Request: iCUE ELITE CAPELLIX - Lower RPM (< 2000 RPM) for Quiet Profile via Firmware

[FunkDoctorSpot]

First of all, thank you @FireWarner for your amazing mod.

 

I've bought my h115i Capellix 2 weeks ago and after installing it and starting the computer I thought I've gotten a broken one and looked into returning it. But not after googling the problem - and lo and behold, I suddenly saw a flood of Reddit-posts and obviously topics on this forum regarding the INSANE noise levels of the pump.

Before ordering the AIO i have obviously watched and read pretty much every review available and NONE of them have mentioned the noise levels, wich is a joke in and of itself. Not even the big Youtube-Channels known for calling out big manufacturers on BS like LTT or JayzTwoCents have lost a single word regarding this when using it in their builds.

The balanced-mod is the only thing that makes having the computer on bearable. And even then i can clearly hear the pump (even with 2x 120mm fans @800RPM + 4x 140mm fans @800RPM) when i am 5m away it is otherwise completely quiet in the room. It still sounds like a standard boxed-aircooler running at 2000RPM - The exact thing that I tried to get away from by switching to an AIO.

So since a lot of people have been attributing the problem to the way that the pump is mounted on the socket / mainboard, I was looking into ways to convert it to more of a custom- / intel-style mount (directly screwing it onto the backplate using the 4 screws instead of using the stupid hooks that seem to just turn the whole motherboard into a tuning fork) but couldn't find anything.

BUT what i have found is a mount by legendary overclocker der8auer ("der8auer RYZEN 3000 OC Bracket AIO Mount").

Even though it is not supposed to reduce noise but instead help with thermals on Ryzen 3000/5000, does anyone on here have it in use or is willing to try it and could give us some feedback on wether or not it helps with noise too?

[David Soeiro]

2 hours ago, FireWarner said:

Use my mod To het rid of the bzzzzzz or'whine'

I use it every day since i discovered it here 😉 It's much better with your MOD but pump still the most noisy component in my computer 😞 My old computer have Corsair H80 and it looks less noisy than Capellix 

[Mile]

2 hours ago, FunkDoctorSpot said:

Before ordering the AIO i have obviously watched and read pretty much every review available and NONE of them have mentioned the noise levels, wich is a joke in and of itself. Not even the big Youtube-Channels known for calling out big manufacturers on BS like LTT or JayzTwoCents have lost a single word regarding this when using it in their builds.

 

 

 

Exactly, none of the big youtubers is talking about this noise issue, I guess Corsair is sponsoring them quite hefty 

[FunkDoctorSpot]

25 minutes ago, Mile said:

 

Exactly, none of the big youtubers is talking about this noise issue, I guess Corsair is sponsoring them quite hefty 

Yeah, it's extremely frustrating.

The J2C-Video on the Elite LCD (same pump as our Capellix) for example. It's 23:40 long and not a single mention of the extremely loud pump noise.

[Scoop]

Recently been experimenting and have found that using the Variable speed option which on my system seems to run at 2244 to 2260rpm has a sweet spot which doesn't whine or sound noisy, maybe its just blending in with background noise ??   

[Doggy]

On 12/16/2021 at 4:01 AM, Corsair Nick said:

Thanks for continuing to provide the information we're requesting. 

Some very thorough feedback, thanks for providing the additional details.  I can't provide any specifics on the testing processes, other than it has been very extensive.

@Corsair Nick

What is the status of Corsiar's official solution?

Corsair keeps asking for more information, but nothing is done with this information!!!😡

the analyst state is already over. And shut be Known Error.

 

We want a solution!

[FunkDoctorSpot]

9 hours ago, Doggy said:

@Corsair Nick

What is the status of Corsiar's official solution?

Corsair keeps asking for more information, but nothing is done with this information!!!😡

the analyst state is already over. And shut be Known Error.

 

 

Their solution was the variable pump speed that @Scoop is talking about.

