What are the best settings for the Corsair iCue for Qty. 6 ML140 MM

It really is a matter of personal comfort. The H115i fans will affect the coolant temperature (H115i Temp) in iCUE. This represents the baseline or minimum possible CPU temperature, plus then whatever voltage based heat is added by the current Vcore level. There is nothing you can do about the voltage based heat. You only need to keep "taking out the trash" from coolant stream to prevent too much heat build up. The coolant delta or difference between your starting baseline coolant temp and the peak under load is the measuring stick for cooler efficiency. My 5930K overclocked pulls about 215W at full load and I would not expect the 7900X to be more than that at standard settings. My coolant delta was typically +6C for a 100% load with fan speeds capped at 1250-1300 rpm. I consider that loud, but the point where fans become annoying is very individualistic. With ML fans you can probably run 1000 rpm comfortably.

The point is your end CPU temps will not be drastically affected by cutting 200-300 rpm from your fan speeds. If your coolant delta is 6-8C, these speed reductions likely only change CPU temp by 1-2C, a compromise I am sure you can live with. Figure out your tolerance point and keep the fans underneath it. You cannot overheat the CPU with the fans running at any speed. Only a pump stoppage or deliberate sabotage of the fans is going to get you into a high coolant state.

Because a radiator is such a large impediment to airflow, you likely don't need to alter case fan balance too much to supply the H115i (I am assuming top exhaust). What ever amount of air you think the ML fan will move in free air, divide by 2 to approximate the radiator CFM. It's a bit more complicated in reality, but that will do for general understanding. Your front fans at half the speed of the radiator fans will be roughly balanced. Since you have the Commander Pro, you can set case fans to run from coolant temp as well and these can all change together (slowly). There is no need to blast them or make the curve overly dynamic. Neither case ambient temperature nor coolant temperature change be rapidly changed in this way. Slow and steady works well.

It really is a matter of personal comfort. The H115i fans will affect the coolant temperature (H115i Temp) in iCUE. This represents the baseline or minimum possible CPU temperature, plus then whatever voltage based heat is added by the current Vcore level. There is nothing you can do about the voltage based heat. You only need to keep "taking out the trash" from coolant stream to prevent too much heat build up. The coolant delta or difference between your starting baseline coolant temp and the peak under load is the measuring stick for cooler efficiency. My 5930K overclocked pulls about 215W at full load and I would not expect the 7900X to be more than that at standard settings. My coolant delta was typically +6C for a 100% load with fan speeds capped at 1250-1300 rpm. I consider that loud, but the point where fans become annoying is very individualistic. With ML fans you can probably run 1000 rpm comfortably.

 

The point is your end CPU temps will not be drastically affected by cutting 200-300 rpm from your fan speeds. If your coolant delta is 6-8C, these speed reductions likely only change CPU temp by 1-2C, a compromise I am sure you can live with. Figure out your tolerance point and keep the fans underneath it. You cannot overheat the CPU with the fans running at any speed. Only a pump stoppage or deliberate sabotage of the fans is going to get you into a high coolant state.

 

Because a radiator is such a large impediment to airflow, you likely don't need to alter case fan balance too much to supply the H115i (I am assuming top exhaust). What ever amount of air you think the ML fan will move in free air, divide by 2 to approximate the radiator CFM. It's a bit more complicated in reality, but that will do for general understanding. Your front fans at half the speed of the radiator fans will be roughly balanced. Since you have the Commander Pro, you can set case fans to run from coolant temp as well and these can all change together (slowly). There is no need to blast them or make the curve overly dynamic. Neither case ambient temperature nor coolant temperature change be rapidly changed in this way. Slow and steady works well.

I'm a noob when it comes to cooling settings with the iCUE software. Do you have some pictures showing examples of the settings I can try that you suggested? Step-by-Step screenshots would be helpful. I learn fast once someone can give me a visual example. Thank you!

Power up your PC and let it sit on the desktop for 15 minutes. This is your base coolant temperature and is largely affected by room/case temperature and to some degree by CPU type and power settings. Let's say that value is 30C. Set this as your baseline quiet speed, 500 rpm or whatever is comfortable. If 30C is the base, then likely you will peak around 36-38C when under load. Set that value to 800-1000 rpm. Save your last point and make it 100% at 50C. You should never get to 50C coolant temp and if you do, something is wrong. The fan blast will provide an audible warning.

