H110iGTX not working correctly on Aorus Gaming 5

Hello everyone!

 

I recently changed motherboard and CPU from a Z170-A Asus and an i5-6600k to a Gigabyte Aorus Gaming 5 (Z370) and an i7-8086k.

 

On my old setup the H110i worked flawlessly. Once my CPU temp spiked, the fans started to spin up to accomodate the increase of heat. I had my old setup at a rather low OC of 4.6 GHz and it has worked fine, rarely reaching the 70s even with prime95.

 

The new setup, not so much. It doesn't look like the fans spin up anymore when the temperature rises, so I have spikes of 83+ degrees and if I run prime95 and don't have the fan speed set on "Performance", the temperatures just go into the high 80s. This is while running the 8086k AT STOCK SPEED. So at the moment, I first need to fix this issue, because any OC is out of my reach with these temperatures.

 

When I work normally with the PC, I currently just set it to Performance and that is basically it. I have single spikes into the low 70s that way, but overall temperature of playing several hours of Path of Exile gave me an average of 60 degree Celsius.

 

As far as the connection on the motherboard goes, I used the same setup on the Gaming 5 as on the Z170-A, one pin to CPU_Fan and the 2 Radiator Fans go into the Y cable that comes out of the pump - so nothing out of the ordinary here.

 

TL;DR - On the old System, when the core temperatures went up (for example when I played monster hunter) the fans also went faster - that is not the case anymore with this new board. Anyone have a solution for this?

Well, you switched processors so you can't really expect things to be the same. Coffee Lake is hot out of the box. 8086 more so still.

 

I doubt there is anything wrong with the cooler. You can't plug a CPU into a Z370 board and run Prime95 without properly setting up the BIOS. I can't speak for GA, but Asus has about 5-8 values that you have to reign in before you can stress test. Chances are your actual realized Vcore is rather high and that would be the first thing to look at. Perhaps someone with more Gigabyte experience can offer more pointed advice. There are also surely OC threads out there for the GA 370 series with details on what power allowances you need, stock or overclocked.

 

If there is something wrong with the cooler, you will see continually escalating H115i Temp (coolant temp). Chances are it is relatively low, about 4-7C over your room temp. I don't get a lot of coolant delta on mine. About +5C at 100% load when at 5.0/1.30v on a 8700K.

But shouldn't the pump and fans spin up when the core temp rises? If I have it on quite it does nothing even if core temp goes over 90. If I have it on Performance, it will only go up to 80s and slowly spin up the fans a little bit from 1200rpm to 1500rpm after the coretemp has been in the 80s for 2-3 minutes.

 

What the cooling setup actually should do is spin up both pump and fan rpm if the core temp spikes - which it does not. I have to run it at full power all times, which not only creates too much noise, but also isn't good for the health of the cooling system.

What the cooling setup actually should do is spin up both pump and fan rpm if the core temp spikes - which it does not. I have to run it at full power all times, which not only creates too much noise, but also isn't good for the health of the cooling system.

 

 

No, this is not how CPU cooling works. Heat must be conducted from the origination point at the pins through the CPU, then into whatever cooling system you have. Your CPU temp is determined by voltage, design, and materials. It just gets worse if you can't conduct enough heat away and move it somewhere else. I can give you a 10ft tall radiator and you know you still can't run 1.50v on your CPU. CPU temperature has been a traditional control variable because there aren't a lot of other viable choices, at least on air cooling. Additionally, most air towers have a limited ability to hold heat. It needs to get rid of it fairly quickly, so this is still reasonable. On the other hand, a water cooling system can adsorb quite a bit of heat. You are only suffering a penalty when the coolant temp goes up. +1C coolant temp = +1C CPU temp. Same thing in reverse. Blasting your fans to reduce the coolant temp by 1C will only reduce CPU temp by 1C. You likely only have a +5C coolant temp delta on these stress tests which in turn means you can only reduce temps by 5C at any fan speed. Check you coolant differential.

 

Most likely if you are in Auto/default settings, you are pulling nearly 1.40v when running Prime or any other stress test. That is not a viable Vcore level for any 8700/8086 unless delided and finely tuned. This should be the first thing to check.

The difference is quite big. I think if I am interpreting this right, the liquid temp is only slowly rising from around 36°C idle to above 42°C over a stress test circle.

 

I did check the VCores with CPUID - the core voltage on stress is 1.12 stable. I am not sure if this is correct, because that would be an abnormal amount of heat for such low voltage.

