H150i Elite LCD coolant temps

[VicePreyOG]

Hey everyone

So i've been using the H150i Elite LCD now for 2 weeks (Was using the H150i Elite Capellix that i borrowed from my friend before). Cooling wise it's pretty decent for the 5900x. What confuses me now is that the coolant temperatures stay between 33 and 35 while browsing/watching youtube videos (Idle at 32). While gaming (Apex Legends, Call of Duty, Destiny, Battlefield and other games) the coolant temps reach up to 43 degrees. I've heard that those temps are pretty normal for the Elite Lcd/Capellix but i'm still not 100% sure. There other Aio's where the coolant doesn't even reach 36 degrees. 

Should i be worried that things get harmed or that my hardware gets thermal throttled? My CPU has reached a max temp of 82 while gaming and my GPU 69 (nice).

[c-attack]

There’s really no “your coolant should be XX Temp”, even when comparing the same cpu model. There are several components to that temperature and cpu wattage less heat dissipated is just one part.
 

The bottom layer is environmental ambient temperature. No matter what, if it’s 34C in the general area where the radiator is located, then minimum coolant temperature will be 34C. This is especially true when using the radiator as top exhaust. The air temp passing through it sets both the minimum and also effects the total heat dissipation potential. 

 

With local temp as the baseline, now you can factor in CPU wattage vs fan speed (heat dissipation). There are some complicated factors in here, but generally speaking you might expect a 4.5C rise for 150W on a 360x30mm radiator with fans at 1300rpm. Radiator enter air temp, flow rate, fan speed, all affect that number to some small degree, but it’s a reasonable estimate. 
 

Then the more random element when gaming is how the gpu raises internal case temperature and thus the baseline coolant temp as well. Radiator position and how much of that waste heat passses through it will again affect coolant temperature. This is one of the prime reasons to front mount your radiator as intake in a system with gpu heavy loads — to remove it from the gpu waste heat flow. 
 

Before you start moving stuff around, know that +-1C of coolant temp equals the same +-1C to cpu temp.  So lowering your coolant temp from 43 to 40 will also reduce cpu temp by 3C. That may not be of great value when the cpu temp ranges in the 50s vs the reduction in airflow by front mounting the radiator (higher resistance) or the increase in ambient from dumping the cpu waste heat into the case. Exhaust air temp from the radiator will be approximately equal to coolant temp or the air temp entering, whichever is greater. 

[VicePreyOG]

3 hours ago, c-attack said:

There’s really no “your coolant should be XX Temp”, even when comparing the same cpu model. There are several components to that temperature and cpu wattage less heat dissipated is just one part.
 

The bottom layer is environmental ambient temperature. No matter what, if it’s 34C in the general area where the radiator is located, then minimum coolant temperature will be 34C. This is especially true when using the radiator as top exhaust. The air temp passing through it sets both the minimum and also effects the total heat dissipation potential. 

 

With local temp as the baseline, now you can factor in CPU wattage vs fan speed (heat dissipation). There are some complicated factors in here, but generally speaking you might expect a 4.5C rise for 150W on a 360x30mm radiator with fans at 1300rpm. Radiator enter air temp, flow rate, fan speed, all affect that number to some small degree, but it’s a reasonable estimate. 
 

Then the more random element when gaming is how the gpu raises internal case temperature and thus the baseline coolant temp as well. Radiator position and how much of that waste heat passses through it will again affect coolant temperature. This is one of the prime reasons to front mount your radiator as intake in a system with gpu heavy loads — to remove it from the gpu waste heat flow. 
 

Before you start moving stuff around, know that +-1C of coolant temp equals the same +-1C to cpu temp.  So lowering your coolant temp from 43 to 40 will also reduce cpu temp by 3C. That may not be of great value when the cpu temp ranges in the 50s vs the reduction in airflow by front mounting the radiator (higher resistance) or the increase in ambient from dumping the cpu waste heat into the case. Exhaust air temp from the radiator will be approximately equal to coolant temp or the air temp entering, whichever is greater. 

