Question Best fan curve for Arctic Liquid Freezer 3 360 ?

[SteveBeast]

PC Specs
Mobo: MSI Z790 Gaming Plus WiFi
CPU: i7-14700k
GPU: RTX 4070
RAM: 32GB
OS: Windows 11

I just installed the Arctic Freezer 3 Liquid 360. When I first started it, the pump made some bubbling noises, but they disappeared. However, there's still a slight whining noise coming from the pump. Is that normal?

I also set all the fans in the BIOS to PWM mode, including the system fans, and configured the fan curve to Smart Control. Is this a good setup, or is there a better way to adjust the fan curve?

For now, I connected the All-in-One (AIO) cable, which controls everything. Any suggestions for improvement?

 

[bill001g]

All that matters is does the cooler keep the cpu from thermal throttle with a fan speed that is acceptable to you noise wise.

Run a benchmark software that loads the CPU to max. Let it run for say 10-15 minutes. The goal is to get the water in the cooler to some stable temperature. Adjust the fans so the cpu get close but does not actually thermal throttle. This is your worst case heat and should give you a idea what the maximum fan speed sounds like.

You now can adjust the curve for lower temps how ever you like. It is all personal preference.

In general if you follow the new intel recommended power settings even a air cooler will keep your CPU under control. I am going to bet with something big like a 360 cooler you can run the fans a 50% all the time and just not worry about it. The fans should be pretty quiet at 50%.

The pump on arctic coolers runs at 100% and is not adjustable. I think you can change the fan speed for the fan that is on the block. That one tends to be most noisy. It main use it to cool the VRM around the cpu not cooling the CPU itself much.

 

[SteveBeast]

@bill001g

I connected the All-in-One connector, which controls the radiator fans, VRM fan, and pump. However, I’m wondering if I should use the other cable that allows for individual control of the radiator fans and pump.

In the BIOS, I set the fan mode to PWM with smart control enabled.

After running a 10-minute match in Black Ops 6, my CPU temperatures were:

Maximum: ~75°C

Average: 65–70°C


Are these temperatures okay, or should I adjust the fan curve to increase cooling? Also, would it be better to use the all-in-one connector or the individual cable for more control?

So does that mean even if I'm using the individual cable I can't control the pump speed? It will always run at 100%? Couldn't I set the pump to say 50%?

Thanks for the recommendation—I’ll run a Cinebench test to further evaluate performance. And for the benchmark test I guess I should start setting fans to 100 percent at 80 degrees?

 

[bill001g]

Why would you want to run the 3 radiator fans at different speeds. The water will still flow past all of them.

Artic has said the pump always runs at 100%.

You are far far away from the thermal limits. The 13700k will not reduce the clocks until it hits 100 C.

Your results are fairly common a 360 aio is massive overkill unless you do something like set the p1/p2 power limits to unlimited. The CPU will then keep boasting the clocks until it hits the thermal limits.

 

[SteveBeast]

Why would you want to run the 3 radiator fans at different speeds. The water will still flow past all of them.

Artic has said the pump always runs at 100%.

You are far far away from the thermal limits. The 13700k will not reduce the clocks until it hits 100 C.

Your results are fairly common a 360 aio is massive overkill unless you do something like set the p1/p2 power limits to unlimited. The CPU will then keep boasting the clocks until it hits the thermal limits.

I have a 14700K.

Should I keep the all-in-one connector and let the BIOS smart control manage the radiator fans, VRM fan, and pump?

Or would it be better to use individual cables, connect the three plugs separately, and set a custom fan curve for each component?

 

[bill001g]

So it seems they updated stuff. Previously there was only 1 connector now there appears to be a optional different cable in the later manufactured units.

You would have to read and see if they actually allow you to run the pump at something other than 100% now. Most times it was recommended the pump always run at 100% anyway.

The VRM fan was the only one that made noise really and I don't know if there is a good way to set a fan curve for that. If there is even a sensor for VRM temp I am not sure what number you want to keep the VRM at.

My guess is it all makes no difference. You likely will not be getting you fan speeds high enough to matter. In general unless you actually running a multi core load constantly the cpu will be not even get hot. All that water absorbs a lot of heat so its not like small spikes in cpu load will even register.

 

[USAFRet]

Maximum: ~75°C

Average: 65–70°C


Are these temperatures okay

Yes.
No adjustment needed.

 

[SteveBeast]

Yes.
No adjustment needed.

Ok should I keep the One For All cable then?. Another thing: I've started playing Hogwarts Legacy, and every time it starts up, it goes through shader loading. During this process, temperatures spike up to 80 degrees Celsius, and the fans kick in audibly. Is it normal that the temps go up so high?

However, during normal browsing or less demanding games, the fans are almost silent. Should I adjust the fan curve in BIOS to kick in sooner? It seems they only get louder around 70 degrees, which feels late. Even when it spikes to 60 degrees, the fans remain quiet.