 

Also, I have been thinking on plugging the pump pin into CPU_OPT instead of CPU_FAN and the 2 fans on the radiator into CPU_FAN with a Y Cable, to maybe make them spin up a bit quicker. I still don't understand why the pump does not change speed, even under load - is the Windows Corsair Link Application maybe the culprit that does limit it to one of the 3 settings I can chose from?

So it’s a 6C coolant rise. That is the expected number (5-6C). The difference between coolant temp and the actual core temps is usually a function of voltage. +40-45C above coolant suggests maybe 1.28-1.30v, but this is also unique for each cpu. The 1.12 doesn’t sound right. Not sure you can run the 8086 at 4.7 single or 4.4 multi at that level. Link or iCUE should display the actual value as well.

 

You could move the fans to the motherboard and link it to cpu temp, but it isn’t going make more than a 1C difference. Regardless, setting a custom curve in Link/iCUE will allow to set a fixed high speed for testing or a more aggressive base curve.

That’s another thing. Icue doesn’t work at all. If I have it installed, it just throttles down the fan and pump and does not do anything.

Hit the + over on the left next to the presets. This will create a custom “cooling mode”. Now you can change the fan points (and actually see them). Set a low speed at your coolant baseline. Set a moderate speed at +4-6C. Set a high speed at +10-12C. I would use a fixed rpm for benchmarking to keep more consistent results. You don’t need 2000 rpm for anything, but you are welcome to try.

Nope, installing iCue almost disables my cooling whenever I do it. Just tried, it puts fans on 660 rpm and pump on 2000 RPM, even if I say it should run 100% at 20°C. No change of temperature has any effect then, it stays at these temperatures even when temperature rises above 80°C.

 

Also temp shows up at something like 33°C when the Coretemp is above 40°C (in idle) or 80°C under load. I guess that this temp is the liquid temp in the cooling device.

 

I installed the latest version and it shows my cooler, but no dice in controlling anything with it. I have to uninstall it again, because if I don't, the stock temps of my 8086k will rise to high if I use it in quiet mode.

 

I also do not see an apply button or anything - it's just in quiet mode all the time without me being able to do anything.

Settings are auto-saved when selected. You can revert until you leave the tab. Single most prevalent misunderstanding on iCUE is how to apply curves. Select the curve on the left, then click all the fans or pump you want to run that speed. When done properly, they will highlight yellow. Use the + above the presets to make a custom “cooling mode”. Try setting a fixed rpm to demonstrate fan control.

Okay thank you at least that is now working. I have set my pump to always be on extreme mode (3000rpm) and my Fans to slowly spin up with the temp. However, it seems to be still based on liquid temperature, so when I do a torture test with Prime 95 v26, it spikes the coretemps aaaaall the way up to the 80s while the temperature of the liquid still seems to only slowly rise. That is quite the issue for me, because while the coretemps have been in the 80s for almost a minute, the fans still do not seem to speed up fast enough because the liquid temp rises too slowly.

 

After a while, the liquid temp goes up, however by that time my temps have settled in the mid 80s, rising into the 90s. That is on stock speed of my new 8086k - no OC. I know this is a torture test, however I am still stunned that i have almost temperatures in the 90s while the H110iGTX runs at full power ...

 

Also, at idle, the liquid temp is a bit below 36°C degrees, while on full load, it doesn't seem to rise above 45°C.

 

So the only Sensor I can chose from is H110iGTX Temp - is that correct and also with the temps settling around 43-45 while my cores are in the 80s?

However, it seems to be still based on liquid temperature, so when I do a torture test with Prime 95 v26, it spikes the coretemps aaaaall the way up to the 80s while the temperature of the liquid still seems to only slowly rise. That is quite the issue for me, because while the coretemps have been in the 80s for almost a minute, the fans still do not seem to speed up fast enough because the liquid temp rises too slowly.

 

I don't know any other ways to explain the slowly rising coolant temp is an asset and not a liability. The only direct way to prove it is to set the fans to a fixed speed prior to the test as suggested previously. Pick whatever you want. 1500-2000 rpm. There is only going to be a 1-2C difference at most. Obviously not what you are looking for.

 

 

 

Also, at idle, the liquid temp is a bit below 36°C degrees, while on full load, it doesn't seem to rise above 45°C.

 

So the only Sensor I can chose from is H110iGTX Temp - is that correct and also with the temps settling around 43-45 while my cores are in the 80s?