It seems that they at least have tried something and found a spot in wich the pump basically has a sweetspot in wich the pump hits some sort of harmonically balanced frequence that (partly) makes the noise more bearable.

Doesn't change the fact though that @FireWarner's solution is better nontheless. Makes the pump basically silent (within reason).

My best guess is that that's where Corsair's investigation will stop forever - Because otherwise they'd have to admit that the community "hacking" a file is a better solution than what they were able to come up with - If they even admit to the whole product being unfit for sale if we're honest. Especially since there'd probably be conflict between them and the actual manufacturer of the AIO, wich is probably why they stayed with the whole "oh no, it's supposed to sound like that and we can't hear anything in our testing" -thing for so long.

[Ba1dr1ck]

Well I ended up moving away from Corsair AIOs for the first time ever after reading the posts. The one that i got is very quiet even with the pump at full rpms.

Hopefully the RAM rgb color issue can be solved with any Icue up date if not I will be moving away from them too. 

[Mile]

Smart decision, ignorance of Corsair should not be ignored

[SpeedyV]

I also was lucky enough to see this thread before I bought my last AIO. I went with another brand (can't say which because that is not allowed) specifically because of this thread . That was in the summer of 2021. It is both amazing and sad that I can come back here in February of 2022 and Corsair has still not done anything to fix this.

[FireWarner]

7 hours ago, SpeedyV said:

I also was lucky enough to see this thread before I bought my last AIO. I went with another brand (can't say which because that is not allowed) specifically because of this thread . That was in the summer of 2021. It is both amazing and sad that I can come back here in February of 2022 and Corsair has still not done anything to fix this.

Yup.. And we cant do anything about it..

[Corsair Albert]

Hi all,

Your frustration is understood - we are doing our best to have this issue resolved. We're currently in the process of bringing in any additional units for a further testing stage.

[badchestpains]

Ive just installed a h150i elite to replace a faulty cooler from another manufacturer. The other cooler did not sound like this at all. it was near silent.

Think I'm going to return this product as its not fit for purpose.

Does anyone know if this issue effects other coolers in corsairs lineup?

[Xlony]

On 2/11/2022 at 9:36 AM, Corsair Albert said:

Hi all,

Your frustration is understood - we are doing our best to have this issue resolved. We're currently in the process of bringing in any additional units for a further testing stage.

[manicfoot]

Hi,

I have a H100i RGB Platinum and doing a completely clean install of iCue somehow changed the RPM of the quiet preset from 2300 or so to 1920 RPM.

You can try it for yourself by following the below steps:

1. Go to control panel, programs and uninstall iCue.
2. tick both boxes for deleting profiles/other data
3. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ and delete the entire Corsair folder.
4. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ and delete the entire Corsair folder.
5. Type %appdata%, then click OK.
6. Delete any Corsair folders in the window that pops up.
7.Re-open the Run command and type %localappdata%.
8. Delete any Corsair folders that appear.
9. Reboot and reinstall iCue.

I am guessing your mileage will vary here depending on the model of your pump, but I wanted to share just in case it helped somebody, as I know full well how annoying these pump noises can be.

For me it's decreased the sound a lot. It's still there, of course but it's a night and day difference compared to how it was before and the temps are exactly the same.

[FunkDoctorSpot]

Now that's interesting.

Could you please tell us what version your firmware and iCue software are?

[zultan]

21 hours ago, manicfoot said:

Hi,

I have a H100i RGB Platinum and doing a completely clean install of iCue somehow changed the RPM of the quiet preset from 2300 or so to 1920 RPM.

You can try it for yourself by following the below steps:

1. Go to control panel, programs and uninstall iCue.
2. tick both boxes for deleting profiles/other data
3. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ and delete the entire Corsair folder.
4. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ and delete the entire Corsair folder.
5. Type %appdata%, then click OK.
6. Delete any Corsair folders in the window that pops up.
7.Re-open the Run command and type %localappdata%.
8. Delete any Corsair folders that appear.
9. Reboot and reinstall iCue.

