Just Finished a Custom Water Cooling Loop, Looking for OC Help!!

[SkinnyG]

Need some good guidance, first time overclocking and first time water cooler. I do not have any real expectations for a specific performance increase, I just would like one. I have not adjusted voltage, clocks, etc. from the factory settings at this time. Here are the specs:

The Rig
Processor: i7-4930K @ 3.40 GHz
Motherboard: ASUS Rampage IV Extreme
RAM: 32GB G. Skill TridentX
Video Card: 2x XFX Radeon R9 290X 4GB (In Crossfire)
Primary HDD: 1TB Samsung 850 PRO SSD
Alternate HDD: Lots of random drives
Power: Corsair Pro AX 1200
Monitor: 3x Total – 1x ASUS PB287Q (28in 4k LED) & 2x ASUS VS247H-P (23.6in 1080p LCD)
Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 900D
OS: Windows 10 Pro

Cooling Loop
CPU Water Block: EK-Supremacy EVO (Acetal + Nickel)
GPU Water Block: 2x EK-FC R9-290X Rev 2.0 (Acetal + Nickel)
Pump: Aquastream Ultimate
Radiator: 2x Airplex XT 360
Fans: 6x fans per radiator – 6x Airstream 120mm & 6x Corsair AF120 Performance
Coolant: Good ol’fashion distilled water

I ran the cooling loop solo for about 12hrs prior to reconnecting it, the loop has been deaerated pretty well. At this time, I can only tell the system is actually running by the flow meter (upper left). There are a total of 17x fans, not because I needed them, but because I had them.



I have monitored the CPU temp with RealTemp and I am not sure if I should be impressed. This CPU is only slightly lower than what I was getting with my air cooled setup, GPU temp is way lower. There are 4x numbers, so I'll give you them all, which are all in Celsius. Also, I have not benched the GPUs or played any demanding games yet, but both are consistently hovering below 35°C with general use. Non-gaming Max is what RealTemp is giving me as the max while generally working: cruising the net, writing this post, streaming music, etc.

Idle Minimums: 18° 21° 17° 14°
Non-Gaming Max: 31° 38° 32° 28°
Prime 95 Max: 33° 40° 34° 32°

I'll follow up this post with the current BIOS settings. Let me know your thoughts and where to go from here!!

 

[SkinnyG]

Here are the voltage numbers from the BIOS, these are the factory settings. Since I don't know what the heck any of this really means, I'll give you the picture.

 

[Mr.Scott]

What's your ambient temp?
All your temps are roughly 7-10 degrees low to me.
It is impossible to be below ambient on just water. Average indoor ambient is usually around 21-23c for most people.

 

[Lochekey]

Can I suggest that you change the direction of the fans on the bottom radiator. You will probably get better flow by pulling into the case from the bottom versus trying to push out the bottom.

 

[SkinnyG]

Thanks for the quick input guys!!

What's your ambient temp?
All your temps are roughly 7-10 degrees low to me.
It is impossible to be below ambient on just water. Average indoor ambient is usually around 21-23c for most people.

Room Temp: 20.5°C (I am warm blooded)
Case Temp: 23-24°C
Coolant Temp: 25°C (non-demanding work)

I am assuming, lower than expected temps are good? I am going to see what a demanding game is going to do to the numbers tonight, I'll post those results.

Can I suggest that you change the direction of the fans on the bottom radiator. You will probably get better flow by pulling into the case from the bottom versus trying to push out the bottom.

You might be right, but my thinking behind the current setup is, I would rather have the heat generated from the radiator (although it isn't much) exiting the case rather than entering it. What the picture doesn't really show is the 140mm fan on the opposite side of the radiator that is pushing fresh air towards those six fans. I am getting much better airflow from the bottom radiator than the top one right now. Thoughts?

 

[Lochekey]

As long as you are getting good airflow through the rad you should be fine.

Earlier you mentioned that your temperatures are not much better than with your previous air cooler. What we you using as an air cooler previously, if you were using something like a noctua nh d14 I am not surprised you are not seeing a drastic difference.

As Scotty mentioned your temps are to low which suggests they are not being read correctly by realtemp. Why don't you try running hwinfo64 to see what that reports for temps.

