H115i Push/Pull advice please

[MaverickSY19]

Just seeking some expertise in this area. I have a H105 currently but it was too big in my current Corsair 760T to setup in push/pull with my Asus Rampage V Extreme board which is rather big board with a very large at the top.

 

Anyway to make a long story short I'm upgrading my sons computer and giving him that H105 and 760T case and I'm moving to a Corsair 780T case and a H115i cooler on the same MB Asus Rampage 5 Extreme with a 5960X CPU. So my question is what is the optimal setup in this case with this cooler?

 

I plan to mount this H115i in the top of the case of course. With this 780T case that has the extra indented tray in the top of fans. Should I mount the radiator with the included fans mounted on the bottom of the radiator blowing out the top of the case and put an additional 2 fans in above it in the indented fan area or should I not bother with 2 sets of fans and just put the included fans somewhere.

 

I'll just stop speculating and ask what you guys are Corsair would advise for this setup. I typically OC my 5960X to about 4.1GHz with the H105 and only the 2 stock 120mm fan on it now, though I have been wanting to try and little more. At the same respect I don't want to get super loud in the case.

 

Where is the best place to mount 2 Fuxy X radiators in this scenario? In the 760T I currently have one where the back exhaust fan goes, had to remove that fan. It is blowing out. I have the second in the top of the case fit in tight next to the H105 both of those blow out the top of the case.

 

I was thinking for the 780T one would have to go where the back exhaust fan is replacing that fan. The second one I thought I would have to mount in the front. So I was planning to remove the 2 140mm fans in the front and put in 2 120's in the bottom 2 positions and then mount the 2nd Fury X Radiator in the top front spot. AMD says they need to blow out of the case which makes sense, these things blow some pretty hot air at load so wouldn't want that going into the case. But having a fan blowing out on the front seems like it will mess up my airflow. Still AMD install guide says "you must" mount the radiators above the GPU cards because of possible air getting stuck in the cooler pump which is inside the card or something. Not sure if that matters but it says "you must". They also say you "should" mount the radiator so the tubes are at the bottom. Which again not sure if that really matters. I saw a video of a AMD tech showing how to install them and he put the tubes out the top so go figure. Also the manual says "should" there so I think that is not required. They also said you should mount the radiator vertically though currently I have one of them in the top of my 760T case and its not a problem at all.

 

So what 120mm fans should I replace the front 140mm fans with? AF or SP? One of them at least will have to blow 2 HDDs in the bottom front HDD chassis. I bought already 2 120 Red LED AF fans and 2 120 Red LED SP fans so I had some options. Also would you advise since I only have 2 120mm fans blowing in with what I think I need to do should I mount a 140 or 120 in the bottom slot blowing up?

 

Anyway lots of questions and any good advise would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for any replies.

[red-ray]

I would get the CoolIT H110i rather than the Asetek H115i as cooling wise they are much the same, but the H110i has two rather than one fan controller and firmware with far more facilities. See http://forum.corsair.com/forums/showthread.php?p=795986, note the H110iGT -> H110i and H110iGTX -> H115i.

[c-attack]

I don't think you need push-pull on the 280mm radiators. I have my 5820k at 4.5/1.30v and 4.0/1.19 on the cache with my older Asetek H110. The radiator fans can sit there all day long at minimal speeds and the temperatures are low. Even in moderate load situations like gaming, they don't need to run much more than 650 rpm to keep CPU temps under 50C at those settings. Push-pull will not give you any more airflow at the high end of the RPM band with the 27mm radiator and there is no need since the low speed cooling is plenty efficient. The only reason to run push-pull would be if were looking to run less than optimal radiator fans (like an AF140) or simply for aesthetics. And yes, run the fans as top exhaust. I prefer "push", but pull will physically work with a minor cost to cooling. Possible moderate cost to fan noise.

 

I certainly would try to put the GPU radiator in the rear slot. That would exhaust most of the waste heat and also allow you to run low to moderate intake speeds with nice low case temperatures. Going push-pull up top will make that impossible, but I'll leave it to someone with a 780T to say whether the radiator will fit in back with a 280mm radiator up top.

