CPU Q-Fan Control and set that to Disabled. (This is the default for the AIO Pump header.) What that actually does is disable fan speed control for the CPU Fan Header and it provides the constant 12V to the header; it does not disable the header. (See this photo from my Maximus IX BIOS).

Regardless of where you have the pump connected, you should get an RPM reading that you can see in your BIOS. This will be ~pump RPM / 2. So if you see the AIO Pump RPM at 0, it's not reporting any RPMs ... which would mean that the pump is definitely bad. Also, how warm do the hoses feel? Is one significantly warmer than the other?

For the USB Connection, you can take a mini USB cable and plug that into the pump header, route it outside your case, and then plug the USB cable into one of the USB ports on the back of the motherboard. If you look at the wires on the Link cable, it's only using a single USB port, not two. Link is none the wiser. I can verify that this works; it's exactly how mine is set up because I wanted my front panel USB ports too. For the routing, I used the holes with rubber grommets for external liquid cooling that my case has; I don't know if your case has that same option without resorting to a drill; the photos don't seem to indicate that's the case.

You can also use the NZXT IU01 or the NZXT AC-IUSBH-M1 Internal USB Hub, they both connect to one of your motherboard headers and provide 3 internal and 2 external usb headers. I have used both with no problems.