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H115i PRO, 280mm Install


dfox123

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I recently installed the H115i PRO cooler but I am not sure if it is working correctly because I am getting a high temperature of 86C on the CPU when all 8 cores are at 100% in turbo mode while I am rendering an image in a program called Mental Ray which is a 3D rendering program. In LINK v4.9.5.25 program, I noticed that when the system is at idle with the processor at 4.8GHZ at 10% load, the radiator fans are running at around 500 rpm and the core temp is around 35C, but when all 8 CPU cores are at 100% load during turbo mode at a CPU frequency of 4.8GHZ, the fans go up to 1100 rpm but no higher even though the CPU temperature increases to 86C. I have tried adjusting the LINK profile from “Balanced” to “Performance” but it makes no difference on the fan speed which stays at 1100 rpm or the temperature of the CPU cores. Is there something I should adjust in the LINK program to help cool the CPU cores? I am using the i9 9900k processor which is on automatic turbo mode set in the motherboard bios. I have not modified the Gigabyte bios for overclocking but it is set to “turbo”.
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First, the fans on the radiator don't directly cool the CPU ... so you really shouldn't base their speed on the CPU temperature. The fans on the radiator cool the coolant in the AIO which then, in turn cools the CPU. The default fan curves for the radiator are based on the coolant temperature, as they should be.

 

Second, the turbo mode that you have set is an overclock. Period. Full stop. If you just have it set to auto, it's likely dumping a ton of voltage into the processor, which is the source of your heat.

 

There are two key pieces of information that you've left out that are actually more important than you CPU temperature. The first is that coolant temperature. The second in the vCore that your CPU gets to under load (vCPU in iCUE/Link). We need both of those in order to see if what's happening is normal or not.

 

Check out the Liquid Cooler FAQ at http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=174442 too.

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I checked the CPU voltage and the liquid temp during idle and during rendering an image. I also set the fan and pump speeds to 'extreme' using the ICUE program.

 

At idle the voltage was 1.2v and the liquid temp is 33c and the core frequency was 4.8ghz. When rendering an image, the voltage goes as high as 1.3v and the liquid temp rises to 38c at which point the CPU core temps hover around 85c but go as high as 88c with the core frequency still at 4.8ghz. Also, during rendering the fan speed is 1158 rpm which is the max the fans can run, and the pump was going at 2800 rpm, but this was not enough to cool the CPU successfully.

 

I appears that the H115i PRO cannot cool the CPU enough for my rendering needs. I had earlier installed a Noctua NH-U14S cooler and it actually was as good or slightly better at cooling the CPU during rendering than the H115i PRO. I had thought that liquid cooling was better than air cooling but now I don't think that's the case, unless there is some other adjustment I can make.

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Your coolant delta was +5C. There isn’t much more you can do on the cooling end. A larger radiator or 2000 rpm fans might reduce it by 1-2C more, but that is as low as the coolant rise can be. Your problem is on the cpu end. Assuming you mounted it correctly and have good CPU to cold plate contact, you need to get into the BIOS and tune things up. You have a +50C coolant to CPU temp differential. That is an awful lot for default settings. 1.30v is probably too much for that frequency, but at this point you are voltage limited in your cpu temps.
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I'll try disabling the "turbo mode" in the bios and set the CPU voltage to 1.25v and see what happens. I was able to turn off "turbo" by going into the System Power Settings and setting the CPU MAX to 99% instead of 100%, but this brought the CPU frequency down to 3.7GHZ from the Turbo frequency of 4.7GHZ and defeated the whole purpose of using the i9 9900k processor.

 

I've read up on i9 9900k the processor and mostly heard negative things about it getting "too hot", even with liquid cooling, with some having to reduce the 8 core load from 100% down to 70%, and at that point, you might as well use one of the i7 core processors. Hopefully AMD coming out with their new 3000 series processors in the Summer can give Intel plenty of competition.

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No, don’t turn the turbo function off. It is a little more integral to the functionality that the description lets on. Not even sure why we still call it that. Set all cores to 47 (x100) and try the 1.25v on Vcore. Getting off auto settings is essential on these recent CPUs. You can’t even run stress tests in default configuration any more. 1.25 to 1.30 seems to be steep on the voltage/temperature scale for 9900K, so hopefully that alone will get you down below 80C.
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^^^

To chime in, @c-attack hit the nail on the head: whatever issue you're seeing is being caused by a heat transfer issue between the CPU and pump plate.

 

1. I'd strongly suggest you remove the pump from the cpu, inspect the TIM. If it isn't spread nicely, add some more. (Or, just clean all the old stuff off and do it from scratch.) That may take 30 minutes, including the time to remove the computer and put it on your kitchen table. ;)

 

2. Look at the pump (the part that you just pulled off the cpu). Every cooler ships with a clear plastic film/protector or lid on the cooler. This protects the machined face from scratches. (A smooth face makes better contact.) Make SURE that any protecting plastic has been removed. You wouldn't be the first to have left it on.

 

3. Re-secure the cooler to the CPU (after making sure you put new TIM on, IAW instructions). Follow the tightening instructions.

 

A properly tightened cooler, with good TIM and no barriers, will never allow a 50C temperature difference between your fluid and your cpu.

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When I installed the pump/cold plate, I made sure the plastic protector was removed and that the preinstalled thermal paste as properly applied; and when I then mounted the pump, made sure it was properly tied down by the 4 thumb nuts.

 

I also noticed that the plastic backplate was loose before locking down the pump/cold plate. I added washers to the back of the threaded extension sleeves on the backplate to make sure the plate had no movement when the 4 standoffs were tightened down on the front side of the motherboard.

