HG10 N980 & N970 Thread - Post Issues Here

[xixou]

"reasonably short timeline" means ?

[virdog]

This was in an email I got from Amazon shortly after receiving my HG10 980.

 

We have learned of a potential issue regarding certain product(s) that our records indicate you purchased through the Amazon.com website:

 

Corsair Hydro Series HG10 N980 Edition Cooling Fan (CB-9060006-WW)

 

For more details on what you should do, please contact Corsair Memory, Inc..

 

If you purchased this item for someone else, please notify the recipient immediately and provide them with the information concerning these issues.

 

We regret any inconvenience this may cause you but trust you will understand that the safety and satisfaction of our customers is our highest priority.

 

So... I'll just keep the boxes shut then? :bigeyes:

Edited November 14, 2015 by Technobeard
removed another company's contact info

[Skhmt]

This was in an email I got from Amazon shortly after receiving my HG10 980.

 

 

 

So... I'll just keep the boxes shut then? :bigeyes:

 

I got that in the mail too. I however installed it already. It's working fine, but the bracket came bent slightly on the side... it bent back into place easily.

 

Also it's VERY easy to over-tighten the screws mounting the bracket to card, causing the graphics card itself to bend. Take care not to do that.

[tbugg]

I got that in the mail too. I however installed it already. It's working fine, but the bracket came bent slightly on the side... it bent back into place easily.

 

Also it's VERY easy to over-tighten the screws mounting the bracket to card, causing the graphics card itself to bend. Take care not to do that.

 

I, too, just received an email from Amazon stating that the HG10 N980 may have potential issues. Oddly enough the web page they linked to was support.OCZ.com. At any rate, I received my N980 unit last week and promptly installed it. I did notice a slight bend in the PCB, but it's really not that pronounced. I tightened down the screws very gently with a screwdriver.

 

I'm running an H100i on a EVGA 980 ti SC card, and have been fairly pleased with the temps. I'm seeing 34c at idle right now, but a few days ago, after it snowed here and the computer room was chilly, it was hovering at 20c. So I attribute the rise to the ambient temperature. The card doesn't seem to go over 40c in Furmark benches, but has gotten as high as 60c in Far Cry 4 and a heavily modded Fallout: New Vegas.

 

Several pages back in the thread, someone said that the standoffs were too tall for an H100i. They sure are. In fact, I'm about 99% sure that the directions tell you not to use the standoffs for an H100i. I'm didn't use them, and the contact seems to be solid. I wish I had reconfigured the thermal pads, though. They seemed a little bit misaligned and I'm not sure the VRMs are getting full coverage.

 

Here's the HG10 installed:

http://imgur.com/9WEaATa

 

http://imgur.com/4WEesbS

 

http://imgur.com/iCTzgTx

 

The screws seemed to fit mine just fine. Maybe I got lucky.

Edited November 14, 2015 by tbugg
Images didn't show up

[Skhmt]

I, too, just received an email from Amazon stating that the HG10 N980 may have potential issues. Oddly enough the web page they linked to was support.OCZ.com. At any rate, I received my N980 unit last week and promptly installed it. I did notice a slight bend in the PCB, but it's really not that pronounced. I tightened down the screws very gently with a screwdriver.

 

I'm running an H100i on a EVGA 980 ti SC card, and have been fairly pleased with the temps. I'm seeing 34c at idle right now, but a few days ago, after it snowed here and the computer room was chilly, it was hovering at 20c. So I attribute the rise to the ambient temperature. The card doesn't seem to go over 40c in Furmark benches, but has gotten as high as 60c in Far Cry 4 and a heavily modded Fallout: New Vegas.

 

Several pages back in the thread, someone said that the standoffs were too tall for an H100i. They sure are. In fact, I'm about 99% sure that the directions tell you not to use the standoffs for an H100i. I'm didn't use them, and the contact seems to be solid. I wish I had reconfigured the thermal pads, though. They seemed a little bit misaligned and I'm not sure the VRMs are getting full coverage.

 

Here's the HG10 installed:

http://imgur.com/9WEaATa

 

http://imgur.com/4WEesbS

 

http://imgur.com/iCTzgTx

 

The screws seemed to fit mine just fine. Maybe I got lucky.

