Issues with water cooling during initial custom loop setup
Issues with water cooling during initial custom loop setup
Greetings everyone, After months of waiting for parts I was finally able to asseble my first custom water cooled build, while I was pretty pleased with the estetic result, as soon as I started to actually use it I've noticed a few things that had me wonder if everything was alright. My main problem is the temperature of the coolant, it can reach 50°C while I game and 40°C on a 30 minute CPU intensive task, which is something that rings an alarm in my head as my 3 rads should be able to dissipate a 250W 13900KF more than fine, but my coolant temp are gaining 10°C in 30 min, also the facts it takes a good 10 minutes to go from 50°C back under sub 40°C while idling only makes me wonder more. To provide some data, here are the specs of my PC: Spoiler Intel i9-13900KF Asus Z790-A Strix Gaming Corsair Vengeance 6200Mhz DDR5 2x16GB Crucial P5 Plus 500GB Crucial P5 Plus 2TB Crucial P3 4TB WD Black 6TB WD Blue 4TB Silverstone SX1000 ZOTAC RTX 4090 Trinity OC LianLi O11 Mini Snow White Custom cables from Cablemods. And here is the cooling: Spoiler EK Quantum Velocity2 Nickel+Plexi LGA1700 EK Quantum Vector2 + ABP Nickel+Plexi EK TBE 160 DDC Pump + Res combo EK HDC Fittings 14mm - Nickel Multiple EK Quantum Rotary 90° / 45° and 7/14/28mm extenders - Nickel EK Drain valve - Nickel 2x EK S360 + 1x EK S240 Corsair Satin PMMA tubes Alphacool temperature sensor 8x LianLi SL120 V2 I'll also leave some pictures so you can see my loop: Spoiler My loop order is Pump > Side Rad > Top Rad > CPU > GPU > Bottom Rad > Pump. I've been told that I'm running the CPU block in inverted flow and that it would have been better to not run the GPU with both inlet and outlet on the same side, but the temps of those components are not anything unusual so I dont think that's an issue, also because clearly heat is being dumped in the loop really well. While I idle or do simple task the temps are not a problem, my loop stays around 35°C with my room at around 28°C, but if I want to game I have to turn the AC on at 25°C so the coolant temp wont go over 50°C. In game I'll usually average 65/70°C on the CPU and 60-65°C on the GPU, depending on the titles it can go a bit up or down, but the coolant always reach 48°C at least. Bottom fan is intake while side and top are exhaust, I've been told to flip the side rad fans but I'd have to tear down the whole system to do it so I'm waiting on more opinions before I modify my setup. I've done some test to show how bad is the problem. This is the situation after a 10 minute run of Cinebench R23 + FurMark 1080p windowed, I've resetted the counters before starting. Room was with AC on at 25°C. Spoiler I've also managed to take some pictures with a FLIR camera, not an expensive one but I hope they can be useful. These are before starting the stress test, while the loop was at 32°C. Spoiler While these are taken at the end of the test, by the time I removed the front panel the coolant went already at 50°C. Pump is locked at 3.3K RPM and fans at 1250RMP. Spoiler I'm looking for any possible advice, my 2 options right now are to flip the side fans or replace the temp sensor, because I have a feeling this one might have got the cable damaged while assembling the loop. Or that it's reporting false temps because of its position, it's on the reservoir but it's getting hot air from the bottom rads + heat from the pump motor, so it might be reporting bad temps under load just because of the heat going against it because the tubes dont seem to be super hot, totally very warm but I'd expect them to be hotter if it was really 50°C inside it. I've also disabled the ASUS CPU boost stuff and set a -0.08 offset, but the situation is still the same. Which is a shame because I feel like I've got really lucky with the silicon lottery, this thing was able to pull 400W and score 41k on R23. Please help me figure out this heat problem otherwise I think this system is doomed to melt itself. Another issue with this system is that it's almost undrainable, right now I've moved the valve on the bottom of the GPU but when I originally had it on the bottom of the reservoir, it would just drain the res without a single drop leaving the rads, tubes and block. How could I make draining it a bit easier without the need of blowing into it? The pump was dead silent while it was running with EK Loop cleaner and then the superflush, but it got a bit loud right after I finished installing windows. Now if I put it on full speed it does a strange sound, almost like sand going thru it, but there is no air in the system, it's been running for a week now with almost never being shut down and also twisted on all sides multiple times. Thanks in advance to whoever might be able to help me with this mess, definetly feel like I wanted to overdone it for my first watercooled build and now I'm paying the price of the small case.
