My experience with the Corsair H115i Pro

[deathman20]

So over the past week I've been working with the Corsair H115i Pro. It hasn't been any smooth sailing so far. Can actually see some images and the nice results I was getting over in the case section when I was piecing togeather my system
Fractal Define R6... in Gunmetal as well over at Corsair's website in the cooling section to try to get help, which sadly never came Install Issue - H115i Pro - Not enough clamping force?. Was going to post in here to see if anyone had idea's last night before I contemplated RMA process but then I did something

Originally starting this up I got results out of the park. 4.5Ghz with 1.275V = Thermal Throttle and core temps all over the board. Mostly Core #1 spiking to 100C constantly, yet other cores almost 40C difference! Eventually after many remounts and tries I loooked into figuring out the problem at a non-thermal throttle state and down clocked her to 3.2Ghz with 1.1V (probably waaay overkill). Anyways Core #1 got to top out around 80C and the remainders where all over the board at 60, 45, 55 etc. I took the whole setup out of the case because at this point, I'm ready to drop in my heatsink beccause I have no clue what else to do.

So dropped my mounting bracket back on there for my Ultra 120... figured hmm, why not try this out with that bracket. BINGO! Eventually after a few different remounts Core 0 and 1 was reading nearly the same, and Core 2 and 3 was reading nearly the same. I was getting closer and dropped temps more. Then thinking I saw a few posts about the block just pushing to much on the socket it was bending the board (really I doubt it was that much to bend the metal plate on the back) but looked at the backplate and forgot I still had on some thicker washers I purchased recently. Dropped in the old washers I had on it from my heatsink and retightened down everything and finally... we have contact! Sadly the cheap POS backplate and mounting bolts never gave it a chance to get a decent contact on the board. While maybe its because my board is a few years older, and newer boards are maybe stiffer since it is a new release and the mounting system for the older revision of the blocks is slightly different (different screws, slightly shorter stand offs). Not sure why they would modify it but what ever case my old Ultra 120 Backplate will live on, and make a really easy switch if I ever need to put the heatsink on since its just 4 screw caps, remove block, place bracket, heatsink and heatsink holder. No need to take off the backplate

So while I wasn't expecting higher end heatsink performance out of this, actually shocked that I am. From the last IntelBurnTest I did with my stock heatsink I'm down in temp, from 79-82C to 66-68C (30min run) at the same speeds/settings. I know at least on the CPU wasn't going to expect a world of difference but wow I'm amazed. Think I might crank up the CPU some now since daily use/playing I doubt I'll be hitting those high temps, and that is with everything running in a balanced mode. Fans for the rad are running off CPU temp so flux between 600rpm (idle) and 800rpm (highest I saw) which is based off either CPU or water temp with the default settings, not sure. The other case fans are in balanced as well, but run a solid 750rpm. Fan location, 2x 140mm on rad for intake, 1x 140mm on rear exhaust, 3x 120mm on top of case exhausting out.

Here is some pics from the last result. First is idle temps and second is load temps after 30min.

 

[maxfly]

PICS man PICS!!! glad to see you got it worked out. those are sweet temps! sad that you would need a physical work around to get corsairs highest end water cooler to work.

 

[deathman20]

PICS man PICS!!! glad to see you got it worked out. those are sweet temps! sad that you would need a physical work around to get corsairs highest end water cooler to work.

I'll get some better pics but for now got a few of the mounting portion and a good shot of the block on. Last 3 are from a video I was talking trying to show how quiet it was. I'll have to take better pictures and physically uploaded them later on the PC for better quality. Also I will upload a video later and can link another (in my case thread) just showing off some of the lighting system.

Still missing lighting strips that will go around the rad or else where. Haven't decided might flip the fan placement so the 140s on the rad are inside the case where it's more visible. Lightning color undecided get but I'll be playing with the options.

And realize now I got finger print on my glass. Got to clean that up [emoji3]

 

[maxfly]

well done! she looks awesome!

 

[deathman20]

Couple better (higher res, not nearly as compressed) pictures I took the other night. Very impressed with the temps and cooling capacity even being quiet.