 

Rats. I forgot the original GTX series has no flexibility with this. It was amended with the later H115i and v2 models. If you want CPU temp control, move the fans to the motherboard and use the BIOS. But do the above first.

 

I am a little concerned your initial coolant temp is 36C with a +9C rise. You should not be able to double my coolant delta on the effectively the same CPU and similar cooler. Most people will generally have a coolant temp of +4-7C over the room temp (or equal to the case temperature). I have been at idle for two hours, with just word processing going on. Coolant delta is +2.1 over ambient. That is lower than most people. What kind of room and case temp do you see? Usually you can get a rough case temp from a combination of motherboard sensor, drive temps, etc. any of course any actual thermal measuring device. I still don't know your Vcore during Prime, so if you are hitting 1.40v, that would explain a lot.

What kind of room? It's a small room with ambient around 22°C at the moment. The Case is a Fractal Design R5, also I have 3 additional fans built into it. As for the Case temp I cannot say, but Motherboard Sensors show around 37°C.

 

If I am completely idle, the CPU drops down to 33°C Coretemp though. As for the VCore under load, the VCore that CPU-Z shows me is between 1.092 and 1.12. Like I said, the Prime I use has no AVX, so vcore should stay mostly at the lower end of the spectrum.

 

People in /r/overclocking keep saying i should just delid the cpu to lower temps, however I want to make sure everything else is working fine. After I set everything up like you suggested above, my coretemps settle around the high 70s/ low 80s and do not go any higher. So at least there is no more escalation into the 90s, so thank you for that. Still not sure if something is wrong because I am seriously concerned about these temps at stock. It may be that the basic settings of the Aorus Gaming 5 are just bonkers though.

It looks like you are controlling the fans via the motherboard. There are two ways of controlling of your headers on your motherboard. One can be done via the UEFI (bios) and the SIV Gigabyte Tool (no relation to redray). The bios has a some good options to setup custom fan curves as well as the SIV tool. If you do a good enough job in the BIOS you won't need SIV. You are given a lot of options. I don't recommend the preset modes in SIV as they are pretty bad and seem just static.

Yeah, delidding the CPU will take 20-30C off the top end and make most other tweaks irrelevant by comparison. OK, so 36-44C base temp (coolant) and high 70s to 80s max temp, or a +40C differential. That sound more appropriate.

 

However, the 36C base temp and +9C coolant rise still bears investigation.

 

R5 -> Where is the radiator mounted and with what orientation? (top exhaust, front intake, etc.)

 

Is the front of the case completely stuffed with drives? Can you get airflow into the case? What other fans do have running? The motherboard temp of ~37C suggests it is comparatively warm in your case. +15C over ambient is a lot, especially for no GPU waste heat in something like Prime. This could be case and set-up or it could be the cooler. If you leave everything alone idling on the desktop, does the coolant temperature continue to slowly rise?

 

*What happens to coolant temp is you pop open the front door or take the side panel off? Notable change?

Top exhaust. 2 Fans in the Front and one in the back, alle 3 intake. This is also the setup I ran with my 6600k OC.

 

Also, the coolant temp never rises above 46 degree, even with the coretemp hitting the 90s in some cases. Just looking at it, I did some hours of gaming Dragon Quest 11 - granted, doesn't stress the system too much, but my coretemps were mostly 50°C there and the coolant was around 32-33°C degrees. Idle coolant temps after a day with the new settings seem to be now around 30.5°C, with my room temperature being more like 23-24 ish, so it is more of a 6-7°C difference now. Motherboard temperature also has dropped and ranges now between 30°C and 33°C. It probably just took a while for the temps to settle down after I had some stress test overclocking that probably left some residual heat in the case.

 

I ordered a Y Cable and am thinking on putting both radiator fans into CPU_FAN and adjusting the curve in Bios to make the the fan adjusting faster to CPU temp spikes. I just can't have the PC run at 85°C+ while the fans are still only at 50% because the coolant temp takes 3-4 minutes to rise to the 40s to finally pick up with the fan speed.

 

Oh, one minor detail, I exchanged the stock Corsair Fans with Noctua NF-A14 PWM ones after a couple of months. It's mostly the noise, but they were also lowering overall temps by 1-2 degrees if I remember correctly. Don't want to leave that detail out, but it shouldn't negatively impact the cooling in any way.

