overheating Corsair capellix H100 suddenly overheating??

[Bruxllsm]

Hello everyone! I'd appreciate any help with this issue!

My PC specs are

CPU: I9 13900K

GPU: 4080 FE

RAM: DDR6 Corsair Vengeance RGB pro 32GB

PSU: 1000W Platinum 

MOBO: Asus Prime Z790-P WIFI

Fans: Corsair LL120 (x9)

Case: Lian Li 011 Dynamic Evo

The fans are as follows:

3 bottom fans are intake, 3 side fans are intake, 1 rear exhaust fan, and 2 exhaust fans on top (through the cooler)

My setup has run just fine for a handful of months prior to now. My GPU temps typically sit between 50-70°C when playing games, and my Cooler temps never exceeded 50°C, I have never had any concerns with CPU temp itself.

Im out of town for work right now, so unfortunately I can't get specific temp ranges, but suddenly my cooler has started hitting the 60°C mark, which forces the cooler to run in emergency mode, spiking all fans in my PC to run at max speeds and flash red at me.

The first time it happened I imagined it could have been some weird hiccup with the computer, so I shut down my game and let the system cool. I ran my game again, and about 30 minutes in it once again got too hot. Closed the game and let the system cool.

I made sure the pump was working, both through software, BIOS, and feeling so with my hand. Ran the game again, overheated and closed it. Swapped the orientation of the fans on the cooler so they are intake rather than exhaust, and throttled back graphic settings, and it no longer overheats.

Im tempted to check the thermal paste once I return home just to be sure nothing wonky is going on there — I'm just perplexed as to why an issue like this has suddenly shown up now?

The cooler is less than a year old, and all other parts were upgraded after that (within the past few months) I'm just generally confused.

Should I get a larger cooler? I had contemplated it before but the PC ran optimally so I never truly considered it. Fan speeds are on auto, so they pick up as temps increase.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[c-attack]

It’s not a TIM or contact issue. Your coolant temp is high and H100i Temp is the minimum possible cpu temp with zero load. Every +1C to. Plant elevated your baseline cpu temp by +1C. 50C is really the most anyone should ever see. At 60C it’s going to try to shut you down an opening a browser will put you at 100C cpu temp. What we need to figure out is how much of this is local environmental temperature and how much is the AIO not functioning as expected. 
 

You are pushing a lot of your gpu waste heat through the cpu radiator. If you heat the case air temp to under the radiator to 50C (from the gpu), then exhaust it through the cpu radiator, you are in effect blowing hot air on the liquid and you will eventually heat it to 50C as well.  Ultimately you’ll be a lot better off moving the radiator over to side wall and using it as intake or in that position. That will remove the radiator from the gpu waste heat flow and unless you have a space heater behind the case, lower your coolant temp by at least 10C. It also will increase your exhaust capacity to get the gpu waste heat out with unrestricted exhaust above. However, you need to do a health check first. 
 

When you are home, boot up from a powered off state if you can so you can watch the temp change from a neutral start. Open cue and look at the H100i Temp. It should start at approximately room (or internal case temp) and then slowly rise to about 4-5C higher over the next 5-10 min while you do browsing or simple non-load activities. Fan speed is not relevant for the 30-40W at idle unless you turn them off. Don’t do that. If there is a flow problem or other internal AIO issue, the coolant step is going to keep marching straight up toward that 45-50C mark. That is a clear warning sign. If it stops in the expected 25-30C range, then it’s not the AIO and we need ti figure out a better layout for you.