Corsair Fan & Cooling Questions

I just built my first real gaming PC inside the H210 case by NZXT using a lot of Corsair products. This is my first post on this forum, but I'm pretty sure my exact build components should show up in my profile.

I recently picked up a 3 pack of Corsair ML120 Pro RGB fans to use as case fans and this is when my trouble started. My GPU temps have risen and been reaching 80 degrees while gaming. The GPU recently even hit 81/82 when SpeedFan and ICue stopped working while in game.

I set up SpeedFan along side ICue to run the case fans based off of GPU temps, since the BIOS doesn’t allow you to do this and ICue doesn’t allow you to control your case fans off of GPU temps without a Commander Pro for some reason. This worked for a little, but for some reason the anti cheat software in game stopped SpeedFan from working and that’s when temps rose to 81/82. ICue also had trouble working in conjunction with SpeedFan and would say, “no devices connected” at times. I think this may have something to do with both programs trying to access hardware sensors at the same time.

I have multiple questions -

Should I just suck it up and pick up a Commander Pro, or is there another way to link Corsair case fans to GPU temps while also remaining compatible with ICue? At this point I'm strongly leaning towards picking up a Commander Pro.

I don’t know why this functionality isn’t built into ICue automatically.

I only have 4 fans in total since it’s an ITX build, but will it cause problems to add another fan on the back side of the AIO rad in push/pull if that fan operates at a slower speed than the Corsair ML120s on the front side of the AIO?

The fans that ship with the AIO are rated at a higher speed than the ML120s in the triple pack, even though they are the same fans - I just want to make sure this won’t cause me problems. If this is fine, will LL120s or even QL120s also work on the backside of the AIO radiator?

I'm also strongly considering adding another fan under the PSU shroud to blow cold air up at the GPU. I've seen a couple people do this in my case, but I'm not sure how I would mount it unless I rigged it up using zip ties or something. Any ideas?

Would you get LL120s or QL120s over the ML120 Pro RGB triple pack?

I like the look of the QL120s the best, but considering this is an ITX build and cooling has already been complicated using just the motherboard headers and ICue/SpeedFan, I'm thinking they may not be ideal for my setup.

The cheapest option might be to pick up a couple non RGB ML120 Pro's and swap them with the radiator ML120 Pros and then pick up one more so that I have 5 total case fans. The front fans that came with the AIO aren't visible in my case anyways, so this option would work if I could connect everything using the Commander Pro. The problem is, I think I also need the RGB LED Fan Hub that comes in the fan triple pack. Any help with all of this is appreciated.

I know this post was long, but I’m quite far down the rabbit hole at this point. I could use some advice from people who are more experienced than I am. Thank you for looking

iCUE does not and never has controlled motherboard fans.

I've not heard of conflicts between SpeedFan and iCUE but it's not outside the realm of possibility. However, this sounds like something different. Are you running HWInfo?

And what AIO are you using? I know that there's no line for it in the system build but you can use other, unused blocks for fully describing what you have. Also, where is the AIO installed? I'd hope that it's a 240mm installed in front as intake. Assuming that it's a Corsair AIO, the speed of the fans should usually be set to be controlled by the coolant temperature. Though - I think this might be one of the really, really, really rare cases where I can see the point in having to controlled by GPU temps.

Looking at that case ... it's tiny. And very few fan mounts. It's going to be a struggle. Would a CoPro help? Maybe. Certainly, you could use it to base your fan speeds off of GPU temp. Even better, you can use the include temp sensors and do fan speeds based off of case temperature. After all, the warmer the case, the warmer the GPU. You cool the case internals ... you'll cool the GPU. But that 2080 is a warm GPU and it's gonna heat up.

One thing to try is to have that top fan configured as intake. The radiator will be blowing warmer air (though cooler than your GPU) into the case. The additional intake can help offset that. Also, look at something like AfterBurner to control your GPU fan curves. The default fan curves are geared more to quiet than they are to performance. You may want to change that. But ... there are limits to what you can do. It may be worthwhile to consider a case with more fan mounts. Based on the Gamer's Nexus review, the 280X is about the same size. It has mounts for up to 6 fans. That right there could go a long way to resolving the problem.

Thank you for taking the time to respond. That's too bad about case fans not being able to be controlled by ICue without the Commander Pro.

I already gave in and purchased a Commander Pro, as it will allow me to completely remove the NZXT internal USB 2.0 header unit I purchased about a week ago. This internal USB 2.0 header unit runs off of molex and I want to eliminate as many cables as possible below the PSU shroud and free up some airflow. The Commander Pro allows me to do this as well as actually control my case fans off of GPU temps as far as I can tell.

I added my AIO into my specs, per your instructions. I am using a Corsair H100i Platinum 240mm on the front with both fans set to intake as you expected.

My issue has been that my CPU is running around 40C max during games, while my GPU is hitting 80C. This is why I have been trying to up the case fans and even AIO fans a bit to help with GPU temps. I left the AIO fans on the H100 temps, and also tried the 9700k Core #1 temp with a custom curve in ICue, but this didn't lower temps much because my case fans were still spinning around 900 RPM. The case fans have been BIOS controlled now that SpeedFan has glitched out on me due to my games' anti cheat software and these fans can't be set to GPU temps in the BIOS or in ICue at the moment. I set an aggressive curve based off of CPU/motherboard temps, but with those temps maxing out around 40C at the moment, these fan curves are not ideal.

Would you recommend using the temp sensors with the Commander Pro? I'm thinking about putting them around the GPU as that is the area that is currently the warmest.

I'm also planning on adding 2 more fans - one on the back side of the radiator in push/pull above the GPU and one below the PSU shroud pointing up at the GPU. I have seen a couple other people do this and it sounded like it worked pretty well, but there is nothing to mount the fan to below the PSU shroud so I might have to use zip ties or something like that.

Do you know how much if any the extra fan on the back of the radiator in push/pull will help with GPU/case temps?

Also does it matter if the fans on the front side of the rad spin at a different speed than the fan on the back? Even though both fans are ML120 Pro RGB's, the fans that ship with the AIO have a much higher max RPM than the ML120 Pro RGB's in the triple pack.

Would LL120's be ok in this situation, or would you consider dumping RGB fans altogether and purchasing the higher max RPM non RGB ML120 Pro's? The RGB has grown on me over time, but my GPU temps are my biggest concern right now. Thanks again.

I do recommend using the temp sensors from the CoPro as the fan curve source. And yes, placing one just above (or just below ... might be interesting experiment) the GPU would be a good source. Why? you ask. Well, when the temp source for the curve is one of the built-in sensors, it'll run from the device ... whether iCUE is running or not. This is especially useful during boot time.

Having fans on the inside of the radiator will only help. I don't think it'll increase airflow significantly but it'll be more focused. Ideally, the pull should be a little faster than the push but you can work that. It doesn't sound like radiator coolant temps are an issue anyway. Usually push/pull is done to get equivalent airflow through a radiator at lower fan speeds (for more quiet operation). Your situation is different. It may work; I'm not sure. This hasn't been a use case for push/pull that I've come across, personall. But I think flipping the top fan to intake and pushing cooler air down into the case would be more impactful.

You can get the higher speed ML-RGBs like those that came with your cooler. They are sold as "replacement parts" on Corsair.com. They are expensive but ... they can be had.