 

I prefer AF-airflow style fans whenever possible. Fans with thinner, raked blades will move more air with less noise than a flat, thick blade. Unlike a radiator, you are not really trying to drive air across the drive. Simply displacing the air around the HDD is enough to keep temperatures down and no one generally needs to blast their HDD fans. I could certainly tell the difference in sound between 2 AF120's and and 2 SP120's in the front intake. However, if you can get the Fury rad in the back, you will have your choice of 2x140 or 3x120, which should be plenty. No harm in using a low speed fan on the bottom, but if you are putting the case on the floor or carpet, there may be some dusty, fibrous drawbacks.

[MaverickSY19]

c-attack and redray thanks for the responses.

 

@redray I'm not super concerned about all the custom CL stuff really if the 115i does the job cooling better than the 110i I am happy with that. Besides that ship has sailed already. I could order a new one but the H115i is sitting next to me in a box ready for the rest of the parts to arrive :P So I would have to return that to Amazon and get the other. Is it really worth that much hassle? Also I thought Asetek made the good coolers? Why is Corsair selling the H115i as their top of the line cooler when you are saying they think its crap? Why would I need 2 fan controllers? Wouldn't 1 fan controller just spin both the fans at constant RPM. Also right now I was thinking I would rather use my Asus MB PWM blocks to control the radiator fans as the Asus fan control is very nice. Do I have that option with this cooler or do i have to use the one that comes with it?

 

@c-attack I will definitely put one of the Fury X radiators in the back exhaust slot. Its the second one that I am trying to figure out the best spot for. I have 2 of them in Crossfire. That's why I was thinking to change out my 2 140mm front fans for 2 120mms so i could fit the 120mm radiator that the Fury X has into that top front spot. But like I said it will have to blow out, so I would have 2 bottom front fans blowing in and that above them blowing out. Which is a weird airflow. With that setup should I put also another intake fan in the bottom of the case you think? So I would have one 120 or 140mm at the bottom and the 2 front bottom fans all intake , then the top front Fury X radiator blowing out and the back Fury X Radiator blowing out. Then the H115i Radiator in the top with fans internal to the case in a push setup blowing out the top. How do you think that would work? Guess I might have to return 2 SP fans I got and use the 2 AF ones and maybe order another AF for the bottom. or if the 140mm I am taking out of the back will fit in the bottom maybe use that there. Though i'm going with a Red LED theme :P the bottom of the 780T has a filter for bottom fans but yes I could see where it could add more dust to the cast. It will be on the floor on a very thin carpet rug. the 780T sits a bit off the floor though for good airflow under it. The PS fan will also be down so it will be pulling from under the case as well. The bottom has 2 filters so it will help with dust but I could see where it might add more if I put a fan there. I do blow out my cases regularly though with a DataVac Electric Duster.

[c-attack]

Yikes, that thing has 2 x 120mm rads? I was hoping that was a syntax error. Well, another possibility might be to try and run the case in reverse.

 

Rear 140mm intake ---> roof 2 x 140mm exhuaust (CPU rad)

 

2 fan lower intake -- > 3 fan front panel exhaust (including 2 GPU rads)

 

This arrangement would provide each cooling system radiator with it's own source of outside air, while still directly exhausting CPU and GPU heat out of the case. You would need to leave a little space behind to not choke the 140mm rear intake. One catch -- it might be necessary to mount the radiators in the 1 & 3 slots on the front, leaving the middle 2 slot with only a fan. Fans may need to be in pull position against the case to keep the "larger than a fan" radiator off the case frame. This also might be problematic for your HDD(s), although if you were looking for an excuse to get rid of them... The original plan may work as well. I don't how much heat one of those releases, but I don't think having one exhaust internally will sink the ship.

 

The H115i (formerly H110 GTX) is a parallel product to the H110i (formerly H110i GT). I suspect the confusing naming convention and now unexpected name change relates to agreement between Corsair and the original manufacturer and the circumstances that gave rise to the GTX in the first place. Running the 115i from the motherboard would eliminate some of the firmware obstacles and will be fine. I run my older version from there as well with no concerns. You still will have some rather inflexible hoses to contend with, but for some people the visual style is appealing and worth the hassle.

[MaverickSY19]

I have 2 of these cards that's why I have 2 radiators to deal with, 1 per card.

