H115i Water Temps

Hi i recently bought a Silent Base 800 and a H115i to replace my old case and get space for a better cooler than the Dark Rock 3.

 

I put the radiator directly above the mainboard and in the top of the case the fans blow cold air trough the radiator (seems to work better).

 

The Cpu Temps on my i7 4790k @ 4,4 Ghz (1,18vcore) look pretty good both while playing and Benchmarking / Stresstesting. While playing games that are Gpu and Cpu heavy the Temperature Corsair Link just calls h115i concerns me a little (i guess it is the water?). It starts out in the low 30°C but after 1 hour it went up to 46,5°C degrees (steps of 0,1-0,2 every few minutes) and stayed there at 1680 rpm for another 30 minutes. My Palit GTX 1080 Gamerock Premium peaks at 75 °C after some time but stays there steadily.

 

After i closed the game it took like 10 mins for the h115i to get back to low 30°C temps.

 

What are the highest temperatures the h115i should get? Am i in the normal range or is this too hot? Might this be a problem with the airflow?

 

This is my first water cooling system so i am not very experienced with this. I will add pictures of my airflow (be aware paintskills incoming), the radiator position and the corsair link software (i dont have 8 fans really only 3 case fans + 2 at the radiator dont ask me why it says 8 fans).

 

Edit:

 

Also added a photo of my actual setup. The corsair logo is upside down because this way it fits better and the hoses dont get as much pressure from bending.

See here. I am not sure we have a final resolution on the issue. A lot of the discussion relates to how to control the fans. That is also something you will want to do. The fans go 100% past 40C and that is too loud to live with and it is not necessary.

 

As long as your CPU temps stay within your acceptable range, the water temperature isn't that important. It does represent the lowest possible CPU temps you can have. 40C water temp = 40C minimum CPU temp. In your LINK shot, the 9C delta over water temperature at idle is pretty standard and represents the water temperature acting as the basis. The temperature fail point of the materials is drastically beyond anything you can reach, so no danger from that. Getting the system to behave as you like will take a little tweaking.

 

This is now the third instance of a Silent Base 800 user having trouble with gaming water temps. I am not sure what to make of it. I don't see any fatal flaws in the case and the obvious place to start is the dome on the top. However, the in the other thread the difference was a minuscule 2C in gaming. You may also wish to temporarily remove the top dome to see if your result is better. You probably don't want to stay like that, but isolating the cause would offer some peace of mind.

 

EDIT: You may also wish to try the H115i fans in the exhaust position at some point. The idea of using external cooler air is theoretically better, but often marginally so. It can be further complicated by a warm internal environment. If the case ambient temperature becomes 40C, then the water temperature is also going to be 40C. The temperature of the external air won't matter much. For most people, I recommend top exhaust straight away. The SB800 is a little more mysterious and the other user in the above thread didn't resolve the problem by switching it around either. More experimentation is needed.

Thanks for the quick reply i was just wondering because the corsair link software itself has like a warning at 45 °C water temp where the leds turn red or something (seems like it would be dramatic).

 

i already tried to turn the fans around before so they exhaust (same radiator position) which resultet in like 5 degrees more max cpu temp.

 

only thing i think might change something is if i put the radiator under the dome and the fans above the mb not sure how well that would fit tough hard enough to get it in this way i might try tomorrow after work if i have some free time.

 

Also trying to put some noctua Af-14 pwm fans on(1500 rpm edition) since i am not really planning to let any fan run over that anyway because of the noise which is pretty loud at 1500+rpm.

They are just default values. They had to pick something. A lot of overclocked processors will drift past 80C when the water temp hits 40C, so it is a general line where you might start to get into trouble. But it is also very ambient temperature dependent and every now and then someone one step from the Equator will write in and think their cooler is broken out of the box.

 

Changing the fans is fine. More fan speed doesn't really solve the issue and you might only shave 2C off the water temp by running another 500 rpm. Bad trade unless you are maxed out on the CPU cores. Unfortunately, I don't have anything else helpful to add for now. This case is a little puzzling and I am not sure why the heat collects so heavily in the top. I suppose another option would be to front mount the 280mm radiator in the front intake, but I don't know if it fits.

I forgot to mention that my ambient temperature while testing was 26°C. Idle after startup is 29-35 degrees on cpu and 30-34 water temps.

