I have a custom watercooling loop that i built myself. it's made of a resevoir going into a revo d5 ek pump going into a 280 radiator then a evga ftw 1080ti graphics card then a 7700k cpu then a 420 radiator and then back to the resevoir. My cpu is delidded and has liquid ultra on both the dye and the ihs. All of my fans are running at full speed. Both my graphics card and cpu are running at stock speeds; no overclocks on anything. Despite this set up my cpu idles at around 50 degrees celsius and gets up to as high as 90 degrees celsius under load. my gpu idles at 40 celsius and gets as high as 92 celsius under load. I have tried reapplying the thermal paste on both the cpu and gpu, I've tried replacing the pump, and I've insured the loop is drained of air. In addition, I have a flow indicator that consists of a small water wheel in between my first radiator and my graphics card and it doesn't move at all, implying poor waterflow. I feel like this is extremely bad performance for the loop that I have and I've tried absolutely everything I can think of to make it work properly. Can anyone help me figure out why my cooling is so bad? Thanks in advance for any help.
Very poor cooling from custom loop
- Thread starter nsibley
- Start date
Solution
geofelt
Titan
- Oct 9, 2006
- 54,398
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What is your case, and what is the fan arrangement?
Any cooling solution needs a source of fresh air to do it's job.
I expect at idle to see 10-15c. over ambient if your cooler is functioning and mounted well.
Your radiators need a source of fresh air.
If you draw in radiator air from the outside, it will heat up the innards of the case.
Any cooling solution needs a source of fresh air to do it's job.
I expect at idle to see 10-15c. over ambient if your cooler is functioning and mounted well.
Your radiators need a source of fresh air.
If you draw in radiator air from the outside, it will heat up the innards of the case.
- Dec 26, 2012
- 30,745
- 4,562
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You've pretty much already shown the issue. Bad flow. If the wheel isn't doing much of anything, that liquid isn't moving enough volume for the rads to effectively do anything about liquid temps, so your cpu/gpu are just sitting in increasingly hotter liquid.
Figure out where the obstruction is. Clear that up and temps should stabilize.
Can try running the pump without the loop, see if the pump is actually doing anything. Pull the rads out of the loop, and see if there's flow through the cpu/gpu blocks. Blow out the rads, see if there's flow. Check every tube for kinks or saran-wrap blockages etc.
Figure out where the obstruction is. Clear that up and temps should stabilize.
Can try running the pump without the loop, see if the pump is actually doing anything. Pull the rads out of the loop, and see if there's flow through the cpu/gpu blocks. Blow out the rads, see if there's flow. Check every tube for kinks or saran-wrap blockages etc.
My case is a Corsair 900D. I have my 280 rad mounted on the front of the case pulling air in and my 420 rad mounted on the top pushing air out. I agree that it seems like the pump isn't moving enough air. What is confusing me is that I have been running this case for 3 years. I swapped out my old cpu for a 7700k and add a flow indicator and that's when I started having temperature problems. I had no flow indicator prior to that, but my cpu (a delidded 4770k) always ran around 50-60 celsius even under load. Nothing was changed other than the cpu. The radiators, fans, resevoir, and graphics card weren't even removed from the computer.
Is it possible my flow indicator is installed in the wrong direction? There was a small piece of dust I saw in my loop a few moments ago and I watched it move around the loop so I can see water is flowing, however the indicator isn't moving. It is installed horizontally and there is no arrow or marker of any kind indicating the direction that it should be installed facing.
- Dec 26, 2012
- 30,745
- 4,562
- 142,790
If it's installed backwards and basically blocking flow, then yes, I'd say that'd be a huge issue. You just added a dam basically, the only flow being what the pump can force past the blockage. Or it might just be the flow indicator is stuck, not moving when it should be. You won't know till you pull it out of the loop and run it under the tap.
So I have made some progress. I unplugged everything and opened up my case in preparation of taking everything apart to check for blockages. Before I did this I decided to check one last time for potential air pockets by tilting it on it's side and when I did this some air started to leak out of the top radiator. After many hours of trying, I was unable to get it out by normal means so I tried something new. I took an extra fitting and some extra tubing I had lying around and put it into the fill port on my reservoir. I then took the case and tilted it completely on it's side such that it was horizontal to the ground and the radiator in question was the highest part of the case. I then took my liquid cooling fill syringe and pushed it as far into the tubing attached to my fill port as I could. I held it tightly so that there was an air tight seal around the syringe. I then pulled on the syringe as hard as I could while maintaining the air tight seal. When I did this it pulled a huge amount of air out of that top radiator and as long as I held the air tight seal on the syringe the air pocket was held in place. While maintaining this seal I tilted the case around until my reservoir was the highest point and all of that air funneled into it. Once all the air was in the reservoir I released the air tight seal on the syringe, but because the reservoir was the highest point of the case the air stayed in it. I repeated this process until pulling on the syringe yielded no more air pockets. I then plugged everything back up, ran a stress test and monitored it via cpuid hardware monitor. My cpu is now idling in the mid 30's and only gets up to around 70 under load while my gpu idles in the low 30's and only gets up to around 58 under load. Clearly there was a large air pocket inside the top radiator that I just couldn't see. Case closed. Thanks for the responses everyone.
I thought it was strange as well. This isn't my first liquid cooling build and I've never seen a situation where the pump didn't push everything through the system. It was quite a bit of air though. Approximately 2 and half full syringes worth.
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