High Liquid Temperatures for H100i v2

It's rolling around to summer here down-under (Australia) and with ambient temperatures rising, I'm just starting to get concerned with the liquid temperatures. Currently with an ambient of about 28C my H100i v2's liquid temperature is hovering around the 43C mark on computer idle/light usage mode. It regularly goes into the 50C territory when under load (games, video transcoding etc). CPU temperatures seems ok, 40-50C during normal use (it's a Ryzen 2700X) and up to 80+C on heavy load. Is a liquid temperature of 50C something to be concerned about? Pump is set to extreme and is running at around 2800rpm according to iCue.

While the hardware itself (tubes, components, etc.) are not going to fail at 50C, that temp is pretty much out of bounds and effectively puts end CPU temps into the red zone anytime you are at load. It is too high for your environment. See some of the potential factors in this concurrent discussion of someone else's H100i v2.

 

Normal expected coolant idle temp is +4-7C above yoru ambient, with both CPU type and case layout being prime factors. If it is suddenly twice what it used to be, that does suggest a problem. Obviously if you entire case is at 40-something Celsius, then the radiator will be as well. You can rule that out by comparing it to other interior temps, like the motherboard or drives. If the motherboard temp says 28C and the coolant is 43C, something else is going on. Also make sure the radiator isn't blocked. A tight dust filter or an actual layer of dust itself can negatively affect temps. A light coating of dust won't reach these levels. It would have to a carpet.

 

If all those can be ruled out, you are probably looking at one of the more common maladies on that unit --- the partially restricted flow. Anit-corrosives + sealant mix together and turn into a gummy mess, blocking the pump strainer. There is no real solution for this and you will need to replace the unit --- if true. Other symptoms include one hot and one cold hose or cool radiator exhaust. At 43C coolant temp, your exhaust temp will also be 43C. That is noticeable and so is its absence. As short term, completely unscientific solution is to take the unit out and shake it. Usually the pump head needs to come off as well and that is the most likely place for a blockage. No guarantees on this and ultimately it does not change the outcome -- the material is still in the cooler and it will get clogged again. However, this may buy you some more time as a temporary measure.

Hmm it looks like it is quite warm in the case according to the iCue dashboard? Motherboard temps are looking to be in the 40C - 45C range so a liquid temperature of 45C seems to be in line with that? Just from a visual inspection of the radiator and surrounding it seems to be pretty clear of dust. My setup consists of a 570X with 3x intakes with the CPU AiO set as top exhaust and the GPU AiO as back exhaust.

 

 

So I just checked my partners machine which has got an NZXT Kraken X62 and there the coolant temperature is 43.8C so it looks like while it is quite warm, it's just the nature of things I guess.

Unfortunately, iCUE is borderline worthless for checking motherboard derived temp values on most boards. It consistently kicks out too many garbage values. Quit both the iCUE application and the two Corsair services in the task manager. Then open something like HWiNFO or HWMonitor to see more reliable data. My Summer room temp also hits 28C every afternoon when baking in the sun. While that puts my idle coolant temp at 32C, I have never broken 37-38C when at continuous load. An idle coolant temp in the 40s with no additional GPU load needs to be checked out.

I notice that your 1080Ti is at 38C and the fan is going. So you have a custom fan curve on that, right? To keep it cool at the time? Well ... that's a hot GPU and when it's at 38C, that heat's going somewhere.

 

Now ...I'm gonna really go out on a limb here and say that your radiator is mounted as exhaust on the top. If that's the case, then where, exactly, do you think that heat from the GPU is going? When you get it away from the GPU, it has to go somewhere. It doesn't just disappear (that's, literally, the first law of thermodynamics). And ... uhh ... a goodly chunk of that heat is going (I'm gonna guess) straight through your radiator.

 

Which, if your coolant is cooler than the air going through it, is actually going to have the affect of warming the coolant.

 

I notice that you have a Commander Pro. But you aren't using any of the included thermistors. Use them! Place one about 3cm or so over the pump head. This will actually give you a good reading of the heat coming off of the GPU. Place one on the radiator intake (tape it if you have to). Use these temperatures to control your case fans.