 

Once I have the cooling working I will seriously think about sending my CPU to someone to delid. I can't OC my CPU if it keeps hitting the 80s when I use stress testing with the Intel tool, run 3D Mark CPU Test or Prime95 26.6 with a custom FFT test. I am debating if it's worth it or if I should just keep running with my setup without any OC and keep all the nice Powersaving features. My PC runs 24/7, so it might probably be a good idea to not OC and keep those settings, and for that I think my setup works well enough and just needs some tweaks to faster pick up the pace when there is a sudden heat influx. In the end I will never reach constant 80s while gaming normally, and even if, that is still safe area as long as it doesn't rise even higher.

The fans are irrelevant for the disparity we are looking at. My problem is you getting to 46C coolant temp with any kind of CPU only load. That should never happen unless the case is 38C+. If taking of the door and opening the front panel has no effect, I have some doubts about the cooler. It isn't quite completely failing yet, but there appears to be some slippage.

 

With 22C ambient I would expect a normal coolant temp of 26-27C after being at idle for an hour or more. While BIOS settings changes can have a dramatic effect on end CPU temps, cutting down a little voltage or fine tuning should not have this dramatic effect on coolant temperature. +24C over ambient (46C) represents a massive amount of wattage and I don't think the 8086 can produce that any setting, even when bordering on thermal limits.

 

I suppose a final test could be the 'cold boot and watch'. Power off overnight (if possible) and then turn back on in the morning. Load up iCUE immediately and check the coolant temp and note the room temp. Let it sit on the desktop, do normal stuff, web browsing, music, etc. or just leave it alone. Check the coolant temp at 5, 10, 15, and 30 minutes. If it is still going up at that point or just unnaturally high, that suggests an internal problem.

So, I didn't make a cold start, but left my computer idle for the whole night. With a room temperature of 21°C the coolant went down to 26.5°C with a Core Idle temp of around 29-30°C.

 

EDIT: A bit later (4 hours later to be exact) in the day, room temperature is around 23.5°C, with minimal use of my PC (Youtube, browsing) Core Temps are now around 35°C while Coolant went up to around 30°C.

So the first part is pretty much exactly what I would expect and it appears to be in good working order. The 4 hours later temp is inconclusive. +2.5 ambient, deduct that from the coolant temp rise of 3.5 leaves a 1C overall increase. That is certainly within the range of a local temp change inside the case and you would need a thermal image device or laser heat gun to make really detailed observations. I am not suggesting you go buy one. Another day you try the same thing with front and panel and side door off and see how that compares.

 

Right now the whole thing is inconclusive. It could be the cooler is slipping. It could be very normal heat management issues. If the PC never goes off, you may retain some material heat that never gets a chance to dissipate and reset to a neutral room temp level. If there is a serious problem, you would certainly see it at idle as well. The part I didn't like was the +9C coolant rise on a CPU only stress test. Unless you keep the fans pinned down at 500 rpm or something similar, that really shouldn't happen. I guess for now you should be in a normal use and observe situation. Just do your usual things and keep an eye out for abnormally high coolant temps or continually degrading performance. Not sure where in the world you are, but Northern Hemisphere people should finally be getting a cool off as Summer ends. This usually does quite a bit for temperature self-esteem.

Yeah I think getting iCue to work really helped. Also I think the residual heat in the case after all that stress testing needed a bit to get out of the case. I have never had to deal with a lot of heat remaining in the case.

 

I just tested playing 1 hour of World of Warcraft, and while coretemp shows max temps of 70°C, this seems to only be split-second peaks (probably when starting the game). Single jumps that are a lot higher for single cores at a time.

 

Overall, I observed pretty static temps at 50-52°C, with the coolant only hitting 37°C after 1 hour, which then triggered a slight rise in fan speed that brought the cpu temp back down to 45-47°C.

 

I think so far, I am fine with that. It's a lot better than suddenly starting with 46°C idle temps and always being above 38°C (remedied by putting the pump on 3k rpm at all times) and if the temp only slowly rises and not at a spike to 80°C (which it only does in certain stress test applications like Prime95, Intel Extreme and the CPU Torture test of 3D Mark), I think my current fan settings will be fine (50% rpm all time which is silent, and raising to 70% once it hits 37 and then a further 15% for each degree over that).

 

Like you said, I will observe this a bit longer and switch to putting the Fans on the Motherboard if I am still not satisfied with how it runs.

 

I still don't see any chances of an OC like that but again, running it at clock speed with power management settings turned on is probably better for my usecase of a 24/7 on PC than having it OCed and probably not needing all the excess power anyway.

 

I can always chose to delid the cpu later, if that point ever comes. So thanks again for all the help, this made me confident that my cooling is not totally broken and just needed some adjustments.