Room Temp is 17-18C right now (basement), with the pump on Quiet, rad fans on Balanced. CPU idling is 22-25C, Water Temp 24.5C. Note this is also with the GPU mining in the background putting off good amount of heat, running 59C @ 90% TDP. If I upped the pump to balanced, which is what I've done my initial tests on, it would sit cooler around CPU idling 15-19C, Water Temp 20.2C roughly. Basically doubles the pump speed from ~1100RPM to 2000RPM. Now Extreme or maxed out I know the pump goes to ~2800RPM and still its pretty quiet, can't hear it. Though for longevity keeping it on quiet/balanced is probably the best case. Fan RPM on balanced setting for the whole case, least at idle and even playing around with things on the PC has been fairly low, 600-650RPM on the RAD fans as its controlled by the pump and have yet to tweak the settings to try to get at least a little more air coming into the enclosure. The other 4 case fans exhausting run around 750RPM. Considering the main intake for air is running right through the rad,and yet my GPU is still cooler in this case than my previous one I'm very very happy with it.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Well done.

I have to ask, are those their new LL RGB fans? If so, how are they performing as rad fans? Assuming, they're being used for the AIO and are you using a commander pro to control and monitor everything?

 

[deathman20]

Well done.

I have to ask, are those their new LL RGB fans? If so, how are they performing as rad fans? Assuming, they're being used for the AIO and are you using a commander pro to control and monitor everything?

Thanks, Still tweaking the cable mess behind the tray but overall after finding out the problem its been great. Those are the LL RGB fans that are being controlled by the Commander Pro. Light is being controlled for all 6 fans, 4 fans on the controller and then 2 on the rad are controlled by the AIO speed wise. Been playing with the color schemes, so still a WIP of what I want to do. Possibilities of it are great.

So far temps have been great IMO. Thanks to my cooler basement (17-18C) letting the fans run on the balanced profile right now, and quiet on the pump. Right now the CPU sits 20-26C idling, give or take a little, water temp around 23-24C. Note that my 1080TI is running about 58-60C during "idle" doing a little mining in the background. I've seen close to 70C during stress test on the CPU during balanced mode with the pump too. IMO The fans never get close to even full speed during this either unless I push them to it. I haven't played with it too much with temp differences between all the speeds over periods of time but I know at least the pump on balanced and fans on balanced offer great results on my side, with quiet on the pump during long idle times. Curious if I could set a parameter to shift between quiet and balanced modes with the pump on the fly.

Now the fan side of things LL's seem to work just fine from the temps I've been getting. I did get the ML 140's that came with the AIO and the original case fans I could try on it, but haven't done it just yet since least the results I've gotten have been great from what I was getting before. Now with my case door being open or closed changes temps by about 2-3C at most, but still fans run very quiet, and seems to have zero issues with cooling. The static pressure on the LL vs at least the ML's that came with the cooler since it is labeled as "quiet" really isn't much. Think its a whole .1" difference. If I cranked the fans to 100%, I can start to hear them but still waaay quieter than my Scythe Type F's (2006), that I had on my main rig previously. They sit in my other case and to do even a sound comparison I have to shut that PC down (6' feet from this one) to even hear them if at 100%. Running 50-60% as they do typically is nearly dead quiet and can only hear my GPU cooler which still is way quieter than anything I've had in years.

Now I played a game which is very CPU/GPU intensive (Star Citizen) the other day, 90min game run time, everything in balanced mode (700-800RPM on fans, 2100RPM on pump). 4k, Ultra settings in game giving me a nice 50-60FPS, CPU temps never broke 38C with 4.5Ghz w/ 1.275V. Previously in games with at least my heatsink I'd get 55-65C on the CPU while gaming. Think it might be time to up the clock and maybe get past my 4.8Ghz wall I seemed to hit before due to heat.