I am guessing your mileage will vary here depending on the model of your pump, but I wanted to share just in case it helped somebody, as I know full well how annoying these pump noises can be.

For me it's decreased the sound a lot. It's still there, of course but it's a night and day difference compared to how it was before and the temps are exactly the same.

2300 rpm on "silent" is absurd.  my h150i pro pump on "silent" shifts from 930 to 990 rpm and

I can still hear it sometimes.  my temps are perfect so I wonder about the need for such high

speeds.  I'm following this thread carefully as I'm terrified about choosing my new aio when the

one I have will be dead (I hope not soon) or maybe "unsupported"....  

[manicfoot]

It's really baffling how the RPM speeds vary so much from model to model, especially as the all basically have the same closed loop design. AIOs were meant to bring water cooling to the masses, but it seems the variety in quality is so vast and the market is so saturated with products it becomes almost impossible to choose the right one for you.

If I ever do get another AIO, I will investigate its RPM speeds first. I have a tempered glass case, so there's nothing to isolate the pump noise at all. The H100i was marketed as a near-silent pump and I unfortunately believed that.

17 hours ago, FunkDoctorSpot said:

Now that's interesting.

Could you please tell us what version your firmware and iCue software are?

Sure. I'm running:

Icue V420.169

pump firmware V1.01.15

If anyone else has success with reducing their pump's RPM please let me know. I'm very curious 🙂

[FunkDoctorSpot]

6 hours ago, manicfoot said:

It's really baffling how the RPM speeds vary so much from model to model, especially as the all basically have the same closed loop design. AIOs were meant to bring water cooling to the masses, but it seems the variety in quality is so vast and the market is so saturated with products it becomes almost impossible to choose the right one for you.

If I ever do get another AIO, I will investigate its RPM speeds first. I have a tempered glass case, so there's nothing to isolate the pump noise at all. The H100i was marketed as a near-silent pump and I unfortunately believed that.

Sure. I'm running:

Icue V420.169

pump firmware V1.01.15

If anyone else has success with reducing their pump's RPM please let me know. I'm very curious 🙂

Ok so I immediately let iCUE check for updates as soon as i saw your post and it didn't show any. But now i checked again and it let me update from v419.191 to v420.169 ... Wich didn't make a difference.

So I went on to delete everything with the name corsair from my computer as per your instructions and did a completely fresh install of iCUE ... Wich also didn't make a difference.

I might be just me or the difference between your RGB Platinum and my/our Elite Capellix so it'd be helpful if a couple more people could try it - Just beware that you'll obviously have to redo all your lighting setups and fan-curves.

[manicfoot]

39 minutes ago, FunkDoctorSpot said:

Ok so I immediately let iCUE check for updates as soon as i saw your post and it didn't show any. But now i checked again and it let me update from v419.191 to v420.169 ... Wich didn't make a difference.

So I went on to delete everything with the name corsair from my computer as per your instructions and did a completely fresh install of iCUE ... Wich also didn't make a difference.

I might be just me or the difference between your RGB Platinum and my/our Elite Capellix so it'd be helpful if a couple more people could try it - Just beware that you'll obviously have to redo all your lighting setups and fan-curves.

Sorry that it didn't help you. It would indeed be useful if others could try it just in case it does work.. But indeed, whether it helps or not will most likely depend on your pump.

Have you tried controlling the pump via Argus Monitor btw? You can set the speed by percentage. In my case the lowest percentage is 25, which is actually slightly higher than the setting I can now achieve in iCUE. However, in your case it might be a lower and reduce the noise. You never know 🙂 

[Beff Jezoz]

Hi,

I bought a new Corsair H150i Elite LCD and I have the same issue. 

I tried a lot. The lowest possible RPM by hacking iCue cnfg. is 1950rpm, which still creates anoying pump whining but on a lower frequence. 

I found out, that the LCD Cover is only flummsy attached to the pump and because the Cover is designed hollow from inside (picture 1) and made of thin Plastic, the Cover works as a resonance body. 