 

You didn't put the sticker on!

 

Yeah I'm idling at 30C with a 980ti in a ncase m1 right now. Highest I've gotten was 72C or so in a stress test... this is with an H75 with one fan on a tiny case. I also got a 15300 Firestrike score with the HG10 N980 installed plus a 200 mhz core OC on the GPU. With the reference cooler I'd get thermal throttling at 83C at stock 1000mhz clocks. With the HG10 N980 I'm getting 72C or so at 1200mhz. I'd say it's working for me, although it is much louder than the reference cooler. I think it's the blower that's making all the noise?

 

I should also say, the VRM heatsinks didn't quite line up. But it's good enough I think?

 

ASUS reference 980ti.

Edited November 14, 2015 by Skhmt

[mattlach]

This was in an email I got from Amazon shortly after receiving my HG10 980.

 

 

 

So... I'll just keep the boxes shut then? :bigeyes:

 

I didn't realize I could contact Corsair Support through Support.OCZ.com :p

 

Someone goofed,

[sebastiannielse]

SOOOOO HAPPY!!!!!! Got a Sms "Your order is ready for pickup at Inet Circle-island", guess what?

Happiness in a box! the wait is over, finally, the wait is over for me!

http://i.imgur.com/9jVwepym.jpg

 

 

Have now mounted it to the card. The bend/warp is barely visible to the naked Eye. Its as much bend it was with the stock cooler on.

 

And also found WHY the card bends when other people mounted it:

It has NOTHING with the thermal pads or sizing of the standoffs to do.

What happens, is that the fan Cable, gets pinched between the metal sheet and the odd/middle capacitor of the Group of 5 solid capacitors near the Power connector. The clearance there is less than like 0.3mm (the sheet has a Little round cutcout just for that capacitor).

 

You need to carefully make sure the Cable is not caugt between the sheet and the capacitor, or between the sheet and connector. Use a screwdriver to carefully poke the Cable out of way of these while mounting.

On these Pictures, the bracket is screwed on pretty tight!

http://i.imgur.com/cCLKm67.jpg

 

 

But however, the support between the bracket and the GPU processor is very weak, why a simple mod of the intel bracket is required. I will show it off once its complete.

Edited November 15, 2015 by sebastiannielse

[xixou]

justin, is that what found your team? bad screws and bad cable management?

[mattlach]

justin, is that what found your team? bad screws and bad cable management?

 

His name is Dustin :p

 

That sounds plausible, as a contributing factor, but there is no way that cable is responsible for all the warping we've seen.

 

My money is still in there being a tolerance stack up issue, where if you are lucky, the parts you get in the box have tolerances that combine to work, and if you aren't, they don't

[sebastiannielse]

The thing is that when the Cable were there, the bracket would come down only if you press on it, and then the board did warp.

It LOOKS like the thermal pads on the very rear end are too thick, but thats not true, since the thermal pads are soft enough to give after for the components.

 

Since there is 2 screw rows between the GPU and the Power connector acting as fulcrums, when the Cable gets caught between the capacitor and sheet, substantional force are put upwards at the end of the card since the Cable is too thick to fit between the capacitor and the sheet (imagining the N980+card combo placed on a table with PCB side up), causing the card to warp upwards there. Then the part with VRM warps like a u, and the part with GPU then warps like a n.

When you press hard and screw on the card, the Cable might get really pinched between the capacitor and sheet, but there is still force excerted on the card upwards at the capacitor locations.

Another thing that might happen due to the pinching, is that some Components of the card might not align exactly with the cutout in the bracket, causing it to warp due to this. This misalignment can cause serious warping.

 

(Also make sure you have removed the clear protective plasic tape on the thermal pads, else they wont give after)

 

But once the Cable were away from obstruction, and wiggling a bit back and forth, the bracket just fell into Place itself, just with gravity. There was no need for any force at all, and when screwing the screws on it didn't bend the card at all. You can make the screws fully tight without any warping at all. (It might be Another when putting on the cooler, but without cooler it should not warp at all if you done the mounting correctly)

 

 

You need to carefully make sure the Cable is not caugt between the sheet and the capacitor, or between the sheet and connector. Use a screwdriver to carefully poke the Cable out of way of these while mounting.

