Question about H150i Elite Capellix 360mm AIO coolant temps.

[SlayerNebula]

System: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/CBb9Tn

I recently built this computer in February and decided to get another Corsair AIO since I went with the H100i V2 in 2018 and had no issues.

I've been doing a lot of research into what normal coolant temperatures are supposed to be, and I don't know why but my coolant temps sitting at idle are hitting 40-45 C at equilibrium, which doesn't make that much sense to me because the ambient temperature even on hot days isn't enough for the coolant to get that hot, that quick. I don't have any fancy overclock enabled just standard BIOS settings with MCE disabled, which I heard on Z490 boards sends a lot of voltage to the CPU, which creates more heat. I have tried doing custom fan ramps/curves in iCUE and it does seem to have an affect but the coolant still remains hotter than what I've seen others say should be proper idle temperatures. Regarding CPU temps, they are absolutely fine and they never go into the 80's unless I fire up some crazy intense workload like prime95.

My radiator is mounted at the front of my case in the pull (intake) configuration with one rear exhaust and one top exhaust fan, (they came with the case). My build is a tight fit because of the compact Fractal R7 case + the long Gigabyte GPU making it only possible to have the fans sandwiched between the front panel and radiator. However I still believe the airflow is very good as the CPU temperatures never really exceed the mid 70's. Could a improper mounting be the cause or is it just simply higher ambient temperatures in my environment?

[Zotty]

49 minutes ago, SlayerNebula said:

System: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/CBb9Tn

I recently built this computer in February and decided to get another Corsair AIO since I went with the H100i V2 in 2018 and had no issues.

I've been doing a lot of research into what normal coolant temperatures are supposed to be, and I don't know why but my coolant temps sitting at idle are hitting 40-45 C at equilibrium, which doesn't make that much sense to me because the ambient temperature even on hot days isn't enough for the coolant to get that hot, that quick. I don't have any fancy overclock enabled just standard BIOS settings with MCE disabled, which I heard on Z490 boards sends a lot of voltage to the CPU, which creates more heat. I have tried doing custom fan ramps/curves in iCUE and it does seem to have an affect but the coolant still remains hotter than what I've seen others say should be proper idle temperatures. Regarding CPU temps, they are absolutely fine and they never go into the 80's unless I fire up some crazy intense workload like prime95.

My radiator is mounted at the front of my case in the pull (intake) configuration with one rear exhaust and one top exhaust fan, (they came with the case). My build is a tight fit because of the compact Fractal R7 case + the long Gigabyte GPU making it only possible to have the fans sandwiched between the front panel and radiator. However I still believe the airflow is very good as the CPU temperatures never really exceed the mid 70's. Could a improper mounting be the cause or is it just simply higher ambient temperatures in my environment?

Hi buddy.

 

got a fight on your hands with a 3080ti in that case also.

 

but... any change if you run the case with its front panel off?

 

that case is notoriously bad for bad front panel air flow restriction.

 

More info in this review

https://hardwarecanucks.com/computer-cases/fractal-define-7-compact-review/

"Let’s finish the review with some air flow testing in my temperature controlled environment. What we have here is a severely restricted front intake, as we dropped 11°C on the CPU when I removed that front panel. I then swapped out the top panel for a ventilated one just to see what would happen, and that gave us actually better CPU temperature with a 1°C hotter GPU. And again removing the front panel here proves how little air is getting through. I then repositioned the front fan to intake up top in front of the CPU cooler and that didn’t really help versus having the fan upfront. Finally, I moved the fan to the back in the exhaust orientation, and that gave us the coolest CPU temperature when the front panel is installed. If we sort this from best to worst, I would highly recommend that you move the front fan to the top exhaust as this is the most appropriate fan setup for my style of system. And just for quick comparison versus the airflow focused be quiet! Pure Base 500DX, you can see how the Define 7 Compact can be competitive as long as you move the fan and use the mesh panel up top."

