New user to LIQUID cooling - Coolermaster LIQUID LITE 120

Bigfingers

I'd be happy with that. Only other thing you can do to lower temps is delid the cpu and apply some liquid metal.

mclingo

yeah ive been looking at that, i used some cheap crap when I seated the i5, i'll pickup some Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut - thanks again for your advice.

Bigfingers

Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut on the cpu to cooler lowered my temps by approx 5 degrees too, so maybe worth a try as its cheap enough.

mclingo

ok, i'm using liquid metal now and i have gone back to me I7 2700k, where my load temps are pretty good, seem to hang around 60-64 my idle seems very high to me, 47-49. Pretty much every review i've read show idle temps at around 30, cant work out if they are measuring temps differently or something is still not right at my end, any ideas?

Bigfingers

Idle temps seem far too high. As long as the pump is working OK I wouldn't get too hung up on its speed. The water flow speed wouldn't account for such a difference in idle temps. I would re apply some thermal paste onto the cpu and re seat the cooler tightening down with the cross method to make sure its sitting evenly.
What thermal paste are you using on the cooler?

mclingo

Thats what I though, they were also high on the I5 2400 as well though, I though that was because I was using cheap thermal grease.

i'm using liquid metal now which was quite expensive and a real faff so i'm reluctant to do that again,  I was very careful to ensure I did this correctly, its definitely seated properly and I made sure the iquid metal was covering both the CPU spreader in total and all of the copper on the pump heat sink which was going to be touching the CPU.

Could it be Ijust have my fans running too slow, I've clocked them right down on a sever curve, they run at just 40% until they hit 50 degree.

I'll set them at 50% and see what happens.

What do you think an ageing 2700k should idle at, note however though I've got my PC in a cupboard in a chimney recess which isnt ventilated very well, could be the heat has go nowhere to go.

Bigfingers

That's the problem. Your ambient temps are too high in a cupboard with no ventilation.
If it was me, I wouldn't have used liquid metal on the cooler. It's conductive and it could kill the pc if it touches anything it shouldn't. However now it's on and working I wouldn't touch it.
You just need cooler ambient temps. The surrounding air is just too hot.

mclingo

yeah, it can destroy aluminium and some types of solder which can trash your board, I wont be using this stuff again even if I did save a few degrees.

I bought an extractor fan, I was going to install this on the outside wall and pull warm air outside, i'll start thinking about doing that again.

All this just to get a silent HTPC

Bigfingers

The rad is too small really. For silent watercooling you need big rads.
I have a 480mm rad at the top and 420mm at the front of my case. Three 140mm fans on the front rad pushing cool air. The top rad has four 120mm fans pulling the warm air out of the top. With also an 140mm rear exhaust fan. My fans are set to 450rpm and I can't hear a thing. And that's with a 5ghz overclock.
If you have room In your case, either try a bigger rad, of use a large flower type air cooler.

mclingo

hmm, sounds like i'm not doing too bad then, I only have one small 120 rad rad and one 120 fan doing all the CPU work. I have two other non PWM fans cooling my 12 hard drives, these drives are spun down 95% of the time so dont generate much heat and one other 120 fan pulling air out of the case.

i'll look at upgrading to a 240, my case isnt wide enough for 140mm fans.