Getting away with a randomly placed radiator.

[yoadknux]

Hey guys!

I bought a Kraken G12, which is a GPU plate that allows for easy watercooling, along with a Corsair H55 (which will be used in push-pull). I intend to use it to replace the Aorus cooler on my 1080ti.

The Aorus cooler is pretty much ok, the GPU temps reach about 72c during Heaven, but the amount of heat it dissipates into the case is unreal. It also specifically releases the heat into an area that is very close to both the CPU radiator and the tubings (H80i). How bad is it? Everything inside the case feels hot to the touch after a sustained GPU stress test. I've actually reached the point that CPU temps peaked at 67c during 2 hours of Heaven benchmark! Heaven barely uses CPU power and the temp increase came from the GPU that is heating the H80i tubes and the radiator itself which does a lot of the exhaust.

So I thought, "hey, why not watercool it?"... I got a good deal on the GPU cooler, problem is I have no place on the case to mount the radiator itself of the H55. So I'm just wondering, let's say I just leave it near an exhaust area of the case, not screwed into anything (other than the fans) - will it generally work?


Thanks!

 

[bigtallanddopey]

Of course it will work. You can have rads outside of the case laid on the table if you want.

The main downsides to not having a rad tucked away and screwed down is aesthetics for one airflow could also be restricted if it isn’t in a good spot and the main one I think is making sure it cannot move. This is especially important inside of the case as lots of movement could cause leaks at the fittings and you don’t want the fluid on your components.

If you could screw or onto a fan somehow then that should be fine and better than leaving it lying about.

 

[Lochekey]

What case are you using?

 

[EarthDog]

So... 1x120mm for a 250w card??? Not sure how well that will work out...

What case and what orientation are the fans?? Seems like more airflow is needed...

Also, please create a s8gnature that lists yoyr hardware so we know what you are working with.

 

[trents]

I agree with ED. A Corsair H55 will not do the job for cooling that GPU. Not even close I don't think. I've used the H55 with a push pull fan setup to cool an overclocked 7700k CPU and it was adequate for that. But it was not putting out half of what your GPU does under full load.

 

[yoadknux]

I went on with the experiment!

First of all, it was very scary. I was 100% sure the card will not function once I'm done with it. Getting the heatsink connectors (fans + leds) has been very difficult.

My case is a 2010 born Thermaltake Element S. It has a lot of airflow (especially since I removed the hardware cage). We're talking 2x 120mm front intake, 230mm side intake, 230mm top exhaust. Sadly there is only one "true" place for mounting a 120mm or 140mm fan, which is already occupied by my push-pull Corsair H80i which cools my overclocked 4930k.

Anyway, here are some photos:

Naked card:


Kraken G12 + Corsair H55 mounted on the 1080ti (I added some heatsinks underneath, funny story later)


As you can see on the picture below, I have no place to mount it. I wanted to do front exhaust but there are two problems: 1. The tubes aren't long enough (I put a lot of pressure if I try going further) and 2. The way this case works, the fans are mounted on some added plastics which are both top and bottom but there's no middle. Sadly the radiator collides with either the 5.25 cage at the top and the bottom of the case as well. So... yeah... behold the power of zipties? I will straighten it later. At this point I was already sure my GPU is dead and wanted to get it booting as soon as possible.


I ran heaven benchmark 1080p extreme or whatever that's called, no overclock, here is the result:


I also left it to run for about 10 minutes after the benchmark. check out the temps!

Yep, they fluctated around 54-56c. At this summer time my Aorus probably would have done 72-75c, so we're talking about a pretty big reduction in temperatures.

Fans aren't even at full speed, the VRM fan which I control manually is at constant 60%, and the H55 fans, also manually controlled, are only at 1000 RPM (can reach ~1800).

I now increased power limit to 125%. I played all 3dmark stress tests in a series, it took about an hour or so. Maximum temperature is 63c and frame stability is >98%.

