H100i Platinum SE fans running at super high rpm

Hey guys

 

So I purchased a H100i Platinum SE on Sunday. It arrived today and I installed it. I seem to be having a major issue with it though. The fan curve does not seem to be working correctly. If I set the fans to Quiet mode then as soon as my liquid temp gets above 37 C the fans spin up to 2200 rpm. On Balanced and Extreme modes the fans spin up to 2600 rpm above 37 C liquid temp. Something is not right here. I can set it to a constant rpm. Or I can create a custom fan curve that is able to tame it down. But I'm concerned that something is not working right that's causing it to run at such high fan speeds at that low of temps. It makes it really really loud!!

 

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling iCue several times. I have also tried unplugging the USB cable and reseating the connection a couple of times. I'm out of ideas on how to fix this!

What's your ambient temperature?

 

And 37C isn't "low" for the liquid coolant. With my 16 core ThreadRipper, my max coolant temp is a little over 38C ... and that's at extended, heavy CPU load. So if you have a typical ambient temperature and your coolant is at 37C ... my guess is that you have airflow issues.

Ambient temp is 22c. It could be an airflow thing but I don’t think so. I’ll do some testing and see what I find.

Can you describe how your case airflow is configured? Also, when do you see these temps? Is it after a gaming session?

 

One thing we see frequently is GPU heat is pushed through the radiator. This can then cause the coolant temps to increase pretty significantly ... it's particularly a challenge if the radiator is top-mounted as exhaust.

 

Another thing we see, though less frequently, is a "heat box" effect on some cases with restricted exhaust airflow, again on top-mounted radiators. In this scenario, the exhausted heat isn't completely pushed out of the case and it builds up at the top, preventing the radiator from cooling down.

 

Removing case panels (either top or side, depending) can help to identify if either of these is the scenario we're looking at.

So I am running a fractal design r6. The Corsair is mounted in the front as intake with the fans set to pull. I have the top open but no fans there. I have a 140mm fan in the back as exhaust. The temps and fan rpms I’m describing are at idle! At idle it’s 38 to 40 c.

So I just got home and fired up my PC to do some testing. I opened the front panel. Made a little bit of a difference. Temps went from 38-40 to 36. Then I found this thread: http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=185943

 

I shut the RGB off on my pump. Boom. Temps dropped to 30 C. Fluctuating now between 29 and 30 C. That's insane! So now I think the million dollar question is, how do I fix this? I really want to be able to run the RGB on my pump, but not if it's going to cause the temp sensor to read incorrectly and cause unnecessary noise.

That might not be the only problem. I'm thinking there might be something wrong with my temp sensor or with an air bubble that the RGB is making worse. So I closed the front of my case back up and everything was fine. It bumped the temps from 29-30 to 31-32. No big deal. It will idle along at 32. Then all of a sudden it will jump up to almost 35 and the fans ramp up. Then it cools back down to 32 and idle there for awhile again.

That might not be the only problem. I'm thinking there might be something wrong with my temp sensor or with an air bubble that the RGB is making worse. So I closed the front of my case back up and everything was fine. It bumped the temps from 29-30 to 31-32. No big deal. It will idle along at 32. Then all of a sudden it will jump up to almost 35 and the fans ramp up. Then it cools back down to 32 and idle there for awhile again.

 

Ah ... the LED issue is something that a few folks are seeing with these coolers. I'm not ... some others are ... the best solution is to use the RGB and adjust your custom fan curve appropriately.

 

The other thing that you are seeing is a symptom of the notorious disconnect issue. Corsair is working on that.

What is the disconnect issue you're talking about?

fyi, Ryzen 2700X, ASUS X470-F, RX 590 dual fan, Corsair H115i Pro front mounted in pull configuration, Corsair Obsidian 500D case, 3 LL120 fans in rear/top exhaust. Gamer's Nexus thermal tests have our cases dead even with stock configurations ((1) 120mm intake fan, (1) 120 mm exhaust fan for 500D, unsure about R6).

 

My room ambient temp is 23.5-24C and water temp is 29C at idle in balanced mode, 2100rpm pump and 2x630rpm 140mm fans with 3x120mm exhaust fans set at about 700 RPM minimum. I think the highest water temp I've seen over 3 months is 34C during stress test and maybe 32C while gaming. I've not had any disconnect problems or RGB related temperature problems (Pro vs Platinum coolers) but wanted to give temps for similar setup, excluding top exhaust fans, as reference.

 

Edit: I updated my actual ambient room temp in front of PC with a temp probe to the measured 23.5-24C from the previous unmeasured 22C.

I would expect my coolant temps to be a couple of degrees above that being that I'm using a 240 vs a 280. But I'm definitely not seeing those kinds of numbers. Even with the LED's off and just browsing the web my coolant temp would jump up to 35 C. I do not have any faith in the water temp sensor on this. I know I can set a custom fan curve and tweak it based on how my cpu is performing, but I shouldn't have to do that with something that costs this much money. Love the way it looks but it really has me contemplating returning it.

I don’t like your coolant temperature either. The ambient to idle temp difference is higher than my load levels. Is there any kind restriction that might affect the radiator? A R6 front intake mount should not be affected by anything else, except a dust filter or something else blocking the front of the case. +7C over ambient is still a bit high for idle in that location.

Ok so I just came woke up my computer. It was idling at 40 C with my custom fan curve! Which had the fans running at about 1000 rpm. Couldn't really hear them at that level. Just to double check things I shut off my RGB lights on the pump. Liquid temp dropped to 37. I'm going to try opening the front panel on my case and see what that does to it. My CPU temps are really good though so I don't know what goes on here. I personally don't think my liquid temp is reading correctly. There's no way that this is idling at 15 degrees over ambient!

Opening the front of my case made no difference. Maybe .5 degree C. Switching to quiet mode dropped temps to 34. Still way to high!

 

I had a Kraken X62 in an NZXT H440 several years ago. Never had any issues with water temp with that and the H440 is a HORRIBLE case for airflow.

My ambient temp above was wrong, it's 24C half a meter in front of case. Water temp is still 29C. Top exhaust is 28C, rear exhaust is 27C, both from 5cm from case. GPU temp is 31C steady, CPU temp is at low of 31C at idle, jumping 5-20C depending on what PBO is doing, 3X motherboard temps at 31-34C, jumping as CPU use increases. All at idle and intake and exhaust temps measured with calibrated instant read food thermometer until steady measurement is reached. Inside case temps measured with iCUE dashboard. The exhaust air is barely distinguishable from the room air measured by placing my hand over the fans.

Yeah something is definitely not right with my setup. I'm going to call Corsair in the morning and if they can't figure it out, I'm going to return it.

Talked to Corsair. They said that it's definitely not working properly (no duh) and that I should return it to Newegg as I'm within their 30 day return window. So I guess that's what I'm going to do.

Did you set up your fans for PWM, instead of voltage in BIOS?

That shouldn’t make a difference as the motherboard bios doesn’t control those fans. They’re plugged directly into the pump. That said, yes I’m sure the fans were set to pwm.