Corsair iCUE H150i RGB Elite Cooling Problems.

[TheTiesThatBind]

Hello everyone!

I'm facing troubles with my brand new Corsair iCUE H150i RGB Elite. So I'm running an Intel i7 13700K. 

I tried to stressed it running Cinebench 23 and the coolant temp went as high as 39 degrees (while package hit 97oC on the hottest P core). 

This, to me, seems abnormal. Is my cooler defective? Should I try using Thermal Grizzly's contact frame? I had the side panel off btw. 

The cooler is mounted at top while 2x140mm ML Fans bring the air inside the case.

Only XMP profile is enabled. 

PS. This is a 2nd CPU, I RMAd the previous one which was also ran hot (100oC) without even XMP enabled, instantly (hits it). 

Hopefully somebody can help me out

Kind regards

 

[TheTiesThatBind]

Also my AIO's coolant temp idles between 34-35oC which is unreasonable high while package is at 40oC. Ambient temp is around 21oC. 

[TheTiesThatBind]

Those coolant temps, they were just keep going up, never stabilized and I have fans running at 100% at 38oC (!) for 5mins of Cinebench R23 are unreasonable high. Also it reports as XT (No clue why). 

[Corsair Notepad]

Based on all information the cooler itself is indeed working as it should. The temperatures you are receiving are very much to be expected when you are looping R23 over and over on the newer Intel 12th and 13th gen CPUs. Especially when taking the entirety of your system specifications as a whole into consideration.

[LeDoyen]

you should have a look what power the CPU draws. A lot of motherboards disable Intel's power limits by default and instead of pulling back on power after the boost delay expires, they will let the CPU draws the maximum possible, and let it bump off its thermal limits.

If that's the case you should disable whatever causes it, usually called "multicore enhancement" or some variation of the term, depending on motherboard manufacturer.. or you can set power limits yourself. To completely unlock the CPU power limits you'd need custom loop cooling, usually.

As for the RGB pro XT, that's just HWinfo64 naming. Nothing to do with Corsair 😉

Edited January 25, 2023 by LeDoyen

[TheTiesThatBind]

11 hours ago, Corsair Notepad said:

Based on all information the cooler itself is indeed working as it should. The temperatures you are receiving are very much to be expected when you are looping R23 over and over on the newer Intel 12th and 13th gen CPUs. Especially when taking the entirety of your system specifications as a whole into consideration.

Shouldn’t the coolant temp stabilise after a while though? I mean it seems a bit unreasonable to just keep climbing up no? 
 

Would I see any difference if I front mount the cooler and/or if I also use the included AF ELITE fans plus the ML fans in a push / pull configuration? 

[LeDoyen]

the temps will stabilize eventually, if the power limits aren't just disabled. Without limits the thing peaks close to 280W and it will get your AIO into high water temps, leading to thermal throttling.

If intel limits are in place in the bios, the CPU will boost to 250W then fall back to 125 after a minute or so, and then the AIO should have no troubles running R23 all day long.

[c-attack]

Your coolant temp was 34C before initiating the test, so climbing to 38C is not much of a jump. With the fans maxed you might expect a +7-8C coolant increase with a steady 300W load. Your cooler is not having trouble expelling the heat and you can’t have a zero degree coolant rise regardless of fan speed. 
 

The coolant temp to cpu temp delta is about 60C. That’s typical for any of the new CPUs right out of the box running synthetic tests with the usual built in “motherboard optimization”. Most board makers tweak their values to score well on review testing and also to make the worst cpu boot and run stable. If you maximally press it in this mode without refining your voltage and power targets, you will get high temps regardless of cooling method. A cpu that hits 95C plus 2 seconds after the test starts is not cooler limited. It’s voltage limited as suggested above. If you really want to run synthetic benchmarks, you’ll need to fine tune your voltage and power settings in the BIOS. Cooling is still conductive. If you create more heat than can be conducted through the processor, the AIO side doesn’t matter. Its job is heat transportation and disposal after the cpu. Either way fan and pump speed settings are only a small part of your number (34-39C). The larger part is voltage. 
 

34C idle in a 21C room is a bit higher than expected, but 34C is likely the internal case temperature as well. You may be able to check that versus a motherboard temp sensor or other data. You may or may not be able to change that. Case design, hardware layout, and even where you stick the case in the room is going to have an effect. If you stick it in a corner under a desk, heat has no where to go and you will continue to increase the internal temp as long as it’s running. Newer all glass cases will run warmer than something with mesh all around. 

Edited January 26, 2023 by c-attack

[TheTiesThatBind]

7 hours ago, c-attack said:

Your coolant temp was 34C before initiating the test, so climbing to 38C is not much of a jump. With the fans maxed you might expect a +7-8C coolant increase with a steady 300W load. Your cooler is not having trouble expelling the heat and you can’t have a zero degree coolant rise regardless of fan speed. 
 

The coolant temp to cpu temp delta is about 60C. That’s typical for any of the new CPUs right out of the box running synthetic tests with the usual built in “motherboard optimization”. Most board makers tweak their values to score well on review testing and also to make the worst cpu boot and run stable. If you maximally press it in this mode without refining your voltage and power targets, you will get high temps regardless of cooling method. A cpu that hits 95C plus 2 seconds after the test starts is not cooler limited. It’s voltage limited as suggested above. If you really want to run synthetic benchmarks, you’ll need to fine tune your voltage and power settings in the BIOS. Cooling is still conductive. If you create more heat than can be conducted through the processor, the AIO side doesn’t matter. Its job is heat transportation and disposal after the cpu. Either way fan and pump speed settings are only a small part of your number (34-39C). The larger part is voltage. 
 

34C idle in a 21C room is a bit higher than expected, but 34C is likely the internal case temperature as well. You may be able to check that versus a motherboard temp sensor or other data. You may or may not be able to change that. Case design, hardware layout, and even where you stick the case in the room is going to have an effect. If you stick it in a corner under a desk, heat has no where to go and you will continue to increase the internal temp as long as it’s running. Newer all glass cases will run warmer than something with mesh all around. 

Exactly the answer I was looking for. On as always C! You helped me in the past to understand coolant temp as back then I was only familiar with CPU's package temp.

Anyway, I replaced the thermal compound with Thermal Grizzly's one and moved the AIO from top to front . Now, there's only 1 core peaking at 95oC with just XMP enabled in a 10 min. I've also added the included fans (AF Elite) of the cooler so I'm running a Pull/Push configuration. I don't know if that's wise as the amount of air moved from the AF Elite series is higher than ML series (I think at least) but gets the work done I suppose. I tuned the RPMs to be at the same range. 

Now I get like 80-90oC to all P-cores expect that one I mentioned reaching 94-95oC with no power limits enforced. E-Cores run at about 75oC I think.

I wonder what settings should I change in my BIOS for the CPU to run at its Intel specification and make it run with lower voltages compared to the stock which is about 1.3-1.35V. 

My room temp is between 19.5-20.5oC (I measured it again :D ) and the coolant temp now is 32.6-32.8oC. 

I was worried cause i didn't have no problems at all with my 9900K and the H115i Pro. I had no clue that those chips run so hot. 

All measurements took place with the tempered glass side panel off. 

Edited January 26, 2023 by TheTiesThatBind