Superposition gives pretty good results as well, notice the maximum temps:


My next goals:
- I hear a bzzzzt-ish sound, it may be the pump, but it may also be the radiator fluctating with the 5.25 cage due to fans vibrations, although it could be the VRM fan - I'll test and see.
- I passed some stress tets but I'll do a week or two of gaming, then start overclocking.

TRIVIA: I was too lazy to change the glue-pads on my heatsinks, I used the old glue. The first time I connected the radiator, after about 5 minutes, the heatsink rain has started and they were coming off, bouncing off the fan and stuff hahahaha. I changed them and reseated. That was an annoying process

 

[EarthDog]

What does a sustained load like gaming for an hour bring temps to?

 

[yoadknux]

What does a sustained load like gaming for an hour bring temps to?

AC:O was at 45c-50c for about 40 minutes, but it's a game with a lot of 80% GPU usage moments. I will test Witcher 3 or Crysis 3 later. I think gaming temps will be close to that of Heaven, which is about 55c.

 

[EarthDog]

If you hit 63c in benchmarks whict arent constant loads, your gaming (games that use the gpu 100%) after an hour will likely be at that or higher.

But a 1080ti at 1080p isnt exactly pushing it.

 

[Dermen]

I would try going single fan and mount the H80 on the top and the H55 on the rear. The way it is now all the GPU heat is still in the case.

He is right you will see higher temps when gaming for extended amounts of time. I have a Kraken/H55, during heaven runs my temps will be mid to high 50s. Hours of gaming will see almost +10C.

I thought a Kraken/H55 combo wouldn't be enough for GPUs either but after reading about a lot of happy users I gave it a try. My 980ti now has a vmod bios and is overclocked and stays around 65-67C after hours of PUBG.

 

[yoadknux]

If you hit 63c in benchmarks whict arent constant loads, your gaming (games that use the gpu 100%) after an hour will likely be at that or higher.

But a 1080ti at 1080p isnt exactly pushing it.

Thanks for the comment, appreciate it. You're right about 1080ti at 1080p, there are very few games that are still GPU bound at this resolution. Witcher 3 is one of those games. From my experience temps usually do not go much higher than what they are after 3dmark stress tests that run in succession. For games like AC:O that utilize about 90% that's even more true, as temps were 45c-50c. I will try Witcher 3 tonight for an hour with hairworks and stuff and see how it goes.

I would try going single fan and mount the H80 on the top and the H55 on the rear. The way it is now all the GPU heat is still in the case.

He is right you will see higher temps when gaming for extended amounts of time. I have a Kraken/H55, during heaven runs my temps will be mid to high 50s. Hours of gaming will see almost +10C.

I thought a Kraken/H55 combo wouldn't be enough for GPUs either but after reading about a lot of happy users I gave it a try. My 980ti now has a vmod bios and is overclocked and stays around 65-67C after hours of PUBG.

You are right about heat building up, I've changed the front fans into exhaust instead of intake, and the radiator airflow is directed at the exhaust fans. It means that most of the fresh air for the GPU VRMs/Mobo/Memory/CPU come from the 230mm side fan, and I'm OK with this. If I really feel like doing some nitpicking work, I could flip the top fan to intake instead of exhaust. Now with most of the GPU heat coming out of the front, and the CPU using it's own radiator, there's really not that much heat buildup. Flipping the top fan will help cool the mobo area more, but it probably won't change much (Maybe a bit less dust if I put a filter in there).

 

[trents]

Why don't you invest in a better case?

 

[yoadknux]

Why don't you invest in a better case?

It's not as fun. I like playing around with my hardware, see what I could do with it. If I upgrade everything I'll lose interest.

I have used the Aorus for a while and with a fan profile it works great, so why watercool? Boredom, wanted to see how I can customize my hardware and learn from the process.

New result by the way: 30 minutes Kombustor 57c. Tonight 1h Witcher 3.

