I need some feedback on my loop, thinking of changing fans

[Mazdabater]

TLR - I think my noctuas are to noisy and would like suggestions on a suitable replacement

Hey guys. I built my first water cooled PC up a few weeks ago. However I think I made the wrong choice with the fans. I'm running 5 120mm Noctua NF-F12 3000rpm fans. My issue is the noise, I have tried running them at a constant 1500 rpm, however I was playing mass effect earlier and my water temp sensor alarm started going off as the coolant got to 46 deg. It cools back down to around 38 or so with the fans on full speed but damn they are noisy. Bit of info about the loop/components in it

I7 7700k - EK water block
ROG Maximus IX Formula
ROG Strix 1080 TI - EK Water block
2 X EK 120mm Slim Radiators
1x EK 240mm Slim Radiator
EK XRES 140 Revo D5 PWM Glass Pump/Reservoir Combo
InWin 805i case

Now I only recently added the extra 120mm rad as I had it laying around (I originally ordered what EK recomended in their loop builder and decided to change it up) so that's why its only plumbed in with the flex tubing at the moment, as I need some more fittings to move it over more under the pump. I was hoping it would allow me to run that fans at a lower RPM but it didn't seem to make much difference. The only other thing I can see being the problem is the lack of airflow in the case. It only has the one lower intake which is why I originally just had the 2 fans there without the radiator. Basically is there any fan options that are going to help me here, or am I missing something else. The GPU and CPU temps seem fine, I do get some of the random spike issues with the 7700k but I will be delidding it next time I'm home as my tool should have arrived.

 

[||Console||]

Those fans should be able to run a bit slower and still have decent cooling.
What clock speed are you running?
What are your load temps on the CPU and GPU? I have been water cooling for years but have never had a water temp meter so have no reference for your temps listed.

If your temps are a problem it's from the lack of rad's for the components you have you are on the minimum edge of what I would recommend.

Case air flow could be a problem but you can test that by removing the side panel . If it's the same with it off it is not that.

 

[S_I_N]

you say you coolant temps got to 46degrees what was your cpu and gpu temps like??

 

[Mazdabater]

Played some battlefield tonight. Loop got to 42deg, gpu was at 52 with it set to overclockmode in gpu2. Ambient temps around 26. Fans were running around 1800rpm. I think I'm just going to have to deal with the noise at this point.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Played some battlefield tonight. Loop got to 42deg, gpu was at 52 with it set to overclockmode in gpu2. Ambient temps around 26. Fans were running around 1800rpm. I think I'm just going to have to deal with the noise at this point.

Are you talking about a 2nd GPU or the BIOS switch to your single GPU? Just want to clarify that.

Is that the Ifinity case? As Inwin makes some nice looking case, they do lack in the dust and airflow department I've noticed. With that said, your ambient temps look fine as that would have been my next question. Your fans are fine and yes, they can get noisy while pushing a good amount of air but you're very limited to the intake space with this case. You shouldn't be getting those kind of water temps with that much rad and fans.

I would make sure you're getting enough flow and touch the radiators. If the rads feel very hot after gaming an hr or so, I would think they aren't getting enough cool airflow to them.

As stated, try with the case open and record the temps that way to see if there's much of a difference. If there is, that's another indicator that it's the internal case airflow that is lacking.

 

[JeremyCT]

What direction are all those fans blowing? If case airflow is going front to back, you might have a slight problem with that rear radiator picking up heat that's been dumped into the air by the front and bottom radiators. Running with the side panel off might help. You could even try turning off the fan on the rear rad and see what happens.

dT of 20 deg seems high, but they are slim rads. You might want to invest in a fan controller like the Aquaero that can be set spin up fans when the dT rises and keep them nice and slow for day to day.

How hard are you clocking the CPU? If you're pushing it hard you might consider dialing it back a bit to get temps and sound levels you're more comfortable with.

 

[Mazdabater]

Yeah is the in win case with the infinity panel on the front. Had I known a bit more about cooling I probably would have opted for something slightly bigger with more air flow. There's 2 intake fans on the bottom, 2 on the front of the 240 and there's one exhaust on the back. And sorry the gpu2 was just the asus software that was giving me the temps for it.

Currently the CPU doesn't have a clock in it, I would like to get it up to 5ghz but I'm waiting to relid it first (have the tool and compound but I have been in Fiji working for the last 3 weeks). I think my issue may be the slim rads, but I can't fit any bigger in as you can see but they are never actually hot to touch after playing games for an hour or so.