 

Crank up that rear exhaust fan as the interior starts warming up. Increase speed on the intake as well (to maintain positive pressure) but get that heat out of the case. I've found, much to my surprise, that the exhaust fan in my case is the single greatest way to get the GPU heat out of the case before it gets to my radiator.

Thanks for the responses. Here's a screenshot of HWiNFO, looks to be about the same as what iCUE says:

 

 

Also DevBiker, my 1080Ti is an EVGA hybrid and I've got the AiO for that exhausting out the system so the only source of heat within the case is the radiant heat off the GPU backplate and from the pump and motherboard I guess?

 

Yeah I've been meaning to use the thermistors but haven't gotten round to yet since I haven't had much free time.

Also DevBiker, my 1080Ti is an EVGA hybrid and I've got the AiO for that exhausting out the system so the only source of heat within the case is the radiant heat off the GPU backplate and from the pump and motherboard I guess?

 

Yeah I've been meaning to use the thermistors but haven't gotten round to yet since I haven't had much free time.

 

Ah, well, I woulda lost that bet. Lucky you! ;):

 

But your cooler is still exhaust, yes?

 

You do have some warm case internal temps. I wish we had a better idea where those sensors were. Could you please do a little diagram of your airflow?

 

Also, another interesting test would be to run with the case open. What kind of temperatures do you see?

This is what the airflow kinda looks like. Things to note is that the intakes share the same curve as the GPU AiO. All have a minimum fan RPM of 1250.

 

It's starting to look like it is just plain hot in your case. I don't have a 570x, so I am not sure what to expect. Any all glass panel model is not going to be as cool as a ventilated case, but 45C sound warm to me. Not sure if there are other contributing factors, like wedged under a desk or in a corner. You could try some different placement options, like the cooler on the front as intake and top and rear as exhaust.

 

We have a lot of 570 owners in the forum. Hopefully some can lend their experiences and temperatures.

I might try and see if I can install those thermistors for the Commander Pro this weekend and see. Removing the front panel glass + dust filter didn't really meaningfully impact temperatures. I'll try with the side panels off. The computer is up on a desk and is fairly free of obstruction I think on all sides.

I must have been looking at this from work with the images blocked. There is no way it's 45C in your case with a AIO GPU + CPU all set to exhaust. I ran this way for a long time on a big VRM board and CPU and worst case temp increase was about +2C from cold boot to 4 hours of gaming.

 

Now that said, assuming the HWINFO shot was taken when cool, your GPU temp is also at 37C. Since the GPU can effectively switch off, it often has the coolest non-load temps in the system and yet it is still 37C. Without GPU load, the exhaust temp from the 120mm AIO cooler and the coolant and the GPU diode temp should all be within 1-2C of each other. Putting one of the C-Pro diodes on the 120mm exhaust would be a good idea (and also for fan control).

 

Are the front fans blasting? Or set very low? This is all a bit mysterious.

My fan curves are set as follows:

 

Radiator optimized (CPU AiO using liquid temp as base)

- 33C = 1250rpm

- 36C = 1350rpm

- 39C = 1450rpm

- 42C = 1550rpm

- 45C = 1650rpm

- 48C = 1850rpm

 

GPU optimized (GPU AiO using GPU temp as base)

- 20C = 1250rpm

- 35C = 1250rpm

- 45C = 1250rpm

- 55C = 1450rpm

- 65C = 1650rpm

- 75C = 1850rpm

 

The 3 x 120 intakes + Back exhaust use the GPU optimized curve. The 2 x 120 top exhaust uses the Radiator optimized curve. I don't know what the GPU AiO liquid temperature is because there are no sensors that are reporting that, or at least it doesn't show up in HWiNFO or Afterburner or iCUE.

The GPU coolant temp will be essentially the same as the software diode reported temp and the rear exhaust temp. You can't get the coolant, but you can tape a temp probe to behind the rear fan to get an exhaust reading. It will likely read about 1C less than the diode.