I also have a question, I've isolated the noise that comes from the cooler, and beyond all doubt it comes from the H55 pump. I had it running at 1500 RPM as intended. I have connected it manually to a fan controller and lowered the RPM to 1000 and the noise is gone.

My question here is as follows: Is it possible to buy an adapter that converts 3 pin fan connector (for the pump) into a GPU fan connector, and set something in MSI afterburner some sort of fan profile that sets pump to ~1000 most of the time and then changes into maximum at about 50c or so? Gaming noise is fine as I'm wearing headsets but the idle noise is kinda annoying. Would something like this work?

 

[Dermen]

I think most cards use 4-pin PWM fans which I don't think work with the pump.

I ended up using speedfan. You can plug your pump and rad fan into a motherboard header and have the speed based on GPU temp. You can also have it increase your intake/exhaust case fans based on GPU temp which should give you better cooling.

 

[trents]

Most of the video cards I have used employ two pin fan connectors and the voltage is thermally regulated. Of course, I have not used a lot of high end video cards.

 

[yoadknux]

I think most cards use 4-pin PWM fans which I don't think work with the pump.

I ended up using speedfan. You can plug your pump and rad fan into a motherboard header and have the speed based on GPU temp. You can also have it increase your intake/exhaust case fans based on GPU temp which should give you better cooling.

Right now I'm mostly interested in controlling the speed of the pump, my fans are relatively quiet at 1000 RPM and give good performance. So you're saying that with Speedfan I can set a curve for the pump (which is currently connected to the CPU fan header) based on the GPU temperature? That's cool, I'll give it a shot. I'm thinking something like 1000 RPM baseline and 1500 RPM at 60c.

Most of the video cards I have used employ two pin fan connectors and the voltage is thermally regulated. Of course, I have not used a lot of high end video cards.

I think I've seen 4 pins when I plugged the previous cooler off but I may be wrong.

 

[yoadknux]

Final test: The game that stresses my GPU the most, TW3.

Configuration: Fans were 1100-ish with the front magnetic door of the case open to allow a bit better aiflow. I have stayed outside of big cities to avoid CPU bottleneck. Game was played for about an hour straight, and I aimed for 100% GPU usage, so I tried to avoid cutscenes, and avoided going into the menu (this drops temps almost at an instant, as GPU usage is reduced)
Results: Average temperature 55c, max 57c.



To conclude: The Kraken G12 + Corsair H55 beyond all doubt keeps the GPU cooler than the Aorus cooler. For heavy usage, sustained load, a drop of ~10c-15c is observed (depending on how aggressive you're going with the fans). However I have to say that the it is noisier. The pump generates some sort of high frequency noise, not high frequency like coil whine but vibration-ish. I have not tested whether it's due to the way the waterblock is held by the Kraken (which is kinda unusual), or if the H55 itself is a noisy pump.

I am looking for a used Corsair H105, which should cost me about 65 USD. If I do that, I will see how much better a 240mm radiator does at cooling this card, as well as check the noise levels.

 

[EarthDog]

That 1080p and a 1080Ti, lol. Makes a 120mm rad do a good job.

 

[Dermen]

So you're saying that with Speedfan I can set a curve for the pump (which is currently connected to the CPU fan header) based on the GPU temperature? That's cool, I'll give it a shot. I'm thinking something like 1000 RPM baseline and 1500 RPM at 60c.

Yeah it is pretty nice, but when you first load up the software it makes no sense. You need to read a how-to on setting it up or you will be totally lost.

I keep my pump at 100% all the time and don't hear it over my fans which idle at about 800-1000rpm. Maybe you got unlucky and got a loud pump.

 

[trents]

Water cooling pump rattling can often be mitigated by reducing the pump rpm a little, like 10% even. I think the H55 only has a 3 pin pump but if I'm right in that you might be able to turn it down a little in bios if the header has optional voltage control (versus PWM). Or, you could get an inline voltage resistor. Reducing the pump RPM a little will have little effect on temps. I recently did this with my Coolermaster MasterLiquid 240 and it stopped the pump noise.