Edit:
So on my little 6700k at a mild OC/voltage... LL fans on the Rad seem to work perfectly fine in my book. I was partially worried about them, because figured I wouldn't run them full out at 100% all the time not getting the proper airflow but to my testing up to now, its done great. Just got to see what summer temps do to this now.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

I literally have a similar setup and by that I mean, I'm in a cooler area downstairs of the home with similar ambient temps. I want to say I'm around 20c-22c during winter and 18c-20c in the summer with the AC on.

I've been thinking about changing up my fans but it surely would come at a cost to maybe shave off a few degrees, lower the noise level and get the RGB effect to the rig but at this moment, I don't think I'll be doing that just yet unless there are RGB fans compatible with the Aquaero's Farbwerk. Plus, I'm all out of USB inputs but wondered if I could maybe chain two USB hubs together to my single USB header on the MB.

I bet if you added more rad and that GPU to the loop, you could roughly knock off another 20c to the GPU's temps.

Regardless, sounds like you got things dialed in really well. It's nice to see some AIOs do well nowadays.

 

[Alaric]

Skylake started the thinner PCP substrate on the Intel chips, and caused all manner of odd clamping issues with cooling. I would expect that to have been worked out by now, though. I had zero problems with a h100i on an AM3+ socket, but apples/oranges.

 

[deathman20]

I literally have a similar setup and by that I mean, I'm in a cooler area downstairs of the home with similar ambient temps. I want to say I'm around 20c-22c during winter and 18c-20c in the summer with the AC on.

I've been thinking about changing up my fans but it surely would come at a cost to maybe shave off a few degrees, lower the noise level and get the RGB effect to the rig but at this moment, I don't think I'll be doing that just yet unless there are RGB fans compatible with the Aquaero's Farbwerk. Plus, I'm all out of USB inputs but wondered if I could maybe chain two USB hubs together to my single USB header on the MB.

I bet if you added more rad and that GPU to the loop, you could roughly knock off another 20c to the GPU's temps.

Regardless, sounds like you got things dialed in really well. It's nice to see some AIOs do well nowadays.

Pricey to switch fans out like this but now after realizing my other fans I was using is 12 years old I really don't feel that bad. Actually surprised they lived this long.

Adding my commander pro took my last USB header but the pwm is controlled through it and swear the is an open USB header on it still. Be interesting if you could tap into it. Don't think I have any reason for an extra port at the moment though. I'm good with my USBs.


Oh I'm sure I could cool my gpu down more. I've looked at kits, could get the same kit, and potentially a nzxt mount to get the gpu cooling or just buy one of the 120/140 rads they have for this. The later obviously would look more better. Guess I'm surprised that a single fan on the high wattage gpu does so well. Though since I mince with it right now still a little hesitant at least on that part.


Yeah was nervous performance wise for AIOs but after some others posted, friend at work I was really curious about it. The reviews I saw did ok I them but getting better results than they are so I'm happy.

Skylake started the thinner PCP substrate on the Intel chips, and caused all manner of odd clamping issues with cooling. I would expect that to have been worked out by now, though. I had zero problems with a h100i on an AM3+ socket, but apples/oranges.

I think mine was a later edition for skylake. I got mine late summer of 2016 which at that time I think it was already out for a year. But would make sense if there was contact issues.

 

[deathman20]

Well got to say for the last 2 weeks its been running fantastic. Temps started to warm up outside, thankfully basement is still pretty cool so happy there.

So I haven't adjusted my CPU clocks yet upwards, not really sure I need to yet as the games I've been playing haven't stressed the CPU enough to warrant it. Anyways last few weeks I've kept the pump in a quiet mode or running roughly 1000RPM. I've played games here and there and when computer is just idling it away its nice and cool as always. Anyways gaming wise even with the lower pump speed max temp I saw was 35C, some of the games wasn't as stressful as Star Citizen as I mentioned above but still never the less only saw a 12-15C raise in temps (20-23C idle temp right now) which is fantastic in my book.

For such a simple small upgrade the performance results have been fantastic for me since fixing the clamping issue. Anyways just wanted to expand upon my story and share additional experiences with it. We'll see how it goes once the higher humidity and temps come about but I still think its going to be very positive overall. Curious now with the lower temps if I could actually drop my voltage more on my CPU.... hmmm