Thank you for your help! Really appreciate the time you took. Im going to move the radiator to the front/side as intake and see, if things get a little bit better 🙂

[Zepplin71]

Hello guys,

I wanted to add my own experience....

Just completed a new build with the I9 12900K and the H150i LCd Elite cooler. Now, living in Scotland , my ambient temps are, shall we say, not high. After around 30 minutes of lightly using the PC - browsing internet, downloading a game (not playing) - my coolant temps are around 34 degrees celsius. I know i am probably over thinking this. My previous set up was an I9 9900K and coolant temps under similar circumstances were 31 degrees on a 280mm radiator. The AIO is working, this i know. My only thought is that I have not properly connected the pump head.

I do realise that there are more factors to this. For instance, I'm running a large EVGA RTX 3080 Ti FTW3 Gaming Ultra GPU. I have three in-take fans at the front front, one exhaust. The radiator is mounted at the top of the case.

Any thoughts from thos more experienced would be greatly appreciated.

Kind egards.

 

Grant.

[LeDoyen]

well the 3080 does dump some heat in the case even in idle. With the zero RPM fan modes, it may idle in the 50 ish °C ?

If mounted as exhaust, the AIO base temp will never go lower than the internal case temp, regardless of your room temperature.

Even when gaming, if you have a cool 15°C in the room and the 3080 chugs along, raising the case temp to 35°C, you may see your AIO with 40+ °C, despite being in a chilly room.

Ideally you'd want to set the AIO on the front to get cool air through, and exhaust warm air NOT through a cooler radiator.

But if your ambient is cold, maybe it doesn't matter too much.

[Zepplin71]

Hello LeDoyen,

Thank you for responding.

Yes, that 3080 Ti does give off a fair bit of heat, I imagine, even while sitting there. Out of interest, I use the built-in "stealth" fan curve in EVGA's Precision X.

Of course, your explanation about the internal temperatures makes perfect sense - my room might be cool, but inside the case...?

I suppose it was mostly the financial outlay that drove my OCD overboard. 🙂 I mean, it's cooling; the amount of heat disipated through the top of the case proves that, I think.

Anyhoo, all the best.

 

Grant.

[Corsair Notepad]

6 hours ago, Zepplin71 said:

Hello guys,

I wanted to add my own experience....

Just completed a new build with the I9 12900K and the H150i LCd Elite cooler. Now, living in Scotland , my ambient temps are, shall we say, not high. After around 30 minutes of lightly using the PC - browsing internet, downloading a game (not playing) - my coolant temps are around 34 degrees celsius. I know i am probably over thinking this. My previous set up was an I9 9900K and coolant temps under similar circumstances were 31 degrees on a 280mm radiator. The AIO is working, this i know. My only thought is that I have not properly connected the pump head.

I do realise that there are more factors to this. For instance, I'm running a large EVGA RTX 3080 Ti FTW3 Gaming Ultra GPU. I have three in-take fans at the front front, one exhaust. The radiator is mounted at the top of the case.

Any thoughts from thos more experienced would be greatly appreciated.

Kind egards.

 

Grant.

You also need to account for the TDP differences between the 12900k and the 9900k. The 12900k produces a lot more heat than the 9900k, especially considering the 12900k can use upwards of 250watts or more of power without overclocking.

[c-attack]

As noted above, different power levels between those two processors. A simple 1.5C increase from wattage and 1.5C increase to case ambient temp (weather, room, or increased MB heat) gets you +3C. Either way, a 3C increase is a small change and many users will see a higher variance between morning and late afternoon for ambient temp alone. 

[Zepplin71]

I appraciate the explanations, guys. Seriously. I spent a lot of money - my choice, of course - and wanted to be sure i had assembled the components properly.