 

Front mount won't fit for a 280mm radiator at least according to be quiets product page.

 

I actually got this case and cooler after I've seen some random youtube video where someone build a custom pc with pretty much the same specs and it seamed to work out pretty good. He mounted it at the top too no idea though if intake or exhaust.

 

Are high water temperatures always a result of not enough / to hot air traveling trough the radiator or are there other reasons?

 

Maybe 1 exhaust fan at the back isn't enough but then air in the whole case should be hot heating up everything else right ?

I forgot to mention that my ambient temperature while testing was 26°C. Idle after startup is 29-35 degrees on cpu and 30-34 water temps.

 

+4-9C is a normal water temp delta over ambient. If you are using all your Intel power saving features (EIST, Speedstep) +4-5C is common. I don't see a problem here and it suggests the cooler does not have difficulty at idle loads. Both of you have similar room temps and similar load water temps. Consistency between the coolers, but still an unknown issue.

 

Front mount won't fit for a 280mm radiator at least according to be quiets product page.

 

I was afraid of that.

 

Are high water temperatures always a result of not enough / to hot air traveling trough the radiator or are there other reasons?

 

There are a number of things that can cause abnormal water temperatures.

 

1) Malfunctioning cooler/flow problem - not the case here. Your idle water temp would be horrendous and the load temps would be even worse. When the pump fails or there is a blockage, your water temps usually get into the 50-70C range at idle.

 

2) Environmental conditions - Hot room, hot case, blocked radiator fans, crazy fan set ups -- it's a long list and can be the trickiest to isolate. Here we have two people with the same case and radiator experiencing very similar results. I thought the first time I saw this, the extreme GPU heat was to blame, but this is now 3 SB800 users experiencing exactly the same problem. The odds on all three of you having slightly defective coolers are pretty low.

 

3) BIOS and voltage settings - The obvious one. Put a 10 core CPU overclocked to it's last tenth and run some heavy programs and you get a lot waste heat. Everyone involved has had different CPUs and had just built their systems, still at the stock settings. The 4790k is a warm CPU, but it puts out nowhere near the wattage of something like 5960x at 4.5Ghz. There is a difference between core temperature and the amount of heat transferred into the water system that must be removed. Too much voltage will melt your CPU, but it doesn't necessarily result in large water temp changes. The total power draw is the prime factor.

 

 

Maybe 1 exhaust fan at the back isn't enough but then air in the whole case should be hot heating up everything else right ?

 

My first thought as well. However, your other data doesn't indicate drive/motherboard/ambient temps in the same range as the water temperature after gaming. The data from the other thread was similar. This suggests a localized problem around the radiator. The first user did have very warm case temps everywhere, but that is what happens with 980 Ti SLI. Also, if this were the exact issue, then turning the H115i fans to exhaust out the top should solve the problem. Waste heat dumped straight out, more exhaust flow -- all good. However, this did not make a meaningful difference in the other thread and you reported a notably worse water temp, which is very strange indeed. So that leads to a suspected airflow restriction at the radiator itself, with the top dome the prime suspect. Tests in the other thread showed a minor difference and not what I was hoping for. I am hoping you can test with the dome on and off as well for another data set.

 

Right now, we seem to be looking at either 1) a localized hot spot in the top of the case where warm air is trapped around the radiator increasing it's base temperature; or 2) Something is restricting the fans' airflow across the radiator and it cannot shed it's heat when under stress; 3) Both.

 

I tried to find an SB800 locally so I could physically look at it, but in a metro area of 7 million, I can't find anyone who has one. The modern age of shopping -- internet order only. You are in the best position to experiment. You can try as intake vs exhaust, dome on or off, and the combinations. After gaming, touch the internal case paneling adjacent to the radiator. A bit warm to the touch? Same as the rest of the case? In the meantime, know you are not in a danger zone. This is part case optimization and part LINK optimization. However, I would not commit the PC to 24/7 folding duty just yet.

So i switched out the standart fans with the Noctua nf-a14-pwm and the temps dropt a little bit again (still pulling air in the case). my idle temps start at 26°C now with ambient of 24°C and go up to 33. Water temps only get to 42°C max after long time gaming and cpu gets to a max of 58°C but averages around 50°C. Put my voltage down to 1.14v at 4.4 ghz combined with new fans seem to get pleasing enough temps for me.

