Corsair H100i not cooling as well?

[Kitsuni]

Hello I switched out my Hyper 212 Evo today with a new Corsair H100i however the idle temps are about 35-40 celcius which is similar to my Hyper 212 Evo at idle which I found rather odd for liquid cooling. My CPU is not overclocked. Compared to other computers with the H100i their idle temps were far lower than mine around 20-30 Celcius. At one time while I was stress testing, under load it would stay at a stable 51 Celcius. Now it would jump higher to 70-80 Celcius.

1. I was wondering if my temps are actually normal?

Another thing I have noticed is that my CPU started to fluctuate in usage and temperature whenever I open programs (usually happens on startup) or at random times. It has never had that problem when I had the Hyper 212 Evo.

2. Unsure if this happens to everyone else with an H100i?

Side note: I do not hear the pumps what so ever (Good bad thing?). Fans are audible when temperature hits 50 Celcius+.

I am hoping if anyone has any idea to solve my temperature problem.

I currently have a set of NF-F12's in a Pull Configuration as exhaust. The things I've tried already was reformatting my computer. Install new firmware. Check for loose screws/back plate. Reapplied thermal paste in both spread and dot. I was considering to put washers in the back panel to see if that did anything, but I won't have time till Tuesday.

If there is anything else I need to provide more information please do ask. I'll try my best to get what you're looking for to help me solve this problem.

Thank you for reading/replying to my post.

 

[Deuce65]

Couple of things. First off, take what people say with a grain of salt. If you want to know what you should be getting, best to look at reviews, not what people write. People write crap all the time. For example, 20c for the CPU even idle is ridiculously cool, unless they like don't heat their house or something.
Onto your points:
1. Dunno. You don't actually say what CPU you have.
2. Outside of having a really bad cooler leading to throttling, the cooler has no impact whatsoever on CPU usage.
3. If you put your ear really close to it you would probably hear a hum, or feel a vibration if you touched it. Assuming you hooked it up correctly, your PC won't boot if it isn't running.
Regarding the actual performance. Pretty much always, if your CPU is idling at a normal temp but shoots up way too high under load, you messed up the install. Either no thermal paste, too much thermal paste, or most likely just put it on wrong.

 

[Kitsuni]

Couple of things. First off, take what people say with a grain of salt. If you want to know what you should be getting, best to look at reviews, not what people write. People write crap all the time. For example, 20c for the CPU even idle is ridiculously cool, unless they like don't heat their house or something.
Onto your points:
1. Dunno. You don't actually say what CPU you have.
2. Outside of having a really bad cooler leading to throttling, the cooler has no impact whatsoever on CPU usage.
3. If you put your ear really close to it you would probably hear a hum, or feel a vibration if you touched it. Assuming you hooked it up correctly, your PC won't boot if it isn't running.
Regarding the actual performance. Pretty much always, if your CPU is idling at a normal temp but shoots up way too high under load, you messed up the install. Either no thermal paste, too much thermal paste, or most likely just put it on wrong.

1. I have an Intel 3570K, I deleted the picture to showed it clearly to update it with the new temps and forgot about it. My apologizes.
2. Ah alright maybe I'll have to figure that one out myself then.
3. Everything seems fine and dandy from the looks of it. I'm able to see everything working with Corsair Link. The pumps are pumping at the normal 2100+.

I did reapply some Arctic Silver 5 after my first spread didn't seem so good and made sure the screws and waterblock weren't loose. I followed both the book and Youtube guide way of installing. Though it's a possibility I might have installed it wrong along the way which I'll check with a friend tomorrow about it and fully reinstall it. Thanks for you reply. :]

 

[Deuce65]

One thing, you mentioned washers. Washers are typically used if the backplate doesn't sit right. There shouldn't be any "play" in it. If there is, than you will want to use those washers, and that should help.

 

[Kitsuni]

One thing, you mentioned washers. Washers are typically used if the backplate doesn't sit right. There shouldn't be any "play" in it. If there is, than you will want to use those washers, and that should help.

I thought the same. Though, someone suggested I should try using them as they said it worked for them on their H80i in terms of temps going 80 celcius under full load.There were washers that did come with the cooler, but I was sure those were for mounting the fans. There were no instructions for using them for the back plate or anywhere on the mount/waterblock itself.

 

[101]

Everyone has left great answers, so there's not much more for me to say.
One thing though, 35-40c idle is still fine... Your CPU can generally go to 90c and still be okay technically, so if it's popping up to like 70 when you're doing something high demanding, you're still solid.

In the end, don't lose sleep over it. It's not gonna kill ya if you're some 10 degrees over other people's setups.

 

[Kitsuni]

True enough I shouldn't be losing sleep over this since 35-40 Celcius is still alright (which I already have unfortunately ><). Hopefully I don't sound like I'm complaining, but I felt that the results wasn't what I was expecting in terms of a going from Air Cooling to Liquid Cooling. I felt like the rise of new problems in my newer set up wasn't worth the time and money in terms of expectations/results.

However, it was fun to rebuild and it made the case a lot cleaner compared to a large heat sink. I don't think I will be shipping it back to get my money back as I don't want to let all those effort go to waste, so I mind as well do as much as I can to get to the point where I'm content that it's working like Liquid coolers should do for low temps. I was planning to OC my CPU up to 4.0 GHz, but I'll wait until my temps gets better.

I heard that Arctic Silver 5 (current TIM I'm using) also has a curing time in which takes about 200 hours to maximize full cool temps in which I hope it does and that is the case. As well try out those washer method.