Edited November 15, 2015 by sebastiannielse

[virdog]

I have finished installing the bracket with an H75 in my Corsair 250D ITX case.

 

Installation finished without a hitch. I noticed a slight bit of board bending once I installed the 5 bracket screws but nothing I would consider worrisome. I used the Intel bracket already attached to the H75. I DID NOT tighten any bracket screw with any significant amount of torque. I did however tighten the cooler screws in an alternating diagonal pattern until they were pretty snug. I'm not sure if the screws are tight because they hit then end of the stand-offs or because the cooler is snug against the chip but the temps seem to be fine.

 

My idle temp is 36c and running The Witcher 3 on Ultra at 100+ fps with a +150MHz GPU offset o/c the temp maxing out at 60c. So far I have not been able to increase my o/c settings without having my GPU drivers failing regardless of its temp which is kind of a bummer. Silicon lottery thing I guess.

 

I should mention the blower fan is not making much noise and so far has not sped up during high load. PrecisionX keeps it at 1627rpm. I am not sure this is or will be an issue.

 

The H75 fans are plugged into the H100i pump. Everything is recognised in Corsair Link.

Edited November 15, 2015 by virdog

[TheDudeLasse]

I did some tweaking on the fly by untightening the HG10 thumb screws while running Furmark. I managed to get the idle temps to 28c and load temps to 61c (MSI GTX 980 Ti, 1480 MHz boost).

 

The water temp on my H80i GT at is at around 50c, so heat is definitely being transferred quite well. I doubt that I can get much better results with my current overclock and case configuration.

[sunthief]

A little "consolation" for users that have problems with the HG10 N980: I tried the Evga Hybrid and the pump noise is beyond good and evil. My whole case vibrated and accoring to users on the Evga forum, thats normal. ^^

I'll try the MSI Sea Hawk next, the H55 is supposed to be silent...

[skkane]

I avoided evga's units based on the noisy pump reports but almost gave up and jumped on their boat. Glad I could not find them in stock when i placed my order :D

[Makalaure]

A little "consolation" for users that have problems with the HG10 N980: I tried the Evga Hybrid and the pump noise is beyond good and evil. My whole case vibrated and accoring to users on the Evga forum, thats normal. ^^

I'll try the MSI Sea Hawk next, the H55 is supposed to be silent...

 

 

Huh, my pump is completely silent on my Hybrid. Weird.

 

If it is that bad I would suggest speaking with EVGA and asking about RMA, as I'm guessing the pump is poorly balanced. Some other people have also found that the fans on their radiators have been the source of the noise/vibration, so it is worth checking that as well.

 

 

It is worth noting that the pumps EVGA use are the same ones that AMD, NZXT and Corsair use (Asetek), it just has an extruded copper baseplate to allow a more custom fit to the GPU. All of the these pumps can have issues with pump noise: how many complaints have you seen on these forums about pump noise; how many reviews of the Fury X card included complaints of pump noise? So take it with a grain of salt, and if you get a noisy one, initiate an RMA as it is a problem with Asetek's pump units in the vast majority of cases, and this affects all of the companies mentioned. The Sea Hawk also uses the same pump: it is the equivalent to a H55 Asetek, so when review samples finally get sent out and the product hits the market, expect pump noise complaints on that aswell (and it runs ~10C hotter than the EVGA Hybrid).

Edited November 15, 2015 by Makalaure

[sebastiannielse]

Here is the mod:

 

First, I used a dremel, to grind away a Little bit of metal, that was partially covering two of the four corner holes around the GPU:

http://i.imgur.com/2FDxkqrm.jpg

 

Then I mounted Everything temporarly on the card, mounted the intel bracket without cooler, and then dipped the tip of a small screwdriver into hand lotion, and then dipped straight in the holes of the GPU:

 

http://i.imgur.com/TXXDtbXm.jpg

 

Result:

http://i.imgur.com/m77txnLm.jpg

See. Now I know where to drill.

