I5 4670K + H60 Idling at 40?

CLC's work better when the pump is 'over-tightened' as compared to air coolers. The paste that comes on Corsair CLC's is actually very good paste, comparable to better brand aftermarket stuff. Its also possible that you have a small amount of air trapped in the pump, this will affect temps slightly.

The H-60 is a decent cooler, better than stock by a good measure. my H-55 saw 74C after 2 hrs of prime95 with a 4.4OC, so yes, your temps are high. What I find curious is the fact that you measure 4000rpm from a fan rated at 2000RPM +/- 10%. This sounds like you have the pump on cpu-fan, and the fan on a different header with something controlling the 'fan speeds'. If this is the case, I'd suggest you put the pump on cpu_aux and the fan on cpu_fan and set the software accordingly so the pump runs max (can be as high as 4000rpm) and the cpu fan is controlled by cpu_fan.

Disable Turbo and retest.

You want to bring the hot air into the case, the cooler air from outside your pc should be blowing through the radiator

WHAT? Since when do "air coolers" have pumps? I think you may have worded that wrong.

No. You do NOT want to bring HOT air into the case. You will be far better off using the positive pressure of your intake fans that bring COOL air into the case and then venting through the radiator OUT of the case. It's still not perfect but you'll have better results with using your case fans to bring in cool air and even though it will be slightly higher in temp once it goes through the radiator that is exhausting from the case it's a better solution than using the now hot air from your radiator and putting it INTO the case. Then the radiator has to remove a portion of the same heat a second time making it very inefficient.

What configuration did you change the fans to?

I am also curious on what the new setup is, and what the temps were.

My coolers documentation recomended bringing in the air from outside the case and it works beautifully. I have a front, bottom, and side intake, and one exhaust in the top and my temps are great.

I meant exactly what I said. When attaching the pump to the cpu with the 4 supplied attachment screws, it is better to tighten the screws to what most who attach air coolers to cpu's, would consider 'over-tight' or 'too tight', basically about a 1/4 turn further than normal.

prime95 is one thing, and only for the cpu. Run MSI Kombuster or Furmark, and let the gpu pump some serious heat into the case and see what the case/cpu temps are then, since that will be a more accurate description of temps under gaming situation, than running prime95.

Also remember, CLC's have a balancing period. This is usually somewhere from 1/2hr to 1hr of continuous usage.

My setup: H-55 radiator top mount with Noctua NF-F12 'push' exhaust. 2x 120mm case fans (front/bottom) intake. i5 3570k OC 4.4GHz, 16Gb Patriot 1600 OC 2166, gtx660ti OC. I have 1 exhaust fan... the radiator. no rear exhaust. Temps on prime95 topped out after 1 hr of small fft at 74C, this right after running Furmark at 80C for 1/2 hr.

I have the same documentation as OP. Corsair states 1). Plug 'pump' into cpu_fan, and the cpu fan somewhere else. 2). Will also see better temps if used as an intake.

1). Yeah... no. Unless you go into BIOS and disable any and all CPU fan curves, the pump will run at varying speeds as the BIOS assumes its a fan and will attempt to vary those speeds according to temp. NOT good for either temps or the pump. Any other header will be better, with cpu_aux as a best solution. Most mid or lower grade motherboards do not have BIOS capability to control cpu_aux (cpu_fan2 etc) so it runs as a 3-pin max 12v fan source, uncontrolled. Then install the cpu fan on cpu_fan as normal. If you worry about pump failure, the motherboard supplied software contains some sort of fan curve settings (MSI Core Control, Asus Suite Fan Xpert etc) that has alarms for every header in case of slow/low/zero speed.

2). Yes your CPU will see lower temps if the radiator is used as an intake. Your case and possible motherboard components like the VRM's will see higher temps, making higher OC much less stable. Will also see a rise in GPU temp, as GPU's rely on surrounding case air for supply across the fans. Pumping HOT air, just to see a 3-5C lower CPU temp, INTO a case, is definitely not a reliable idea, unless you have adequate airflow and exhaust. with 4 intakes and 1 exhaust, that's not my idea of reliable.

Yeah, I thought I was reading you wrong. It sounded like you were saying you needed to tighten "the pump" more than you would on an air cooler. I was like, wtf, air coolers don't have pumps. But obviously, you meant the fans. My bad.

You can always ditch it and run a 140 at lower rpms, if you have the mounting capability. That might drop the dba some.

Believe it or not, and it has been tested, Corsairs stock thermal paste ranks up with the better aftermarket pastes, and considering its pre-applied, as long as ppl keep their sticky fingers off it and remember to remove the clear protective plastic (you'd be surprised how many miss that little but highly important step- removing the plastic) then first installation of a Corsair pump is pretty much a no brainer (as long as you watch some vids and do some research, the supplied directions are dismal at best).

Noctua NF-F12 pwm or NF-P12pwm, much better options than the SP120's, as long as you can live with the color. They have dropped in price, mine was $16. They also come in Black, the Industrial series, but cost significantly more

Heh. The one SP120 is too loud, so you're gonna add TWO MORE? That's funny shiznit right there. It'll stay cool, but you'll need headphones to hear anything from your media device of choice if it's in the same room huh? Why not just attach a Dyson vacuum to the back exhaust and let it run nonstop? It might be quieter. Just kidding. I agree with Karadjgne, the Noctua's sure are quieter than the Corsair fans, even at the same RPM's.

SP120 HP (2) - Black 120mm 2350 RPM 62.7 CFM 35.0 dbA $27.98
NF-S12B Redux - Black/Gray 120mm 1200 RPM 59.1 CFM 18.1 dbA $16.99
NF-P12PWM - Brown 120mm 900 - 1300 RPM 37.3 - 54.4 CFM 12.6 - 19.8 dbA $19.98


For a case fan, the NF-S12B is 1/2 the speed, similar performance, half the volume (30 dbA is a whisper, 40dbA is normal speech). For every fan set, you can add 3dbA when performance is the same, so 2x SP120's will run 38dbA, 4x will be 41dbA. I personally don't like 'noise' when I'm gaming, especially not at 'speech' level.

For a rad fan, the SP120's can't touch the performance of the NF-P12, never mind the NF-F12, even though the SP120 has slightly higher Static Pressure, but that's only at max speed. I personally don't really want that constant buzz when the pc is idle. PWM is the only way to go IMHO.

Noctua warranty, reliability, quality of build, performance.... vrs Corsair. You do the math. I'd spend the extra $4 for 2x NF-S12B's, especially since they are Black and Grey

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/thermal-compound-charts/-3-CPU-Water-Cooling-High-Pressure,3363.html

Tom's Hardware results, Arctic Silver 5 - 33C Corsair Stock paste 33.4C . The Arctic Silver takes @200 Heat cycles to cure, so for quite a while the silver will be warmer than the CM Stock paste, and mebe a year from now, it might get to be the Same C. Lotta work for no return in my book.

120mm for case fans / radiator fans, or 140mm if they fit. 80mm / 92mm are most common on small form factor cases as exhaust or low profile / low capability air coolers. They generally spin faster, and won't have the airflow of the larger fans unless that rpm is extreme, as in 4000rpm etc (loud!)