 

http://www.sapphiretech.com/productdetial.asp?pid=69ED4799-7518-434C-80CD-3FF8811F8648&lang=eng

 

Only problem I have with that setup of the intake at the back is no dust cover unless I find a custom one which is something I did for the 760T case. I'll mess with it and let you know how it turns out. I should have the case tomorrow, I already have the H115i, got here yesterday. Waiting on some sleeved power supply and SATA cables before I do the build. Wont have those until Tuesday. I could get the H110i I guess its not like I don't have the money to just order that now and return the H115i later. The 780T case has a lot of room so the inflexible hoses I don't think will bother me a ton. But if my experience with the H110i is going to be so much better now you guys got me second guessing :P

 

Really though which is the better cooler aside of the other features? Or are the actual cooling abilities so close it doesn't matter? If I hook the PWM fans to my Asus CPU headers can I just hook the pump to one of the other fan headers on the board and disable the fan control of that header so it gets full power, this is what I currently do with the H105. Then would the link software just control the pump speed?

[c-attack]

In my mind I was thinking of the double 295X and I corrected a few lines regarding that. Either way is going to work. The choice might be made for you once it comes to actually bolting them on. It shouldn't be too hard to find a rear 140mm filter, although I would be more concerned about the bottom fans.

 

In terms of actual cooling, you aren't going to find a difference between the units. It's really in the management that those differences are revealed. Moving fan control off LINK and onto the board removes several of those potential limitations. However, I believe one of those limitations is the inability to monitor pump speed through the BIOS and AI Suite. This may or may not matter to you. You can use 3rd party programs to monitor the pump speed, including AIDA. I started off on this board with AI suite up all the time. These days I much prefer the more intricate monitoring with AIDA and AI Suite is left to silently run fan speeds in the background. You are going to want to do something similar with LINK and AI Suite. It would be better to set LINK not to run on start-up, then occasionally launch, change LED colors, and then quit the application. This way AI Suite can be up and running without any conflicting signals. This part is likely to be true no matter which cooler you go with in the "i" series.

[MaverickSY19]

I have used Asus boards for 20+ years almost exclusively but I'm not a fan of the AI Suite software. In fact a lot of their software is a buggy mess at times. On the Rampage V Extreme you can setup all your fan profiles in BIOS and not even have to deal with AI Suite. It has gotten better but still seems like a resource hog that doesn't work right half the time. But I am old school that way. I grew up in computer age where you had to manage every K of RAM closely so over the years I tend to always keep my background software rather lower. Though with 16G or more of RAM is not like I need to worry about that anymore I guess. Just a old habit.

 

As for the H115i pump. I haven't read up a lot on the new coolers with the Link control. My H105 is all manual and I believe the recommendation was to plug the pump into a header with no Q-Fan control enabled so it would run the pumps at max power as you were supposed to run the pumps at max on these coolers all the time. Is that not the case with the new versions, are the pumps variable? The only reason I could see you would even want to monitor the pump speed is if its variable and you want to tweak it to match your CPU heat. Normally I am very picky about reading reviews on stuff before I buy but Corsair has always had great CLC's so I trusted that their top of the line one on their website was actually top of the line. The price difference between the H110i and this one was only like $10 on Amazon.

[c-attack]

All is true about AI Suite, however it will control all of your fans. LINK can only control the fan connected to the pump block, however it does give you the option (or make mandatory) of running radiator fan speeds in accordance with the water temperature in the system. While more efficient, not everyone is eager to adapt to that system of control and they move the fans to motherboard anyway. In that situation, LINK is of marginal value unless you have other Corsair hardware (PS, memory) to monitor. If you are going to run fan control from the BIOS, then LINK can run unhindered, but I suspect you may develop similar feeling about it in time.

 

The different cooler systems have become more varied in their set-up. Your H105 and my older H110 both run Pump DC from a motherboard header and fans from another. Most of the "i" coolers that work with LINK derive their power from a SATA connection that powers both the pump and the fan controller(s) inside the block. There is an additional tachometer sensor lead that goes to a motherboard header as well as a mini to USB header for the motherboard. The pump is variable on the H110i/GT and the110GTX/115i, however I would be content to set it for lower speed for any use other than full bore stress test. I haven't seen a lot of people report significant differences arsing from pump speed.