 

I don't see anything wrong with the fan curves and in fact you could relax the lower end even more if you wanted. We are exploring the possibility of your case being unexpectedly warm and what stuck out to me was the relatively warm idle GPU temp in the HWINFO shot. If you room temp is 23C, I would expect the idle GPU temp to be about 23C when you first boot up and stay in that general area until after some extended load. Now the actual case temp will be the real baseline temp, so if it sits at 35C in a 23C room, that may mean the case temp really is 35C. The CPU coolant temp is always going to ride a bit warmer since it doesn't really shut down, at least without high C-states. Between the two coolants and a motherboard/drive sensors, we out to be able to make a pretty good guess, but it is starting look like your actual case temps is in the upper 30s and thus boosting the baseline off all of the above.

 

*The rear exhaust temp probe also lets you do an air temp vs hardware temp comparison. If the GPU diode temp drops to 22C and yet the rear exhaust temp probe still reads 35C, you know the internal air temp is 35C. Rather than GPU heat, its reading the standard case air temp exiting the case (but without hardware waste heat adding to the number).

Yeah well my ambient at the moment is 32C (yay Australian summers) and it will only get hotter as the year progresses. Yeah I'll get those thermistor probes installed so I'm guessing I'll need to have:

 

* 1 x at the intakes

* 1 x at the back exhaust

* 1 x at the top exhaust

* 1 x near the CPU block maybe?

 

And should the thermistor probe thingys be places before airflow or after? e.g. for the back exhaust, to put it after the fan > radiator > probe vs fan > probe > radiator vs probe > fan > radiator?

32C is your room temp?

 

Don't y'all have air conditioning? Here in Texas, it gets so hot that Satan spends his summer in Hell and rents out Texas. So I know a bit about hot ... and air conditioning is a wonderful thing.

 

Your plan for the thermistors looks good. Just above the CPU block will give you a good feel for your max case temperature.

Haha yeah, and it's not even summer proper yet. It's the tail end of spring at the moment. It's not unheard of to go into the high 40s (celcius) when summer gets into full swing. We have air-conditioning, but its downstairs in the main living room area not in the computer room, sadly.

Ok, hot room and thus hot case. No cure for that.

Haha ok, that makes me feel slightly better then. I wonder if swapping the CPU AiO from exhaust to intake would make any difference. I guess I can try it out this weekend.

Hmm ok, so this weekend I managed to crack the case open and fiddle around with stuff. Haven't managed to install those therrmistors yet, will get to those in a bit but I flipped the fans on the radiator from exhaust to intake just to see if that would help but it didn't. Then I noticed that one of the hoses is significantly warmer than the other. Is that an indication of pump failure?

 

Edit: Ok so I swapped out the H100i v2 for a Noctua NH-U14S and CPU temps dropped by a max of about 23C. That is significant! Right now full load transcoding x264 to x265 my CPU is only at 69C while before doing the same thing it would hover around 85C and peak around 92C!

Then I noticed that one of the hoses is significantly warmer than the other. Is that an indication of pump failure?

 

 

Yes it is a problem --- as you have now discovered. Rather than pump failure, it is more likely a partial blockage preventing the coolant from circulating as it should. The radiator can only drop the coolant temp about 2C in one pass, so any tiume you notice a strong temperature "feel" difference between hoses, that is a concern.

 

Contact Corsair directly through the ticket system in the menu above. That is the first step to securing a RMA replacement. However, be aware you are going to be responsible for the shipping to where it needs to go. The procedure varies by location. I don't know if they will have you ship it to a local dealer or whether it will need to go to someplace like Singapore. You'll want to evaluate that cost and wait for the product, versus buying something new or even doing both and keeping the new H115i as a backup.

Yeah I think the last time I tried to RMA a product back to Corsair they wanted me to send it to Taiwan or something, definitely not worth it. That being said I'll take it to the store I bought it from and see if they're RMA it for me.

Had the exact same issue with mine. Come to find out the copper block was plugged up. I removed the phillips head screws pulled it apart to find the fins were all kinds of clogged and there was debris all in the center channel. Some alcohol and a toothbrush took care of the problem. Drained the fluid through a coffee filter flushed it with distilled water and refilled the system. Put it back together and now it's sitting around 12c at idle and hasn't gone above 44c since the fix. The pic is the backside of the plate that sounds tasty on top of the CPU