[VicePreyOG]

On 5/9/2022 at 12:03 PM, c-attack said:

There’s really no “your coolant should be XX Temp”, even when comparing the same cpu model. There are several components to that temperature and cpu wattage less heat dissipated is just one part.
 

The bottom layer is environmental ambient temperature. No matter what, if it’s 34C in the general area where the radiator is located, then minimum coolant temperature will be 34C. This is especially true when using the radiator as top exhaust. The air temp passing through it sets both the minimum and also effects the total heat dissipation potential. 

 

With local temp as the baseline, now you can factor in CPU wattage vs fan speed (heat dissipation). There are some complicated factors in here, but generally speaking you might expect a 4.5C rise for 150W on a 360x30mm radiator with fans at 1300rpm. Radiator enter air temp, flow rate, fan speed, all affect that number to some small degree, but it’s a reasonable estimate. 
 

Then the more random element when gaming is how the gpu raises internal case temperature and thus the baseline coolant temp as well. Radiator position and how much of that waste heat passses through it will again affect coolant temperature. This is one of the prime reasons to front mount your radiator as intake in a system with gpu heavy loads — to remove it from the gpu waste heat flow. 
 

Before you start moving stuff around, know that +-1C of coolant temp equals the same +-1C to cpu temp.  So lowering your coolant temp from 43 to 40 will also reduce cpu temp by 3C. That may not be of great value when the cpu temp ranges in the 50s vs the reduction in airflow by front mounting the radiator (higher resistance) or the increase in ambient from dumping the cpu waste heat into the case. Exhaust air temp from the radiator will be approximately equal to coolant temp or the air temp entering, whichever is greater. 

So i haven't moved the radiator yet because i wasnt at home these past few days. Today i actually wanted to do it but a friend of mine wanted me to play some warzone and we did. After 3 hours of gaming (and streaming) the coolant temps dont go below 36 degrees while browsing and watching videos. Im just going to assume that thats still normal due to the weather getting hotter and hotter.

[c-attack]

16 minutes ago, VicePreyOG said:

the coolant temps dont go below 36 degrees while browsing and watching videos. Im just going to assume that thats still normal due to the weather getting hotter and hotter.

Most likely that became the internal temperature of the case.  Couple hours of the GPU running full tilt will raise the internal temperature of everything inside.  After that is can be difficult to get back to the level you were at before that.  As a quick check, you can look at the "motherboard temperature" reported in most monitoring programs (can be hard to pick out in the CUE dashboard).  After a gaming session, I would expect coolant and the MB temp to be very close to each other.  

[Zepplin71]

VicePreyOG,

If it's any help in reassuring you, once my PC has been on and running for a bit, and I've just been browsing the web, my coolant temps rarely dip below 35. Gaming, they are around 40 to 41. When I stop gaming, they immediately start to drop. Now, I understand we have different CPUs, but as you can see from my post above, I was concerned too.

Grant.

[VicePreyOG]

6 hours ago, Zepplin71 said:

VicePreyOG,

If it's any help in reassuring you, once my PC has been on and running for a bit, and I've just been browsing the web, my coolant temps rarely dip below 35. Gaming, they are around 40 to 41. When I stop gaming, they immediately start to drop. Now, I understand we have different CPUs, but as you can see from my post above, I was concerned too.

Grant.

I have a 5900x. While playing my coolant reached a temperature of 44 degrees. Temps weren't that bad 2-3 months ago. I guess that the temperatures outside do play an important role too.

[PAlvarez05]

Hi Guys, I'm going to highjack this thread maybe someone can help me out. I am trying to troubleshoot whether or not i have a faulty pump.

My coolant temps are a steady 30-34c, regardless what I'm doing (H170i Capellix on a 11900k), but my CPU temps are idling extremely high (50c) and under load i throttle, this is a new behavior I've this system for a while already, around 5-6 months. I already reseated the CPU with new thermal grease, I have excellent airflow with a Corsair 1000D and about 12 corsair 120mm case fans, any ideas on how i can finish troubleshooting the AIO before i start a warranty process?