 

Drilled and countersunk:

http://i.imgur.com/Gj94CEDm.jpg

 

Mounted Everything. The cooler is now mounted BOTH to the bracket using the thumbscrews *AND* directly into the card using 4x M3x20:

http://i.imgur.com/MEngPmDm.jpg

 

Mounted in computer:

http://i.imgur.com/3S6SHJZm.jpg

 

 

And some benchmarking:

(No OC, Everything is stock)

(h100i GTX with 4x Corsair SP120 High Perfomance Edition in pushpull)

 

IDLE:

http://i.imgur.com/jctwfAT.png

 

AFTER 15 MINUTES OF UNIGINE VALLEY ON ULTRA HD:

http://i.imgur.com/JlABoPG.png

 

 

Conclusion?

I AM SO HAPPY! Got the load temps down to low 30s. That would NOT be possible with those hxx coolers, better use a hxxx cooler.

[Makalaure]

Pretty sure something is wrong with your numbers. People with custom loops see load temps of ~37-40C on the GTX 980 Ti. There is no way you can achieve lower than that with an H100i, no matter how it is mounted. I suspect you took a screen cap after the Valley loop had stopped and the GPU immediately dropped to the water temp (because it was no longer under load) as you were switching to the Corsair Link page.

 

Unless your ambient termps are about 10C, then it would make sense.

Edited November 15, 2015 by Makalaure

[sebastiannielse]

Yeah, I did take a screenshot immediately after exiting Valley. During valley, the top temp was 45 and the lowest temp was 35. First I tought Corsair Link averaged the temps over a larger timeperiod (like a couple of seconds) while Valley takes instans temps, but actually, it seems it cool very quickly.

I tought it couldn't cool that quickly after letting go of the load.

Edited November 15, 2015 by sebastiannielse

[Makalaure]

It will. Once a load is removed, a watercooled CPU/GPU will drop to the water temp within ~1second. Regardless, 45C is still a good result, I believe it is the joint best result anyone has seen with the N980. I do find it amusing that you had to mount the pump block directly to the PCB. I think most people that are mechanically minded had the same impression when the design of the N980 was released, and I believe someone several pages back ended up doing the same thing and got similar results.

 

 

So Corsair, there is your solution. The N980 needs the design altering in some way to allow the pump block to mount directly to the PCB, and not mounting it on to the N980 plate, which is then mounted on to the PCB.

[DukeSan27]

Huh, my pump is completely silent on my Hybrid. Weird.

 

If it is that bad I would suggest speaking with EVGA and asking about RMA, as I'm guessing the pump is poorly balanced. Some other people have also found that the fans on their radiators have been the source of the noise/vibration, so it is worth checking that as well.

 

 

It is worth noting that the pumps EVGA use are the same ones that AMD, NZXT and Corsair use (Asetek), it just has an extruded copper baseplate to allow a more custom fit to the GPU. All of the these pumps can have issues with pump noise: how many complaints have you seen on these forums about pump noise; how many reviews of the Fury X card included complaints of pump noise? So take it with a grain of salt, and if you get a noisy one, initiate an RMA as it is a problem with Asetek's pump units in the vast majority of cases, and this affects all of the companies mentioned. The Sea Hawk also uses the same pump: it is the equivalent to a H55 Asetek, so when review samples finally get sent out and the product hits the market, expect pump noise complaints on that aswell (and it runs ~10C hotter than the EVGA Hybrid).

 

I agree, I have three of the Hybrids running and I don't hear them at all. Just sound of water trickling on startup.

[UsableGamer07]

I have the EVGA Hybrid Kit for my 980ti. I switched from the HG10 N980. Those temps were 40- idle and 63- max load thats not woth a OC. Now Here are the Stats for the EVGA Hybrid GPU with OC - Benchmark numbers--- the two numbers together are GPU Clock and Memory Clock --- Profiles in After Burner -> 0 Default is 2656 -- 1 is 50/50 = 2665 -- 2 is 75/75 = 2715 -- 3 is 100/100 = 2728 -- 4 is 125/125 = 2775 -- 5 is 150/150 = 2774 < Dropped 1 Point --- Best is Profile 4 at 125/125 = 2775 --- GPU Temp was 38 to 41 all the time... CPU danced around 50 degrees

[sebastiannielse]

Makalaure:

Agree.

 

However, if Corsair implements a design change, it does not neccessarly mean the pump should be mounted directly to the card. The important thing are that the holes around the GPU is used, so its possible to design a working cooler->bracket->card solution.