Light pressure on the LCD Cover elimnates Lots of the noise. My Idea Was to fill the resonacecorpus with Silikone.

But because i dont want to glue the hollow LCD cap on my 300€ AiO, and because Corsair Team supports this thread here very poorly only, I have no hope for this 150i Elite LCD and will change to another Brand, if the support has no solution for me in the next days. I have to change all my fans and RAM then too because i dont want the corsair commander and ICue to run case fans and RAM LED only. There are better solutions for me with AURA if i cant use Corsair LCD AiO.

I am very disappointed and this whole experience will last long. I put in a lot of time and energy.

I also Figured out, that the whole manufacture quality of the Elite LCD  AiO is very low. (Picture 2)

 

Setup:

R7 2700x; B450 E-Gaming; RX6700XT vertical mount; 2x8GB 3200 CL16 Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro; Windows 11 on NVMe, Lots of Silent Fans, rubberpads and extra tight screws after that 150i shock.

Phanteks Eclipse P600S Silent with thick mat for noise cancellation 😉

Sitting away 4 meters from the Rig, in a 18m² Livingstone room and playing on a 50" 4k TV.

[SpeedyV]

17 hours ago, Beff Jezoz said:

Hi,

I bought a new Corsair H150i Elite LCD and I have the same issue. 

I tried a lot. The lowest possible RPM by hacking iCue cnfg. is 1950rpm, which still creates anoying pump whining but on a lower frequence. 

I found out, that the LCD Cover is only flummsy attached to the pump and because the Cover is designed hollow from inside (picture 1) and made of thin Plastic, the Cover works as a resonance body. 

Light pressure on the LCD Cover elimnates Lots of the noise. My Idea Was to fill the resonacecorpus with Silikone.

But because i dont want to glue the hollow LCD cap on my 300€ AiO, and because Corsair Team supports this thread here very poorly only, I have no hope for this 150i Elite LCD and will change to another Brand, if the support has no solution for me in the next days. I have to change all my fans and RAM then too because i dont want the corsair commander and ICue to run case fans and RAM LED only. There are better solutions for me with AURA if i cant use Corsair LCD AiO.

I am very disappointed and this whole experience will last long. I put in a lot of time and energy.

I also Figured out, that the whole manufacture quality of the Elite LCD  AiO is very low. (Picture 2)

 

Setup:

R7 2700x; B450 E-Gaming; RX6700XT vertical mount; 2x8GB 3200 CL16 Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro; Windows 11 on NVMe, Lots of Silent Fans, rubberpads and extra tight screws after that 150i shock.

Phanteks Eclipse P600S Silent with thick mat for noise cancellation 😉

Sitting away 4 meters from the Rig, in a 18m² Livingstone room and playing on a 50" 4k TV.

I think pretty much all AIO pumps that sit on the CPU block are made by Asetek these days. Some of the earlier Corsair AIO's (H80, H80i, H100, H100i, H110i, H110i GT) had CoolIt pumps which were better in many ways. Asetek pretty much ran CoolIt out of the market due to a patent they have on putting the pump on the CPU block, so now they all use Asetek pumps, at least in the US.

Because of this thread, I bought an AIO made by another company (forum rules do not allow me to say which one) that uses an Asetek pump and it's not noisy at all. I also have full control over the pump speed (not with iCue). It is generally known in the custom loop world that pump speed, within reason, does not really affect cooling efficiency, so there really is no reason to have these pumps running as fast as they do. Those who have hacked the config file to slow them down report no increase in temps. This pump speed limitation is an iCue thing. If you want full control of your pump speed, don't use iCue to control it. Unfortunately, Corsair makes it very hard to do that with their products.