 

You can effectively turn the i-cooler back into a manual one, but you will still need to supply SATA power and I suspect the USB to the motherboard if you want to be able to change the LED pattern. The fan leads from the block can be tucked away (hopefully).

 

http://imagescdn.tweaktown.com/content/7/3/7320_11_corsair-hydro-h110i-gtx-high-performance-liquid-cpu-cooler-review.jpg

[MaverickSY19]

c-attack thanks for all your help and input on this stuff. Appreciate your time. I have used Corsair RAM for 15 years or so but I passed on buying one of their power supplies and went with the EVGA SuperNova 1200 P2 which had some stellar reviews. I think Corsair has decent PSU's but there are some better ones out there for the money.

 

I have been wanting to move to another case and I like the 780T layout. I'll post some screenshots last in the week on how I ended up moving my hardware into the new case. I'm replacing my PSU with the EVGA one I mentioned and I upgraded my M.2 drive from a x941 Samsung 512 to the 950 Pro NVMe M.2 SSD which I see you also use. Damn fast unit that is, put it in last night. Since I was moving all my stuff from one case to another I decided to upgrade my Son's computer for his 17th birthday next week. Giving him this 760T case, he has a beat up old Coolermaster one. I also got him a Sabertooth X99 MB and 5930K CPU. So he can have my H105 cooler as well. He has a i7 2500k atm so it will be a good upgrade for him.

 

So the H110i GTX is basically the same cooler as the H115i but with a V2 cooling block to fit those Skylake boards right? I can't find any reviews on the H115i so I guess I can just read the H110i GTX reviews as its the same cooler except for the V2 block?

[c-attack]

Yes, the H110 GTX reviews will do as a stand in. We were told no other changes, besides a small tweak to the plastic around the block so it would fit mini-ITX Z170's. However, Ray reported a firmware change on the 100GTX v2. I am not sure what that entails, whether it is only on the 100GTX model, or if it has any practical meaning. I suspect it does not given the physical limitations, but the software end of this is not my area of expertise.

 

Looks like we share some similar hardware. If you are interested in my thoughts on the Supernova, you can send me a private message.

[MaverickSY19]

I had a thought, what if I put the H115i in the front of the 780T case and put the 2 Fury X coolers in the top and kept the 140mm exhaust fan where it is in the back. I would lose the cool color fans in the front though. Does Corsair make the same PWM fans with LED's in them I could replace those with?

 

Is there any problem with putting the H115i vertically with the hoses coming out the top?

 

Also I don't know where I would put my 2 HDD's :P I could get a 5 1/4 tray for them and put them both in the very top but then I guess I would have to ditch my Blu Ray player I use 1x a year :P and my fancy OC Panel digital display I have there for my Rampage V Extreme.

[c-attack]

As long as the hoses reach, it shouldn't be a problem. Most people are likely to have a higher sustained GPU load compared to CPU load, so in theory that is less heat in the case. Since you have another intake on the bottom, you won't be strong-armed into running the front radiator fans overly high to supply enough air.

 

There is a real shortage of 140mm radiator suitable PWM fans out there. As far as I know, none are LED. However, if you intend to run the fans from the board, you don't necessarily need PWM -- DC will work fine. The only caveat is if you intend to run BIOS only, Asus has a strangely high 60% minimum on DC fans, regardless of capability. This is easily overcome if you run AI Suite, which will utilize the fan's actual starting and minimum voltage specification.

[MaverickSY19]

So here is how I ended up building it (see images below). I have a set of EVGA sleeved cables coming that are made for the SuperNova 1200 P2 but I couldn't wait any longer so I just had to put it together with the normal cables :P.

 

I also have 32G of Corsair memory coming to replace the 16G as I'm putting that in my sons computer. Its red 3000 C15 stuff to go with my red black and white theme which ironically was my old H.S. I wont tell you how very long ago I graduated though. :P

 

I'm hoping I can manage to fit the Corsair memory fan kits over the RAM as things are rather tight on this board.

 

Also for now I went with the full H115i setup. Using the fan header off the cooling block instead of using the MB ones. I wanted to see how well the Corsair Link worked hooked up the right way. In Quiet mode this thing cools as well as my H105 but with less noise running RealBench 2.43 stress test I used to hit CPU package temp of about 74C with the fans on the H105 at like 2500 RPM. Now the H115i in quiet profile fans only at 1440 and CPU Package temp at 71C max. So ya this thing performs well. I will say though that the Balanced and Performance profiles the fans a lot louder than I would like. Don't think I really need to use those profiles though. Maybe I can make a custom one that's in the middle of quiet and Balanced.