I have just found a temp sensor that will plug into my motherboard which should be at home waiting for me. I think being able to set the fan curve based off water temp will solve a lot of my issues. Also after looking around I'm thinking about trying the corsair mag lev fans. They seem to pull more air at a lower rpm then the noctuas

 

[Mazdabater]

So I figured I'd update this. I ended up going to the corsair mag lev fans. These ran cooler and quieter then the noctuas but the end result was there was not enough radiator for what I was trying to cool. Long story short I changed cases now running a phanteks enthoo primo ultimate with 2 x 480mm rads. I put the 240 in as well as I had room for it and it was there. I've added a bay reservoir and pump and also brought the aquacomputer running the fans as the asus Ai suite is garbage. Finally happy with it. Doesn't go more then 10deg above ambient gaming with the processor at 5,1ghz. I'll try put up some photos but for some reason I can't reply on the computer only my phone

 

[Nebulous]

Holy crap how'd I miss this? Nice choice on the Primo! I luv mine! Love the color scheme too! Can't wait for pics.

 

[Mazdabater]

Well this one here is pretty much around the point that I had gotten sick of the in win case. The final straw was finally getting water temp sensors that plugged into the motherboard only to find that AIsuite wouldn't allow me to control the fan curve with that. Not to mention playing any games that had nice graphics almost always required 100% fan, at that point i had decided that although the inwin was a beautiful case I was just going to go for practicality over looks. The phanteks was the only one that fit the bill. 2 x 480mm rads that had intakes from the outside along with the isolated power supply was a winner. I really wanted the be quiet case, as I know it would be much higher quality but it was lacking in radiator space and I figured the more amount of radiator the less fan noise required.



So this is the new build and it is fairly complete now. I still need to modify a panel that sits below my fan controller to make it easier to run a hard line from the bay res to the other reservoir. Aside from that I may add a flow sensor just because I can. It's alot easier to do loop maintenance with this new case. If I pull the front panel off the fill port of the bay res is really easy to get to, and I have a hidden t piece that runs to a flex line out the back with a tap on it that i can easily put into a bucket or add more hose to.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Very nice. Welcome to the Aquaero family. How do you like that thing?

 

[Mazdabater]

I can't fault it hey, it's an awesome bit of gear. That said I'm not using all the features. I'm very surprised there aren't cheaper fan controllers out there that just come with a water temp sensor so you can base your fan curve off that.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

I can't fault it hey, it's an awesome bit of gear. That said I'm not using all the features. I'm very surprised there aren't cheaper fan controllers out there that just come with a water temp sensor so you can base your fan curve off that.

Agree, its an amazing piece of gear. I still haven't learned all the things that it can do nor do I need all of that. I pretty much let it run my whole loop. Curves for pumps, fans, air/water temps and deltas, flow meter, RGB LEDs, etc. I agree that it's costly but for something that should last a while (German Engineering), you get what you pay for in a positive sense.

I will add, you could get their black front plates to match your case which I have done if you'd like. It can be found here.

 

[Mazdabater]

I had thought about the front plate, but I pretty much leave the door closed and can't see it. I had thought about removing the door but I don't really need to see it.

I had read you can't run any other pumps but the aquacomputer off it. I haven't looked into it yet to find a way if I can run my ek d5's off the fan headers yet, are you doing this with your pumps?

 

[GTXJackBauer]

I had read you can't run any other pumps but the aquacomputer off it. I haven't looked into it yet to find a way if I can run my ek d5's off the fan headers yet, are you doing this with your pumps?

All DDC pumps, EK G2 (Generation 2) and all Aqua pumps will work with the Aquaero. The ones that won't work are the original D5s which weren't Intel PWM spec'd. Some PWM fans might act up as well.

 

[JeremyCT]

If you're going to run pumps off the Aquaero, I recommend investing in the passive heat sink. Those components can get hot when powering a high draw item like a pump, doubly so if you're using voltage control instead of PWM.

IMHO, the Aquaero hardware/software combo is pretty much unrivaled in the liquid cooling scene. Others seem to compete, but when it comes to using it they fall flat. I do wish certain aspects of the software were better fleshed out (only being able to use 3 temp inputs when creating a virtual temp for instance), and I don't like that you now have to pay to get the latest software updates, but they need income streams and I've had almost no issues in 4 years of using mine.

 

[Mazdabater]

Ah nice thanks guys. I'd been meaning to look into it more but after constantly messing with the computer for so long I was enjoying just using it. I might swap the pumps over to it this afternoon though. I've been incredibly disappointed with the asus software I can't even control the pump speed of the pump plugged into the water pump header but I can to the one plugged into the high amp fan. Not to mention I brought the ix formula because it had flow and temp sensor inputs that I thought would help with loop control but they do **** all.

I'll grab one of the heat sinks when I buy the flow meter

 

[GTXJackBauer]

I forgot to note, make sure the flow meter is from them as well and any temp probe can be used on it.

 

[Mazdabater]

Yep, I will be buying it from them. I got lucky and the temp sensors I had previously brought were aqua computer ones. Just hooked the pumps up to the aquacomputer and all is working sweet now!