[LeDoyen]

the pump isn't the highest part of the loop? could be air in the pump block. but if you reseated the pump, i guess it's fine, you moved it while doing so.

I'd be surprised the coldplate is clogged after 6 months only

That said even with no air and new paste, if the mounting pressure is bad, or very bad, you can have overheating. worth checking if the pump isnt loose

[Zepplin71]

VicePreyOG,

After further testing, I wanted to update you. Running more demanding gaming titles results in my coolant temps reaching just under 45 degrees ceslius. The CPU temps appear to remain around 60-70 degrees.

Hope this helps somewhat.

Grant.

[VicePreyOG]

2 minutes ago, Zepplin71 said:

VicePreyOG,

After further testing, I wanted to update you. Running more demanding gaming titles results in my coolant temps reaching just under 45 degrees ceslius. The CPU temps appear to remain around 60-70 degrees.

Hope this helps somewhat.

Grant.

Yes thank you! Like I said. I think its going to get even hotter in the upcoming months... But as long as the liquid temps dont reach 60 everything should be fine 🙂

[PAlvarez05]

16 hours ago, LeDoyen said:

the pump isn't the highest part of the loop? could be air in the pump block. but if you reseated the pump, i guess it's fine, you moved it while doing so.

I'd be surprised the coldplate is clogged after 6 months only

That said even with no air and new paste, if the mounting pressure is bad, or very bad, you can have overheating. worth checking if the pump isnt loose

The radiator is at placed at the top of the case with it's 3 fans set as exhausted, the front of the case has 8 corsair 120mm fans set as intake and two more fans at the back set as exhaust.

Mounting pressure is good, i'd been building system for decades now, also it was working fine a couple of days ago, this is a sudden change in the performance of the AIO, which is why i believe is a faulty pump.

What do you mean if the pump isn't loose?

[c-attack]

2 hours ago, PAlvarez05 said:

Mounting pressure is good, i'd been building system for decades now, also it was working fine a couple of days ago, this is a sudden change in the performance of the AIO, which is why i believe is a faulty pump.

If your coolant temps remain at 30-34C but you idle at 50C, it’s not a flow or pump issue. In a flow restricted state the coolant will climb continuously and match the cpu temp at idle when voltage drops. You would be at 50C coolant and 50C cpu temp. It’s more likely something is keeping your cpu on a load voltage when it would normally step down. Check your idle Vcore level and then what might be keeping it active. 

[PAlvarez05]

3 hours ago, c-attack said:

If your coolant temps remain at 30-34C but you idle at 50C, it’s not a flow or pump issue. In a flow restricted state the coolant will climb continuously and match the cpu temp at idle when voltage drops. You would be at 50C coolant and 50C cpu temp. It’s more likely something is keeping your cpu on a load voltage when it would normally step down. Check your idle Vcore level and then what might be keeping it active. 

Hmm... But if ghr coolant is still flowing , it would eventually cool off by radiator , would it not ? I resseted my bios and enforced a lock on all voltages btw 

[c-attack]

I don't mean at the BIOS level.  Your complaint was high idle CPU temperatures.  You need to make sure you are actually "at idle", which normally means the Vcore has stepped down to approximately ~0.65-0.75v.  If you are at 51C and 34C coolant, it's more likely the CPU is still loaded with a Vcore over 1.xx volts.  

 

Flow rate and fan speed matter very little at actual idle CPU levels.  There is minimal wattage to dissipate and the CPU temp is effectively the coolant temp plus 1-2C as the cores turn on/off in the relaxed state.  A dead pump or extreme reduction in flow rate will keep the fluid in the CPU block too long and cause the local area to continually increase in heat.  Since heat is conducted both ways across the cold plate, the CPU and coolant go up together and usually stay up. So even if only mildly flow restricted, the idle coolant and CPU temp would stay together, but be several degrees higher than expected and likely creep up together over an extended up time.  In this state when you load the CPU, the coolant goes up, but then won't come back down very easily.  