As for your loop in general. Running that i7 along side 2 r9 290x's will push that loop hard. Don't get me wrong the amount of radiator you have will work okay but the loop could benefit from another 240 or 360 rad if you want bett er temps or if you plan to push some overclocking on the system.

 

[SkinnyG]

Previously I had a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO with 2x 120mm fans on it, similar but without the second set of cooling fins.

I guess I can add an extra radiator outside the case if needed... I figure I'll cross that bridge down the road.

Here is the read out that HWiNFO64 gave me, not sure which numbers I should be focusing on:

 

[Lochekey]

The second category up from the bottom shows individual core temps. They are still displaying lower than ambient here so I don't quite trust them.

I should have asked this earlier but what is your goal with going to water cooling. Were you aiming for a quieter system or were you trying to get your temps down to give yourself head room for overclocking.

If you wanted to water cool to make your system quieter or just for the look of water cooling I would say your temps look ok and you should be good to go.

If you were trying to gain headroom to overclock better I suggest you get the temperature readings on the cpu accurate before going any further. I unfortunately am not quite sure what is up with the below ambient temps unless that chip lies about idle temps like some AMD chips do.

 

[SkinnyG]

Any other ideas on how to increase the accuracy of the temp readings? I had a stern conversation with the processor, told it to fix itself... Didn't seem to work...

3 goals for the water cooling, 1) Can I do it 2) Get rid of those damn R9 fans 3) Gain some headroom to overclock

As the system sits right now, I am not disappointed with its performance but I would enjoy getting some sort of performance boost from overclocking. I am not looking for anything extreme, I would prefer not to decrease the lifespan of the system too much.

 

[Mr.Scott]

You pretty much confirmed what I thought.
Temps are not accurate. No idea why.
Even adding 10c to them, they're still outstanding though.
Carry on.

 

[SkinnyG]

So the sense that I am getting is not to pursue overclocking this system since I cannot get an accurate temp reading... That would be a shame if that's the case.

 

[Lochekey]

So the sense that I am getting is not to pursue overclocking this system since I cannot get an accurate temp reading... That would be a shame if that's the case.

No, please do not take it that way and please do not let us discourage you from having fun with your system. We tend to ask a lot of questions and try to get good details so that we can make recomendations that do not put your system at risk.

With that being said, if I was in your shoes and that was my system I would offset my temperature readings by 10 degrees just to have a safety margin. So when your system reads 20 degrees, assume it is actually 30 degrees. If you stick to that and don't try to push the bleeding edge of temperature and voltages you should be fine.

I'll try to ping a few people and see if they have any thoughts on how to get more accurate temp readings, if you stick to the above though you should be ok.

 

[Mr.Scott]

What he said ^^^.
Just looking out for you man. Clock that b1tch.

 

[PolRoger]

Since you have never overclocked before I would check out some of the overclocking guides for your motherboard that are linked below to help familiarize yourself with the process...

I was also curious about which exact kit of G.Skill dram that you are running in your setup??... Speed/Timings?


https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...guide/&usg=AFQjCNFbIH9NnV7bGjvE4O6vU76mKA51Kg

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...ing-2/&usg=AFQjCNEZ_2DtlZcOX5opQeWrM_vGUTGTUA

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...-guide&usg=AFQjCNEBfqnYLjF6bQNmOab9gwSRJ5eMiw

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...bvBbAs&usg=AFQjCNH1t4HdWrUkHdk9vKVzMXjcY-C8Bw

 

[SkinnyG]

Since you have never overclocked before I would check out some of the overclocking guides for your motherboard that are linked below to help familiarize yourself with the process...

I was also curious about which exact kit of G.Skill dram that you are running in your setup??... Speed/Timings?


https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...guide/&usg=AFQjCNFbIH9NnV7bGjvE4O6vU76mKA51Kg

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...ing-2/&usg=AFQjCNEZ_2DtlZcOX5opQeWrM_vGUTGTUA

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...-guide&usg=AFQjCNEBfqnYLjF6bQNmOab9gwSRJ5eMiw

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...bvBbAs&usg=AFQjCNH1t4HdWrUkHdk9vKVzMXjcY-C8Bw

Thanks for the links, I'll dig through these this weekend. It will likely spark more questions!!

As for the G.Skill, it is 4x8GB sticks of DDR3-1867 / PCS-14900 and is currently running at 667MHz with a timing of 9-9-9-24. I have not done anything to adjust their settings.