 

I also might have one of the i7 4790k Cpus that have too much heat because of bad contact from the cpus headspreader to the cpu (seems to be a pretty common prob with the cpu). With aircooling i went way beyond what other people had even with reseating the cooler a few times and good airflow in the case.

 

I might try some of your conclussions but at the moment i dont have enough time to do all the testing

If you are topping out at 42C water temp with your stronger overclock on, you can certainly go back to it. At that temperature, you would have to game for a while, then suddenly decide you want to run Prime95 for a bit in order to get yourself into trouble. The water temperature is just the basis point and requires a sustained heavy load in addition to that to really reach the 80C mark most people worry about. Your voltage certainly will affect CPU temperatures, but reducing the voltage may only drop your water temp by 1C or so.

 

You are in a functional state and don't have to tinker anymore. The A14's are capable and managing them should be a little less tedious without the very noisy top end. The interesting part is your water temp goes up 7-9C over ambient right from boot. That is a little on the high side unless you run a fixed voltage and put Windows into Performance Mode. For comparison, my 5930K has been on the desktop for 3 hours or so while I have been working at the draft bench on the other side of the room. It's 22.8C at the case intake. The water temp has stayed steady at 26C since 5 minutes after boot. My H110 fans are at the minimum 450 rpm. Speedstep and EIST are on so the clocks are all sitting at 1200 MHz. My case runs cool and this is probably a best case scenario, but with everything else equal you should be near the same with a smaller CPU, lower voltage, and a faster pump cycle rate. To me, this suggests that rather than a build up of heat in the case or localized around the radiator, that not enough air is going through the radiator in all conditions. Rather than a fan problem, it is being restricted at some other place. Perhaps the front filter is too restrictive. Perhaps it is the dome. You could try removing either the next time you cold boot and see if the water temp stays a little closer to the room temperature at the desktop.

So i just took the time to do two 10 minute stress tests with intel xtu one with dome on one with dome off.

 

Dome on: Cpu start: 32°C, Water start: 31°C

after 10 mins Cpu peak: 60°C, water peak: 35.5°C

 

Dome off: Cpu start: 30°C, Water start 30°C

after 10 mins Cpu peak 55°C, Water peak 31.5°C

 

I didnt want to run 1 hour tests or more because that takes too much time but it kind of seems your dome theory was right from the start. I will add pictures of the top of the case and the part of the dome the air is supposed to run trough.

 

Is there anything i could do if the dome is the problem like mod it or would the best bet be to switch out the case again? Not sure if it is that easy to return it.

No, you don't need to run 1 hour tests. 5-10 minutes is just fine and demonstrates the issue. We can extrapolate out a longer result or better still, use the actual gaming results as a more practical indicator of long term use. From a thermal perspective, you only need to know how your system handles 1 hour CPU loads if you intend to run 1 hour CPU only loads.

 

The end result of all of this is if your water temperature is 4-5C higher when gaming than it would be with the dome off (or in another case), then your gaming CPU temps are only 4-5C higher. That is a margin most people can live with and basically inconsequential to the overall health of your system, unless you intend to do one of two things: 1) Overclock the very last tenth; 2) Add a very heavy multi-GPU set-up (980 TI, future 1080 Ti, Titan, etc). So if you are otherwise happy with the case, I don't see a reason to change. You are not shortening the lifespan of your gear.

 

The internal top of the SB800 is apparently shallower than I realized. I am beginning to think the case was designed with an air tower in mind and the top dome's purpose is both dust shield and noise blocker. Since the fans have to be mounted above the case, it looks like those side vents are below the level of the fan. The fans will move the air inside the dome and it will draw replacement air though that venting. However, it seems the dome does pose a restriction, much the same way as a front intake shield slows your air speed on the way in. Normally, I would think more fan speed would address the issue and the only penalty would be a need to run the radiator fans a few hundred rpm higher than with the hood off. However, with the SP140L fans at 2000 rpm, this was still an issue. That part is a little concerning and I wonder if the need to mount above the case and their latitude in relation to the venting (below the fan level) is causing a drastic reduction in airflow. I suppose the obvious modification would be slits directly in the top of the dome that would allow the fans to pull air in or push it in a direct line. However, I can understand why you would not want to modify the case straight away and sometimes things don't work out like they do in theory.