 

The backplate looseness seems to be a common problem with the Cosair liquid coolers, and I believe Cosair should come up with a different mounting scheme like the one Noctura uses on the air coolers. The plastic backplate with the 4 metal threaded extension sleeves does not take into account a thin motherboard like the one that I have, whereas the Noctura mounting system does.

 

I checked with the Cosair support technical team and they indicated my cooler was working properly and that it just could not cool down the i9 9900k processor cranking out 180 watts of heat at 4.8GHZ at 1.3 volts on all 8 cores because that processor was known to run very "hot". The technical support guy suggested reducing the core voltage to 1.2 volts to see if the cooler could keep the CPU cores below 80C.

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Well, that processor is known to run hot. And despite Intel's claims of solder TIM, it's just not that efficient at getting heat from the cores through the heat spreader to the cooler. So ... the Intel tradition of crappy TIM continues. That may be part of your problem.

Another thing, however - yes, the backplate is loose. No, that's not a problem and by putting washers on it, you may not be getting proper contact. Remove the washers; they aren't needed. The backplate tightens down when you tighten the cooler in place without needing washers. Yes, a lot of people are confused by it but that's how they are designed and that's how they are supposed to work. And it's the same mount that's used on a variety of Asetek-based AIOs.

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I removed the pump/cold plate, then removed the washers from the back plate, then installed the pump/cold plate with new thermal paste. When removing the pump/cold plate, I noticed that the old thermal paste was evenly spread, so the pump/cold plate was making good contact with the CPU even with the washers in place.

 

Removing the washers did not introduce any looseness in the pump/cold plate when it was reinstalled, however, the temps remained exactly the same when rendering a 3D image with a 90C on the CPU and 33C on the liquid temp at 100% on all 8 cores at 1.3volts and 180watts. The fan and pump settings were set to "Extreme, " but it didn't seem to help.

 

So it appears the cooler cannot properly cool the i9 9900k processor when it is overclocked, which is what I originally suspected.

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So it appears the cooler cannot properly cool the i9 9900k processor when it is overclocked, which is what I originally suspected.

 

No, the cooler not being able to handle the heat would look different. Your cpu temps would still be bad, but the coolant delta would be high — +10-15C, whatever. Your is only 5c and that is low.

 

Heat transfer across the cold plate is not going to change by going to something else made of the same exact metal alloy in the same factory. If the contact and TIM look ok on your end, it’s time to get into the BIOS and tighten things up. You’ve mentioned 1.30v. Is that your setting or the observed load Vcore? Those are rarely the same.

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The 1.3 volts was the load Vcore, not any setting I made. At idle the Vcore was around .9 volts, but as soon as I was rendering an image it started to climb rapidly to 1.3 volts when the power draw of the CPU went from 95 watts at idle to 180 watts when rendering. It was at 180 watts at 1.3 volts with 100% load on all 8 cores and 4.8GHZ at Turbo frequency that I was getting the 80C-90C on the CPU cores. I'll try manually setting the voltage to 1.2 volts in the bios and see what happens
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Not exactly the same topic as the OP but since I'm about to install one of these same coolers I thought I would ask here since I know you guys probably have the answers. Before I hit order on Amazon wanted to ask a couple things.

 

Whats the exact model number of the fans this model uses? Also would it be cool to replace the 2 stock fans with 4 Corsair ML140 Pro LED, Blue, 140mm Premium Magnetic Levitation Cooling Fan CO-9050048-WW

 

I say 4 because I plan to set them in push/pull in the top of my Corsair Graphite Series 780T case. I already have a 280MM Alphacool one i'm replacing with 4 Noctua NF-A14 PWM fans but I was wanting to get the ML140 Pros to match what I have in the the case already as I put two ML140 Pros in the front of the 780T to replace the stock fans and I put 1 ML120 Pro on my radiator for my EVGA 2080Ti FTW3 Ultra Hybrid card to replace the stock EVGA fan. Also I believe these ML140 Pro fans perform as good or better than the Noctua fans from what I have read at least, could be wrong.

 

I'm just wondering if these ML140 pro fans will be too loud on the radiator as they seem to spin at higher RPM than what is listed on the H115i Pro specs page. Or are they just all the same fan only with the blue LED and I'm just over analyzing?

 

I want to get this right as I am going to have to spend extra on the 4 ML140 Pro LED, Blue fans.

 

Also according to the FAQ that DevBiker linked I think I should have no problem running all 4 fans off the cooler fan header since I have 2 amps to play with, the ML140 Pro LED fans use 0.276 amps x 4 = 1.104 amps, adding in the pump amps of .450 amps that would use a total of 1.554 amps so I think I could do everything push/pull off the cooler with the sata connector correct? My motherboard also has a AIO cooler fan header but I see you recommend not to use that. I have the Alphacool hooked to that now running at the full 12V of course and it shows me the pump RPM of the Alphacool pump.

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The ML140 PRO with Blue LEDs actually go faster than the ML "Quiet" fans that are on the Pro cooler. They have the same noise profile at the same speed. So if you set a custom fan curve that doesn't go over the speed of the ML "Quiet" fans, it'll have the same noise level.

 

I'm not sure of the exact model for them ... I don't think that they are available separately. But they have the same speed characteristics as the ML-RGB fans.

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Thanks, so you think based on the amps used by 4 fans and the pump I will be good running push/pull with 4 of those then running off the H115i fan header?

 

I've not double-checked the amp rating on those fans so, assuming that you have that right, then your math is correct. It'll work.

 

For the record - I have 4 fans on my H115i Platinum. When I had a Pro, I had the same.

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