So the design change could aswell mean that the hole in the bracket for the GPU chip is made round instead of Square, and then studs and 4 m3 screws are added so the bracket is also affixed to the 4 corner holes around the GPU chip.

(that would however make the bracket incompatible with the Square Coolit coolers)

Edited November 16, 2015 by sebastiannielse

[mattlach]

And some benchmarking:

(No OC, Everything is stock)

(h100i GTX with 4x Corsair SP120 High Perfomance Edition in pushpull)

 

IDLE:

http://i.imgur.com/jctwfAT.png

 

AFTER 15 MINUTES OF UNIGINE VALLEY ON ULTRA HD:

http://i.imgur.com/JlABoPG.png

 

Nice temps.

 

What is ambient?

 

On CPU's the H90 is usually only ~5C or so behind the H100i, so I am predicting with similar airflow and ambient I'd see load temps at about 35-37C with my H90's, which I can live with. Might get slightly better with the 140mm Noctua iPPC 2000 pushing, and a Corsair SP140 pulling. Not sure how they'd compare to the SP120's all around.

 

What ASIC level is your card? My 980Ti's are 82.3% and 70.2%

Edited November 16, 2015 by mattlach

[mattlach]

So Corsair, there is your solution. The N980 needs the design altering in some way to allow the pump block to mount directly to the PCB, and not mounting it on to the N980 plate, which is then mounted on to the PCB.

 

I believe the reason they did this is that mounting directly to the PCB with those holes wouldn't work on the coolers with square-type blocks, as they cover the holes. This would only work with the round ones.

 

That being said, if they get everything else right, the non-direct mount should work too, it's just that the tolerances start getting a little more complex, and it is more difficult to pull it off.

 

I'm going to give it another Week, if Corsair has an official solution I'll go with that. If not, I'll do this mod. It seems easy enough if you are even remotely mechanically inclined.

[sebastiannielse]

Mattlach: Ambient is 22,7*C

And ASIC.... I don't know how to check that? How I do to check that in Gigabyte cards? I looked in nvidia Control panel and Nvidia Experience but couldn't find anything.

Also, im NOT using the stock SP120L's that is delivered with the h100i GTX. Rather im using purchased SP120's HP PWM edition, those fans are better.

Another thing to notice is that its a quite difference between h100i and h100i GTX, since both the radiator, hosing diameter and pump is improved on the GTX. Thus I suspect your H90's will propably be maybe 7-10*C off.

 

About the mounting: Its more that there is not enough mounting Points on the card to give a enough counterpressure. Its just that the PCB is "too soft" with regards to the spacing between mounting Points.

A solutiion if its current design should be kept, eg if you are not going to sacrifice Coolit support, then:

1: Supply a frame (eg a metal piece) with a round hole (slightly larger than a asetek cooler head) and m3 studs, that can be placed in the Square hole, and the frame will overlap the Square hole a Little bit, and then you get 4 extra mounting Points for the bracket, but that frame can then only be used with asetek coolers. This frame could be pretty large and even have holes so it fit over the 8 studs, then it would be super-stable. The Square hole of course needs to be a bit larger.

2: Move the whole cooler assembly about 0.5-1.5mm closer to the VRMs, and extend the threaded pipe on one of the corners with 2mm. Then, one of the standoffs supplied, should then have a very long screw section so it screws through the bracket and comes out on the back of the card. Then a nut is provided. I don't Think moving the cooler assemply this littlle would affect cooling. Also you need to supply 5 thumbscrews then, one thumbscrew with a very long screw section, that is used for one of the corner when mounting a Square cooler, and then 4 normal thumbscrews.

This because one of the intel screw corners is over one of the mounting holes for the PCB, but slightly off. If the design of the bracket would be changed so this corner aligns with the PCB hole, a long standoff and a long thumbscrew can go through the threaded hole in bracket and then through the card, and then a nut is screwed on.

 

Implementing these design Changes would give 5 extra mounting Points for asetek owners and 1 extra mounting Point for Coolit owners. The cooler would still be mounted to the bracket, but since more mounting Points are provided for the bracket, the card wouldn't bend or flex when attaching the cooler.

Edited November 16, 2015 by sebastiannielse