 

http://imgur.com/a/zXpYn

[c-attack]

Looks good. That's a lot of hardware to fit in. The GPU rads are thicker than I was expecting. It is possible the top mount might not have worked because of the VRM heatsink and power plug on top of the board. Hose runs back to the GPU are probably easier that way too.

 

You should be able to use quiet mode for most everything except a long render or full blown stress test. Even then, it most likely will be fine. I get along just fine with fans that max out at 1150. There are a couple of tricks to managing the water temp vs fan speed curve. The water temperature will largely affected by both room temperature and GPU waste heat. You likely will need a different custom curve for Summer vs Winter. The GPU heat should be less than someone cooling their cards with air, but some people are caught off guard when the fans start spinning up high while gaming with low CPU loads. You may find that using a fixed speed for the H115i fans is better for a more consistent exhaust flow, since the rear port is also radiator restricted. However, I am sure you won't have any trouble working out the best set up.

[MaverickSY19]

So I am making a custom profile for this. I am not sure I like how the pump works. You only have 2 options and they are all or nothing, either run the pump in quiet or performance nothing to scale it for temp.

 

So I really can't hear the pump at all when I have it at performance. Its pretty quiet. Is it ok to run this pump always at performance or is that going to really decrease the lifespan of the product?

[c-attack]

I'll respond here and see if someone else will bite on the other post. As far as I know, no one has every made available any kind of MTBF or total revolutions before failure on any of these products. Perhaps it can be found buried in either the Asetek or CoolIT data sheets, if those are available. Basic logic tells you the faster you run it, the longer you run it, the sooner it will wear out. However, based on my experience most of these pumps that fail do so for reasons other than longevity and those issues would have presented themselves regardless of the RPM used. Even if you somehow make it to the natural end of the life cycle of the pump, the warranty is 5 years. You can have a new one in 5 days. After 5 years, you will probably be ready for something different anyway. If you want to run the performance 3K speed, do it.

 

So, assuming the pump has a certain number of revolutions it can turn and it's degradation is linear, Performance mode wears out 50% faster? When you are talking about years of use and likely a definite end point where it no longer has utility to you any more, I don't think it matters. Would you alter the way you want to use it for the next 3 years in order to secure 1 more year of use? Probably easier to call on the warranty and use it how you want. My gut instinct tells me most of these pumps have specified lifespans in the 50,000 hour range, or at least that's how it is sold to Corsair. Otherwise, I am not sure they could gamble on a 5 year warranty.

 

Incidentally, I don't know if you are going to be able to link fan speeds to the CPU package temp within LINK. On the H110i GTX you are limited to water temp only. If you are able to do this on the H115i, that means something has changed and we have been mislead.

[MaverickSY19]

You can change the fan speed remade curves of quiet, balanced or performance. Then you can also do a Custom curve or you can do a static setting. I included some screenshots for you to check out. Maybe its the firmware version 2.8.0.0 that has these additional settings not sure. It also lets you save the settings to the devices memory which I assume means that even without Corsair link running it will use your settings. Check out the screenshots.

http://imgur.com/a/btdWS

[c-attack]

Well, that certainly looks like you can run fan speed based on CPU temperature. That is a change and we were told there would not be an update to the firmware to allow that. Tinkering with the firmware and LINK is not my area, but I think some people will be interested in this.

[MaverickSY19]

Yes you definitely can run a custom fan profile linked to any of those items I listed in that screenshot. Right now I am running it off the CPU Package temp and it works great. Just wish you could also link in the pump speed but you only have a choice of Quiet or Performance like I mentioned above. One thing that bugs me though is the RPM line they give you off the pump that it says to plug into your CPU fan header doesn't read right, it always shows RPM at 960 when the pump is at quiet and 1400 when its at performance, it doesn't actually show fan RPM. Neither of those speeds match what Corsair Link software says for the Pump speed which is 1900 and 2900 so go figure. So I have to have Corsair link running all the time if I want to see fan speeds.