 

Do you have the window or door model? It looks like the door model can take a side door fan. Using that as additional exhaust may help relieve some of the gaming waste heat before in gets into the radiator's zone. Also, make sure you have that rear exhaust fan going 90% when gaming. It has to do all the exhaust work for the system. I like BeQuiet's stuff and a bunch of Silent Wings 2 fans were the first thing I bought for my black Air 540 case. They are indeed quiet, but besides a low noise motor, they also achieve their sound pressure level by using a very diffuse airflow. At low speed or when filter restricted, they do not move a lot of air. That does not mean go out and replace them all, but you may need to keep moderate or better speeds to see if that makes a difference. The higher gaming water temps versus short CPU max load indicates waste heat management is still a factor in your results.

I do have the version with the side doors that can add additional fans. But my graphicscard is sticking to far out of the case on one side and my cables are sticking to far out on the other side so i cant mount additional fans on those unless i mount them outside the case which wouldn't be the purpose of a silent case ^^.

 

Well i guess i cant just return a case i already used even if i am within the first 14 days of buying it. But i could sell the case and upgrade to something else if that helps out. The problem is if my water and gpu get that warm you can really feel it in the room. And that is with open window and door.

 

 

I just played Black Ops 3 Zombie mode for an hour at 1440p 144fps cap with dome off. Cpu Temp peaks where between 46-49°C water peaked out at 37.5 °C. But i noticed a significant increase in case and harddrive temps so it seems when the radiator gets more air to blow into the case the graphicscards hot air cant escape the case anymore. Problem is my Gtx 1080 usually is between 70-78 °C when playing modern games with 1440p 144hz and as mentioned before i cant mount additional fans because of my lack of space. Really thinking about switching the case out again and trying to sell the sb800 on ebay.

I suppose that is the paradox in case building. Do you go for the solid, heavy case with few openings that keeps all the energy inside (heat and sound) or do you go for the open, passive type of system that lets out all the heat and noise, offset by a lower fan speeds. Room size can factor as well. In a big open space, I can't hear my set-up. In a small room, every sound is more noticeable. I have always built the bank vault type cases in the past. This was the first passive, low speed type set-up I have done. It is also the coolest. I am not sure it's the quietest, but it is ridiculously cool with medium fan speeds.

 

I don't know that you need to change cases. However, if you are forced to run fan speeds that no longer make this a quiet case, I can see why you would be less than thrilled. You seem to be in control of the case and we have a better understanding of why the temperatures have reached this mark. 37-42C water temp for Summer is not bad at all. You will be much lower during the cooler parts of the year. Now if you tell me you're an Aussie and this is Winter, than that is a little more concerning.

 

I don't know enough about the 1080 to estimate its radiant heat. You can't turn GPU diode temps into waste heat numbers. You have to use total wattage. However, I don't see a reason to chase that number down since there is no way you are changing the card or what you want to do with it. The comparison point would be what happens if you run the H115i fans as exhaust to help out the rear fan. In a CPU only test, the results might be a few degrees worse. In gaming, where you typically have a ton of CPU temp headroom, giving up 5C on the CPU might help out the rest of the case.

Today my power button of the case just stopped working i swear i hate this case so much already. I will try to contact my retailers customer support tomorrow to try to get a replacement and ask them if it would be possible to get a more expensive / other case too because I am not happy with it overall. My problem is that i already dumped my dark rock 3 and my old case wont fit the watercooler so even if they would exchange it it could take up to a week where i had just nothing to put my parts in.

Just to keep anyone interested in the silent base 800 + water cooling combination updated i can definitely say the case is bad for a 280mm water cooler i didnt use it with any smaller ones.

 

I got myself a Corsair 750d Airflow Edition (which by the way isnt much louder then the silent base) and my cpu temps now max out at 52°C peeks while gaming (gpu and cpu heavy) my gpu peeked at 68°C once usually stays around 60-65 and my case temps stay around between 27-30°C with a ambient of 24 °C so i am very happy with it.

 

Have to say if you want to get an internal water cooling loop dont go for the silent base

 

edit: My Cpu was running at 4,5 ghz and 1,145 vcore for that temps