It really isn't terribly important to tweak your fans curves. There is no difference between 650 and 750 rpm in terms of real cooling differences. However, most people have definite noise preference points and you can stay under those. Coolant is slow to change up and down and this should keep the fans steady and that is all you need. Depending on how you use your PC, you may even find fixed speeds preferable, like a quiet desktop speed or a higher one for rendering/encoding etc.

Sorry, I am travelling and not at home with my system. Perhaps someone else can upload a screenshot.

I called Corsair tech support and got some help. Attached are some screenshots of the fan adjustments that were made.

The only issue I see there is the control variable in the drop down box is set to your CPU package temp. This is not what you want and it will likely make the fans bounce about. Your CPU temp is the result of the load present, the CPU design, and of course the Vcore voltage. All CPU heat must be conducted from the pins where it originates and through the CPU. The cooler cannot detour heat around the CPU.

The radiator and fans are the waste removal part of the cooling process. Heat is conducted from the CPU through the cold plate and into the coolant stream. Then the flow takes it to the radiator where it is expelled somewhere else. The radiator fans only help remove heat from the coolant. They cannot make your CPU cooler directly, however if you don't get rid of your waste heat, it will make the CPU warmer.

The radiator fan curves you created are appropriate for CPU temp, but that may not be what you want. There isn't a bright line good/bad coolant temperature. Lower is always better, but the range is small and it is never worth cranking up the fans to reduce coolant by 1-2C. +1 coolant temperature = +1C CPU temperature. That's it. Most people have about a +6C change in coolant temperature, making fan speeds not overly important. On your larger TDP CPU, you may see +8C on a 280mm cooler.

1) Figure out your normal baseline coolant temperature. This is normally +4-7C above the room temperature. Set your fans to a quiet and steady speed around that mark. You can blast the fans to reduce the idle coolant temp by 1C, but a -1C reduction in CPU temp at idle is more or less pointless.

2) What is your normal load coolant temp? You will have to observe and see. It is largely dependent on how you use the machine. You probably start to slope the fan speed up at +3-4C past your idle point.

3) Max coolant temp? What is the highest value you normally see? Again, probably around +8C but if you run combo CPU+GPU renders or simply play a lot of GPU intensive games, the entire case heats up and elevates the coolant temp as well. Not uncommon to see +10C with moderate CPU load in a case with a high TDP GPU like a Ti or Titan. Set this value to the highest fan speed you can tolerate. For most people that will be 900-1100 rpm. Keep in mind small changes in fan speed don't make much difference in cooling, so if 1000 rpm sounds a lot better than 1100, set it to 1000.

4) As you did with the CPU temp curve, set a fan spike to 1500+ at around 50C. You should not reach 50C, but if you do, the fans will come on like a train and you'll know without needing to stare at the app all day. Auditory secondary warning system.

I use a Commander Pro to control my radiator fans (mix of ML-120 & ML-140) on an custom EKWB loop (CPU & 2 x 1080 TI's, 420 & 240 Rads). Here's the settings I use on the for the 420mm radiator (using ML-140 fans) gratuitously stolen from my old H115i fan curves. I have included the tests I performed and as you can see, the differences between my "Balanced" and "Extreme" curves are identical within a margin of error. As a result, I didn't bother with the combined test (CPU/GPU's) for the "EKWB Extreme" fan curve.

Notes:

1. The custom fan curve points used by ICUE are expressed in RPM, not PWM duty cycle so I plugged the info into Excel and use a formula to convert the PWM percentage into RPM.
   
2. Water temperature was measured using an inline 10kΩ sensor in the loop.
   
3. Tests performed were Intel Extreme Tuning "Stress Test" set for 10 minutes for the CPU and Heaven Benchmark looping for 10 minutes for the GPU's to normalise temperatures.
   
4. The "combined test" is Intel Extreme Tuning and Heaven Benchmark being run simultaneously for 10 minutes.
   
5. This loop also runs a 240mm radiator which has 2 x ML-120 fans running the same duty cycle as the ML-140 fans.
   

No code has to be inserted here.

Hope this helps.