All of this said, I think you may be onto something here when you talk about the cheap-o hollow plastic cover that Corsair sticks on acting as a resonant cavity, amplifying the pump noise. This makes sense because the same Asetek pump is used in many other brands of AIO, and they are not getting noise complaints. I tried to get Corsair to explain to me how they arrived at the published noise spec for these pumps and I never got a straight answer. The response I got was that the  Corsair guy had one on an open test bench and he can't hear it. So I guess their spec is that this guy can't hear it so its ok. No info on how the noise level was measured - what calibrated measurement device was used, at what distance, and in what environment, with or without fans running, etc. TBH the impression I got was that they just made something up and never really did a proper noise level measurement. They have been dancing every since because if they admit it, they are looking at a product recall.

PS -  Your pictures of how this "top of the line" product is assembled is disturbing, though sadly not surprising.

[Corsair Nick]

Hi,

I bought a new Corsair H150i Elite LCD and I have the same issue. 

I tried a lot. The lowest possible RPM by hacking iCue cnfg. is 1950rpm, which still creates anoying pump whining but on a lower frequence. 

I found out, that the LCD Cover is only flummsy attached to the pump and because the Cover is designed hollow from inside (picture 1) and made of thin Plastic, the Cover works as a resonance body. 

Light pressure on the LCD Cover elimnates Lots of the noise. My Idea Was to fill the resonacecorpus with Silikone.

But because i dont want to glue the hollow LCD cap on my 300€ AiO, and because Corsair Team supports this thread here very poorly only, I have no hope for this 150i Elite LCD and will change to another Brand, if the support has no solution for me in the next days. I have to change all my fans and RAM then too because i dont want the corsair commander and ICue to run case fans and RAM LED only. There are better solutions for me with AURA if i cant use Corsair LCD AiO.

I am very disappointed and this whole experience will last long. I put in a lot of time and energy.

I also Figured out, that the whole manufacture quality of the Elite LCD  AiO is very low. (Picture 2)

 

Setup:

R7 2700x; B450 E-Gaming; RX6700XT vertical mount; 2x8GB 3200 CL16 Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro; Windows 11 on NVMe, Lots of Silent Fans, rubberpads and extra tight screws after that 150i shock.

Phanteks Eclipse P600S Silent with thick mat for noise cancellation 😉

Sitting away 4 meters from the Rig, in a 18m² Livingstone room and playing on a 50" 4k TV.

Thanks for providing your feedback.  What we would like to do is capture your unit for evaluation.  I've created a ticket from your post so that your unit can be sent in for an RMA.  Our support team will provide your more details through our support ticket system.

[Corsair Nick]

We appreciate those of you that have sent your units in for further testing to help better understand the adverse noise that all of you are reporting.  Despite what some of you believe, our testing of these sample units provided by the community has been extremely extensive.  Our evaluation of the feedback all of you have reported regarding noise levels is still ongoing, however all units provided by the community have tested to be within spec.  At this time, we are recommending that anyone experiencing noise levels that you feel are excessive, please submit a ticket through our support site so that we can begin the RMA process:

https://support.corsair.com/

[Beff Jezoz]

33 minutes ago, Corsair Nick said:

 

Thanks for providing your feedback.  What we would like to do is capture your unit for evaluation.  I've created a ticket from your post so that your unit can be sent in for an RMA.  Our support team will provide your more details through our support ticket system.

 

I really have to think about if the, in theory, awesome product is worth the effort. My feelings say, that this is your actual build-quality? What do you say to the cablepackage on the pump? I can see open cablecores. Came out of the sealed box like this =( 

I also got in trouble with the included commander controller. I slighly pushed the Fan-connectors on the headers and the headercastings immediatly started moving into the commander-controller. Still working fine but a creepy experience I had never before with a Fanheader before.

I payed 300€ to get a working product and now I am about to become something like a volunteer BETA tester. I hope you can understand, that its more logic for me to just send it back to the shop where I bought it to get my money back. It should be on you to prevent customer deception for the future. I dont know how big impact of customers like me is for Corsair, but you can see, we are technically adept. If you cant meet demands, just dont try it.

It seems like this pump whining thing is a well nown and big thing for your AiO-department. 

But thank you for your fast reaction and I will reply to the ticket when I know what I really want and need.

I wish you all a good weekend!

Greetings from Germany