 

Another way to test this issue is to run a mild CPU stress test, something like the CPU-Z bench tab stress test.  If you have a dead pump, you would have 30 seconds after power on before the CPU hit the MB safety mark at 95-105C and it shuts down.  That's obviously not the case here.  However, bad physical contact between the CPU and cold plate is a possible problem and related to the mounting mechanism.  The key difference between this and what I am suggesting above is with bad contact, you are high idle and it's impossible to run any type of stress test.  Even opening a browser will ping your CPU temp into the 60C+ zone.  The moment you start it will hit 100C and stop itself.  On the other hand, if this is just something keeping the CPU loaded at idle, the peak CPU temps under load will still be the same as they were before.  1.25v on your CPU (or whatever value) will return about the same load temp at the same general ambient temp each time.  The conductivity of the cold plate does not change.  If your peak CPU temps are the same as usual, and the coolant doesn't go up beyond the normal 4-6C for 5-10 minutes of running, then you are looking at CPU behavioral issues rather than the cooler itself.  

[PAlvarez05]

On 5/14/2022 at 4:54 PM, c-attack said:

I don't mean at the BIOS level.  Your complaint was high idle CPU temperatures.  You need to make sure you are actually "at idle", which normally means the Vcore has stepped down to approximately ~0.65-0.75v.  If you are at 51C and 34C coolant, it's more likely the CPU is still loaded with a Vcore over 1.xx volts.  

 

Flow rate and fan speed matter very little at actual idle CPU levels.  There is minimal wattage to dissipate and the CPU temp is effectively the coolant temp plus 1-2C as the cores turn on/off in the relaxed state.  A dead pump or extreme reduction in flow rate will keep the fluid in the CPU block too long and cause the local area to continually increase in heat.  Since heat is conducted both ways across the cold plate, the CPU and coolant go up together and usually stay up. So even if only mildly flow restricted, the idle coolant and CPU temp would stay together, but be several degrees higher than expected and likely creep up together over an extended up time.  In this state when you load the CPU, the coolant goes up, but then won't come back down very easily.  

 

Another way to test this issue is to run a mild CPU stress test, something like the CPU-Z bench tab stress test.  If you have a dead pump, you would have 30 seconds after power on before the CPU hit the MB safety mark at 95-105C and it shuts down.  That's obviously not the case here.  However, bad physical contact between the CPU and cold plate is a possible problem and related to the mounting mechanism.  The key difference between this and what I am suggesting above is with bad contact, you are high idle and it's impossible to run any type of stress test.  Even opening a browser will ping your CPU temp into the 60C+ zone.  The moment you start it will hit 100C and stop itself.  On the other hand, if this is just something keeping the CPU loaded at idle, the peak CPU temps under load will still be the same as they were before.  1.25v on your CPU (or whatever value) will return about the same load temp at the same general ambient temp each time.  The conductivity of the cold plate does not change.  If your peak CPU temps are the same as usual, and the coolant doesn't go up beyond the normal 4-6C for 5-10 minutes of running, then you are looking at CPU behavioral issues rather than the cooler itself.  

I changed the cooler, you are correct the issue is mobo or cpu related... I actually went for the bigger h170i and the issue persist. I can't seem to find a way to manually change my vcore on my bios, i have no idea why. Everything is grayed out to auto, next step is rma the motherboard.

[c-attack]

What motherboard brand/model?

[PAlvarez05]

1 hour ago, c-attack said:

What motherboard brand/model?

I figured it out, I think the motherboard is faulty and it isnt feeding the right voltage to the cpu

 

Asus Maximus Hero XIII

[PAlvarez05]

Just an update, i swapped out the motherboard for a new one, you were correct. The board was pumping too much voltage to the CPU, hence the high temps. Everything is good with the new board.