AIO minor scare

[mackerel]

Yesterday the free AM4 mount kit for my Corsair H110i GTX arrived, so I went and fitted it replacing the Noctua U14S on 1700 system. I had the usual problem of the tubes being a bit too thick and not going where I want, but I wrestled the block on, connected it all up, and powered the system on. CPU fan fail? I wasn't too concerned at this point, thinking maybe I put the rpm cable on the wrong connector as there's two next to the CPU socket. I went into bios and before I could do anything else, the system shut itself off. Not good. Tried again, and it shut off even faster now.

Checked all the connections. I'm missing the USB cable, could that have any impact? So off I went to find it and fit it. Nope, it still turned itself off. This time however, I was fast enough to get to monitoring. CPU temps crept up and it shut off somewhere north of 80C. Ok, it is the cooling. That's a start.

I've had all sorts of mount problems with this specific cooler on Intel, so could it affect AMD too? I was hoping the combination of the fixed mount plate and soldered IHS meant the mechanisms I suspect of causing Intel problems wouldn't happen here. Took the block off, and had a great thermal spread. That wasn't it.

Rather than look it up, I swapped the pump monitor on the two CPU fan connectors, and was still getting no reading. Is the pump not working? I tried hitting it, rotating the system around (and could hear a liquid move somewhere), nothing.

Just as I was about to give up, I heard a cracking noise, and temps in bios dropped right down under 30C. It worked! So it seems like the pump had stuck for some reason, and in my messing around it eventually freed itself. It had been sitting unused for a while so that could be a contributing factor.

Been leaving it running since then without problems, but now my confidence is reduced. What if it happens again on a future boot?

I took before and after temp measurements, with 1700 at 3.6 GHz 1.2v, ram 2666 DOCP, Prime95 29.1 small FFT. With the U14S it topped out around 55C, and with the H110i GTX, it topped out around 54C. Hardly anything in it. With hindsight, I should have looked at fan speeds also since obviously they factor into the equation also.

Now I'm happy it is running, I need to tidy up the cabling and take a nice photo of the system.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Glad it all worked out. For a second there, I thought I was reading a story on a AIO leak, especially to the point when you said you heard a "crack", I was preparing for the worse but glad that wasn't the case. This case sounds like there was a air pocket most likely lodged in the pump. Did you hear anything from the pump?

When comparing high end air cooling to AIO, you won't see too much of a difference. Most like getting AIOs because they're running fluid with a pump, rad, etc. Basically a easy way of water cooling without going custom but nothing compares to custom too though as you aren't limited.

Yes, fan control does play a role as far as temps go. You'll want to play around with that and the positioning of your AIO's rad, along with efficient and adequate case air flow.

 

[mackerel]

This is the 2nd time someone said trapped air might cause this but I'm unconvinced. In my other hobby of keeping fish, pumps either turn or they don't, regardless if there is air in it or not. I had no evidence the pump was turning while I has working out this problem. I think the crack I heard was the impeller suddenly turning again. Again, in my experience, pumps not turning is possible if they're not used in a while, and if there is any dirt on the mechanism. They can work fine for a long time, then after a power cycle not restart. Sometimes retrying power cycling will kick it back into action, as seems to be the case here. Otherwise, a good internal clean is usually required.

I wasn't expecting radically different temps. A 280mm rad is probably not that different to the U14S given both used 140mm fans, and while the rad has double the cross sectional area, it has less thickness. I am only using it since I had it spare. There is zero possibility to change the positioning or flow pattern in the case I have it in. The rad can only go in one place in one orientation, and there are exactly 3 fan positions (excluding PSU) which are all used.