Overall your temps aren't that bad, but indeed not that good for such a loop That's a lot of twisting tubes and rads and fittings for a lonely DDC pump imo, I would have put a D5 for the higher flow rate, and certainly a distro plate to have less tubes all around For the drain port you're kinda screwed if you didn't think of it while designing the loop...
I initially wanted a D5 (TBE 200) but the back drain seemed problematic and I wasn’t confident it would fit. For the distribution board, I dislike their appearance; I only found front-mounted ones for the O11 Mini, which I’d have preferred a side one instead. Front boards look bad to me, and adding more tubes would increase the count from six to at least eight. I might rework some components to make it easier to drain, but right now temperature is the main concern. Spoiler: This update happened after 45 minutes of playing Hogwarts Legacy, still with AC set to 25°C. The game remains active in the background.
I chose to reverse the top fans and ran another test now. Bottom and top are set as intakes, side as exhaust. The R23 + furmark run shows those temperatures. The highest readings appeared on the screenshot while it was still cooling. It’s puzzling because my GPU is at 38°C and coolant at 45°C—shouldn’t it be heating up more if the coolant is hotter? This might indicate my temperature sensor isn’t accurate.
Your FLIR photos indicate the coolant temperature is near 25°C. Execute cinebench and furmark for 20 minutes simultaneously. Remove the side panel and check the coolant tube connecting to the GPU. If the coolant reads 50°C, it will feel extremely hot. A cooler reading suggests the temperature sensor is either too close to a hot component or the thermistor is faulty.
I think you might be looking at the idle / just turned on pics, with load it's definetly not under 40°C even by touch. I'm afraid of my coolant going too hot as in breaking down or softening the tubes, causing leaks. I can game, but those 2 combined for over 10 minutes are too much I feel. It's on the "drain" of the pump, with a rotary adapter. I think it's getting "static" coolant that's not flowing around.
I checked the wrong images, but it looks like the issue isn’t a liquid flow problem. Your radiators aren’t performing well, likely due to insufficient airflow. The surface area should be adequate to maintain cooling for around 600 watts with proper ventilation. I’m wondering about the side rad setup—are they venting to the case or through a cutout? A push/pull fan configuration could help. Running the fans at higher speeds might improve results even if they’re not kept on full time. You’re right about the fluid temperature probe; it probably isn’t measuring the actual loop conditions.
Currently the intake is on the side and exhaust on the top. I attempted to swap the top to intake position but temperatures spiked while liquid stayed almost the same. Adjusting the side would be tough since there’s no room left; I’d have to mount it inside the case, which isn’t ideal. The top case isn’t supported, so I needed an adapter to fit it with an offset, making it complicated. I’m considering dismantling it and flipping the side to intake only, leaving just the top exhaust. I’ll replace the temp sensor with a inline one and install it on a radiator for better accuracy. I plan to flush the loop several times to check for blockages. My pump runs at 3.3K RPM and fans at 1250RPM; I can push up to 4.4K RPM and spin fans at 2K, but the noise is annoying—clearly audible with headphones. Temperatures are dropping about 3°C.
I'm also ordering a new temperature sensor and several cleaning chemicals. I plan to disassemble it on Monday and hope for the best. Today I've been running just the pump at full capacity, and checking the coolant in the reservoir shows inconsistent movement—sometimes turbulent, other times more still. Should I use the small tube inside the reservoir for the pump instead of the plastic divider? Additionally, I've noticed a stain forming around the middle of the reservoir. This is odd because the coolant level is much higher than that area, and I've already used EK Loop Cleaner and Superflush before filling it. Perhaps because I blew air into it while draining. Anyway, I'll flush each part separately before reassembly.