YoungVegabond Posted November 4, 2020 Share Posted November 4, 2020 hi i have a corsair h150i pro xt aio and i have a really hard time creating a custom curve as i dont know a lot about the subject. please help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c-attack Posted November 4, 2020 Share Posted November 4, 2020 The Corsair AIO coolers and most anyone else running a custom water cooling loop will use coolant/liquid temperature as the fan control variable. The CPU block conducts heat away from the CPU and into the liquid stream. The fans then aid in dissipating the heat from the radiator and blowing it somewhere else. The trick is heat goes both ways across that conductive surface and this means coolant temperature (H150i temp) is the lowest possible CPU temperature. A +1C increase in coolant temp = +1C to the CPU. The same is true in reverse for cooling. The most difficult part of setting up a control curve is understanding your baseline level. Most people will be +4-7C above their room temp, but this varies along multiple factors including CPU type/size, power levels, radiator location, case location, and most of all... room temperature. As your room warms during the day, so will the baseline coolant temperature. This means you need to keep the lower part of your normal range flatter, so you don't get large changes in fan speed because the room/case temp increased by 1C. The easiest way to get started is to create a custom curve in CUE (Performance Tab +). This will reveal a graph at the bottom. In the upper right corner of the graph are three shape tools. Click the left one of the three. This is a copy of the "Quiet" mode. Look at your current H150i XT temp. Assuming you have been doing normal things while reading this (anything non-deliberate load), you are effectively at your baseline coolant temp now. Compare that to the baseline of the quiet curve and offset each point by the difference between your idle level at the 20-23C expected baseline. For example, if your coolant temp is 27C, drag each point on the curve up +4C. This effectively makes the the new baseline of the curve 27C. You always can tweak individual points and water cooling is not overly sensitive to fan changes. No one has ever overheated because they lowered fan speed from 1400 to 1200 rpm. It doesn't work like that. It is a slow tug of war of heat into the cooler vs heat released over time. If you see large changes in coolant temp over time (+10-15C), then your fan speeds might be too low. However, it's only too low if your CPU is too hot. If your coolant goes up +15C but the CPU is still at 60C, then it really doesn't matter. For a 10700-10900K, I would expect a coolant increase of +6-8C after about 10 minutes of a 100% CPU test. Where things get trickier is with large GPU loads that dramatically raise the interior temperature of the case. That will raise the coolant level as well, in step with ambient temp increases. Not uncommon for someone to see +6C for 100% CPU load, but plus 10C while gaming. Nothing you can do about that, except to plan the curve around it. The other option for people who don't like to fiddle too much is to set two profiles with fixed speeds -- one for idle and one for load. Pick a quiet idle speed like 750 rpm. Leave it parked there. You can't overwhelm the cooler without sustained load of at least 10 min. For the load speed, pick something you can tolerate. Most people start to really notice 120s around 1300 rpm on a radiator and your comfort zone likely resides near that speed. Click it into "High speed" mode before starting gaming, renders, or whatever else you do that is a longer load time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoungVegabond Posted November 4, 2020 Author Share Posted November 4, 2020 The Corsair AIO coolers and most anyone else running a custom water cooling loop will use coolant/liquid temperature as the fan control variable. The CPU block conducts heat away from the CPU and into the liquid stream. The fans then aid in dissipating the heat from the radiator and blowing it somewhere else. The trick is heat goes both ways across that conductive surface and this means coolant temperature (H150i temp) is the lowest possible CPU temperature. A +1C increase in coolant temp = +1C to the CPU. The same is true in reverse for cooling. The most difficult part of setting up a control curve is understanding your baseline level. Most people will be +4-7C above their room temp, but this varies along multiple factors including CPU type/size, power levels, radiator location, case location, and most of all... room temperature. As your room warms during the day, so will the baseline coolant temperature. This means you need to keep the lower part of your normal range flatter, so you don't get large changes in fan speed because the room/case temp increased by 1C. The easiest way to get started is to create a custom curve in CUE (Performance Tab +). This will reveal a graph at the bottom. In the upper right corner of the graph are three shape tools. Click the left one of the three. This is a copy of the "Quiet" mode. Look at your current H150i XT temp. Assuming you have been doing normal things while reading this (anything non-deliberate load), you are effectively at your baseline coolant temp now. Compare that to the baseline of the quiet curve and offset each point by the difference between your idle level at the 20-23C expected baseline. For example, if your coolant temp is 27C, drag each point on the curve up +4C. This effectively makes the the new baseline of the curve 27C. You always can tweak individual points and water cooling is not overly sensitive to fan changes. No one has ever overheated because they lowered fan speed from 1400 to 1200 rpm. It doesn't work like that. It is a slow tug of war of heat into the cooler vs heat released over time. If you see large changes in coolant temp over time (+10-15C), then your fan speeds might be too low. However, it's only too low if your CPU is too hot. If your coolant goes up +15C but the CPU is still at 60C, then it really doesn't matter. For a 10700-10900K, I would expect a coolant increase of +6-8C after about 10 minutes of a 100% CPU test. Where things get trickier is with large GPU loads that dramatically raise the interior temperature of the case. That will raise the coolant level as well, in step with ambient temp increases. Not uncommon for someone to see +6C for 100% CPU load, but plus 10C while gaming. Nothing you can do about that, except to plan the curve around it. The other option for people who don't like to fiddle too much is to set two profiles with fixed speeds -- one for idle and one for load. Pick a quiet idle speed like 750 rpm. Leave it parked there. You can't overwhelm the cooler without sustained load of at least 10 min. For the load speed, pick something you can tolerate. Most people start to really notice 120s around 1300 rpm on a radiator and your comfort zone likely resides near that speed. Click it into "High speed" mode before starting gaming, renders, or whatever else you do that is a longer load time. thank you so much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoungVegabond Posted November 5, 2020 Author Share Posted November 5, 2020 oh! just last question what custom curve do you recommend for i9 10850k cpu? english is not my native language so i'll be glad if you could simplify things for me. much apperciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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