Also, is there a way to ensure my pump is functioning properly? In the BIOS, I can only see RPM for the CPU, and because I'm using the all-in-one cable, I think it shows RPM for everything, not just the pump. Is there another way to check?

 

[USAFRet]

Ok should I keep the One For All cable then?. Another thing: I've started playing Hogwarts Legacy, and every time it starts up, it goes through shader loading. During this process, temperatures spike up to 80 degrees Celsius, and the fans kick in audibly. Is it normal that the temps go up so high?

However, during normal browsing or less demanding games, the fans are almost silent. Should I adjust the fan curve in BIOS to kick in sooner? It seems they only get louder around 70 degrees, which feels late. Even when it spikes to 60 degrees, the fans remain quiet.

Also, is there a way to ensure my pump is functioning properly? In the BIOS, I can only see RPM for the CPU, and because I'm using the all-in-one cable, I think it shows RPM for everything, not just the pump. Is there another way to check?

For your posted temps, however it is currently configured...leave it alone.

 

[SteveBeast]

For your posted temps, however it is currently configured...leave it alone.

ok and those 80 degrees celsius while loading shaders in hogwarts legacy is that normal?

 

[USAFRet]

ok and those 80 degrees celsius while loading shaders in hogwarts legacy is that normal?

Yes.

 

[JayGau]

Shader compilation always makes the CPU running hotter than usual and Hogwarts Legacy is the worst I have seen (it runs even hotter than Cinebench).

Too bad that your fan curve has to be set with the CPU temperature. That's not very efficient and you miss the most appealing feature of AIO coolers: no fan busrt when the CPU gets temperature spikes. What is cooling down your CPU are not the fans, it's the liquid, and the liquid temp is maintained low by the fans blowing on the radiator. It's why it's not very effective to set the fan speed with the CPU temp, it's better to set it with the liquid temp that changes very slowly and doesn't react to short CPU loads. With that said, too bad this cooler doesn't allow to do that! According to the manual, there is just a power fan cable and no usb, so no way to monitor the liquid temp. I didn't even know this could be possible. It's the most important feature of an AIO and they didn't dare including it. I'm gonna stick with Corsair.

 

[SteveBeast]

There is another cable that allows independent control of the radiator fans, pump, and VRM. However, I connected the all-in-one cable to the pump, and switching the cables would require reinstalling the entire pump. Given that, I'm unsure whether it's worth the effort to change it.

Another thing I’ve noticed in idle mode is a slight rattling sound, even though the fans are silent. I assume it's coming from the pump. Is this normal, and is there a way to eliminate it?

 

[bill001g]

According to the manual, there is just a power fan cable and no usb, so no way to monitor the liquid temp. I didn't even know this could be possible. It's the most important feature of an AIO and they didn't dare including it. I'm gonna stick with Corsair.

That is the way most of them work it is only recently that they put sensors in. Arctic likely is decided that it added too much cost. They only cost $90 on amazon so they put all the money in the performance and leave the extra feature to those who will pay more.

 

[JayGau]

That is the way most of them work it is only recently that they put sensors in. Arctic likely is decided that it added too much cost. They only cost $90 on amazon so they put all the money in the performance and leave the extra feature to those who will pay more.

So with most of them you are stuck with either a constant fan speed or a curve based on the CPU temp (with the annoying bursts that come with it)? I have got four AIO coolers in the last 7 years and only the very first one didn't have a liquid temperature sensor. If most of them don't have it, I understand why so many people are like "air cooling is better, AIO are useless": the feature needed to operate them properly is not even available.

 

[bill001g]

You only have to look at the latest reviews of air coolers to see why people are saying "aio are useless". The test show that unless you pushing something like a 14900k over the new intel limits air coolers can easily cool modern cpu without any thermal throttles. The big problem is people have been fooled into the concept that every degree you lower the temperature the more CPU performance you get. The truth being the cpu will always run at maximum capacity if kept below some temperature and going lower makes no difference.

Water cooling is mostly just something people want for the coolness factor similar to why they want led on the machine. It is a very niche condition where you are doing somethings uncommon that in greatly increasing the heat load for you to really "need" water cooling. Seem intel has started to get the message that cranking the power/heat up does not lead to a stable performance gain.

 

[kylothow]

So with most of them you are stuck with either a constant fan speed or a curve based on the CPU temp (with the annoying bursts that come with it)? I have got four AIO coolers in the last 7 years and only the very first one didn't have a liquid temperature sensor. If most of them don't have it, I understand why so many people are like "air cooling is better, AIO are useless": the feature needed to operate them properly is not even available.

There are many sensors on the motherboard other than CPU TEMP you can sync to, and with a thick radiator like this the liquid temperature would swing 3-4 degrees anyway unless you're cooling a 260W+ CPU and doing extremely intense tasks for long periods of time.
Truth is, while knowing the liquid temperature can be useful, for most use cases it's overkill and you can easily wing it using other sensors.