Edited April 12, 2022 by Zotty

[SlayerNebula]

33 minutes ago, Zotty said:

Hi buddy.

 

got a fight on your hands with a 3080ti in that case also.

 

but... any change if you run the case with its front panel off?

 

that case is notoriously bad for bad front panel air flow restriction.

 

More info in this review

https://hardwarecanucks.com/computer-cases/fractal-define-7-compact-review/

"Let’s finish the review with some air flow testing in my temperature controlled environment. What we have here is a severely restricted front intake, as we dropped 11°C on the CPU when I removed that front panel. I then swapped out the top panel for a ventilated one just to see what would happen, and that gave us actually better CPU temperature with a 1°C hotter GPU. And again removing the front panel here proves how little air is getting through. I then repositioned the front fan to intake up top in front of the CPU cooler and that didn’t really help versus having the fan upfront. Finally, I moved the fan to the back in the exhaust orientation, and that gave us the coolest CPU temperature when the front panel is installed. If we sort this from best to worst, I would highly recommend that you move the front fan to the top exhaust as this is the most appropriate fan setup for my style of system. And just for quick comparison versus the airflow focused be quiet! Pure Base 500DX, you can see how the Define 7 Compact can be competitive as long as you move the fan and use the mesh panel up top."

Yeah I forgot to mention the 3080Ti which exacerbates the heating, once again I'm only really concerned about the coolant temp because it has reached over 50C before when playing games on a really hot day, room temp was about 31 C.

Taking the front panel off definitely does help and the coolant drops around 3-5 C with it off. Guess I'll just have to take it off on really hot days.

Thanks for the response I figured it was an issue with the mounting but your observation seems correct. Probably should have gone with the regular R7 or maybe one of those Lian-Li cases for spacious airflow.

[c-attack]

Minimum coolant temperature will always be tied the current ambient internal case temp. Without getting fancy with thermal imaging or dedicated temperature probes, take a look at the “motherboard temperature” in any monitoring program. Typically this is down near the PCI-e slots and will give you an idea of what to expect. I’d guess you will see 40C there too. 
 

The GPU is always the big heater in the case and it is normal for users running top exhaust to see a +10C rise in coolant when gaming, more than when they run an extended max cpu load. That is all heat from the gpu. Aside from moving the radiator to the front and out of that zone, you can try high rear exhaust fan speed and then set a moderate fixed radiator fan speed before gaming. If you allow those radiator fans to max out, they will only pull more gpu waste heat through the radiator. It would be preferable for more of it to go out the back. As mentioned above, anything that helps with ambient case temp control will help here. 

[SlayerNebula]

6 minutes ago, c-attack said:

Minimum coolant temperature will always be tied the current ambient internal case temp. Without getting fancy with thermal imaging or dedicated temperature probes, take a look at the “motherboard temperature” in any monitoring program. Typically this is down near the PCI-e slots and will give you an idea of what to expect. I’d guess you will see 40C there too. 
 

The GPU is always the big heater in the case and it is normal for users running top exhaust to see a +10C rise in coolant when gaming, more than when they run an extended max cpu load. That is all heat from the gpu. Aside from moving the radiator to the front and out of that zone, you can try high rear exhaust fan speed and then set a moderate fixed radiator fan speed before gaming. If you allow those radiator fans to max out, they will only pull more gpu waste heat through the radiator. It would be preferable for more of it to go out the back. As mentioned above, anything that helps with ambient case temp control will help here. 

Yeah I see what you're saying for sure, it's definitely a GPU heat issue mainly, my case has a front panel that restricts the air flow, after taking it off coolant levels dropped 7+ C and GPU temp also dropped around 5 C. I don't know if you saw but the only way the 360mm radiator fits in the Fractal Define R7 compact is on the front and I have it in a pull/intake config. I'm probably just going to leave the front panel off just to keep temps down.

Fractal really should release a Meshify panel for those that want airflow on the Define series cases, 5 degrees can make a big difference in the long term.

Anyways thanks for taking the time, much appreciated. 🙂