Hi again. This problem has been bothering me for a couple months and I've spent a lot of my summer break working on it or waiting for it. It all started on May 8th when I first built my PC. After solving the first problem (RAM wasn't inserted all the way) the PC has worked very well performance wise. The problem I've had since the start is abnormally high temps and annoyingly loud CPU fan speeds. With my first cooler, the h100i v2 I had fan noise louder than I was used to but waited nearly two months for my GTX 1080 to arrive because only then would it be complete. That prevented me from returning the cooler to Best Buy, however.
I did many things to try to lower temps and prevent the fans from running so fast like keeping the fans set on silent in both BIOS and Corsair link. After that I quickly bought some MX-4 thermal paste in hopes of bringing temps down and to enable me to remount the cooler. I tried many different fan configurations, fan speeds, and complete remountings of the cooler but nothing worked. After rotating the cooler it eventually quit working although everything was plugged in. This led me to believe that I had a faulty cooler all along and it had finally died now. A little excited I may have eventually figured it out, I boxed it up and brought it back to Best Buy. Their site led me to believe they would accept returns of defective products like mine but I discovered they only had a 15 day return policy. They then tried to see if they could RMA it through Best Buy but unfortunately they couldn't. I brought the box back home and still have it with me. Later that day I researched the best CPU coolers. I wanted to order another because I was honestly burnt on liquid coolers and Corsair, plus their RMA process could take weeks causing me to wait a long time for a PC that would start. I decided to go for the Cryorig R1 Universal which had great reviews, was supposed to be almost inaudible while idle, and cool nearly as well as the h100i. I thought purchasing another aftermarket CPU cooler for $90 since I didn't necessarily want to OC was overkill, but I figured after all my trouble I should pick something quality with the potential to OC later if I wanted.
The set-up process wasn't nearly as easy as others made it seem mainly because of difficulty in viewing the screw holes and getting the cooler to line up, but with the help of my dad we eventually did it. We tightened down each of the two screws a half turn at a time and they both tightened to their max at the same time for a good fit. I plugged in both fans into the CPU_FAN header and started the PC up with high hopes. Unfortunately, the similar fan speeds began and I got a sick feeling in my stomach. I haven't done much testing as I realize the problem isn't in the cooler and I've got similar results when idle and under load. When idle, I get temps in the teens according to Speedfan which is strange seeing as it's cooler than ambient. In Corsair Link I get temps around 30c and in BIOS about 35c. I tested with the case open so I could see if there was an airflow problem but that didn't help either. My motherboard may have given it an automatic OC since on start-up below the ASUS logo it always says "Overclock 15%" but I haven't seen this backed up anywhere else (I've only ever seen it listed as @4.0). Plus, with my cooler I should be able to keep that OC stable. I currently have a front bottom intake and a back exhaust which the cooler blows out through. I wouldn't obsess over these temps if there wasn't the noise that came along with them. It's not a grindy or a vibration noise, it appears to be the noise of the fans having to run very fast when doing very little. It's annoying when I'm trying to watch a show on simply browse Reddit and I have to hear the fans climb to very loud speeds when backing out of a thread. I thought maybe I need to adjust the fan curve (although others reported great noise level and temps when simply plugging everything in) but then I went into a game. I started Call of Juarez: Gunslinger and temps instantly climbed into the 70s and could potentially go higher which is very poor for an aftermarket $90 cooler. Temps like that are more suited for stock fans and others reported their CPU never got over 50c even in load. I didn't test much after that but things appear to be nearly identical to before.
My family was saying I should be okay with the noise but I know it's not normal. Most of my build is optimized for silence and my cooler is supposed to be one of the coolest and quietest on the market. If I recall correctly, it's also louder than my previous two PCs and the PCs I've used at school which would obviously have very poor coolers. It's hard to believe my expensive build could be on the low end in terms of sound and that everyone else experiences fan speeds louder than this. For a little more clarification, the CPU fans are the noisiest in my case and I can't hear the case or GPU fans over it even though the GPU is usually supposed to be the noisiest thing in the case.
I wish my CPU came with a stock cooler so I could compare noise and temps, but most importantly so I would've had an intermediate cooler. If I did, I wouldn't have had to spend $90 on this one. At this point I'm all out of guesses and would just really like to solve this problem. I don't know what will happen with my old $110 cooler but I'm hoping I can RMA it and sell the replacement as new and reclaim some money but that will take a while and I'll still be losing. If I could just get this one to work optimally it'd be the greatest.
I've researched this problem a lot but no one seems to quite have the same problem as me so I've made these threads. Nearly every CPU overheating thread I've encountered ends up being because the person uses a subpar stock cooler, but I've been using expensive aftermarket coolers from the beginning. It's also not a dust issue which many people have since this happened since I put it together and I cleaned it since I built it. Similarly, this isn't a problem that has occurred halfway through the PC's lifespan where it could be some electrical failure due to a storm, anything degrading due to heavy use and age, or a PSU or other part they skimped on. I think all of my components have a pretty good quality. I've also tried using aftermarket thermal paste, my MX-4 to lower temps and remounted the previous cooler to ensure good contact. When looking at this cooler it appeared to make good contact and we screwed down each side in increments.
I've been using pretty commonplace parts and settings so I would've expected it to just work now like it has for others, but no such luck. I haven't changed much in settings I think but feel free to leave suggestions on the software side too since it seems I did what I could on the hardware side, but I'm not sure. I did try disabling Intel Turbo Boost which didn't help and I changed the CPU Fan setting to PWM instead of DC which gave it a better fan curve and runs a tad quieter on idle although I can always clearly hear it spinning even with background noise, but it's more bearable for now. However, it still spikes up to higher temps easily when browsing which causes the fans to spin very loudly for a moment. And remember, this is all on quiet settings in BIOS. The next two higher settings should logically bring better temps but they're much too loud to be bearable.
After exhausting the other possibilities the only the thing I could think is that it's something on the CPU side but I don't know. I thought that it could be a voltage problem but I checked the reading in BIOS and looked up the default setting for my CPU and they were the same. I also haven't changed it. My other thought was that my CPU could be faulty and run too warm but I'm hesitant to go out and RMA it in fear of what happened last time. However, I do have two back-up computers I could use if the CPU is the problem and needs a replacement.
I realize this is a tough problem and no one seems to know the solution yet but surely some of the very knowledgeable members here will know what to do. I'd be very thankful for a final fix to this. If you need more information just let me know and I'll be happy to help. To possibly gain more insight into my problem you can view my previous thread here which links to my first thread about this problem: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3123860/corsair-h100i-cooling.html I've also cross-posted this to here: https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/4upvy9/pu_not_cooling_well_after_two_aftermarket_coolers/
Specs:
Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor
CRYORIG R1 Universal 76.0 CFM CPU Cooler
Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory
Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB FTW
Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case
EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer
I did many things to try to lower temps and prevent the fans from running so fast like keeping the fans set on silent in both BIOS and Corsair link. After that I quickly bought some MX-4 thermal paste in hopes of bringing temps down and to enable me to remount the cooler. I tried many different fan configurations, fan speeds, and complete remountings of the cooler but nothing worked. After rotating the cooler it eventually quit working although everything was plugged in. This led me to believe that I had a faulty cooler all along and it had finally died now. A little excited I may have eventually figured it out, I boxed it up and brought it back to Best Buy. Their site led me to believe they would accept returns of defective products like mine but I discovered they only had a 15 day return policy. They then tried to see if they could RMA it through Best Buy but unfortunately they couldn't. I brought the box back home and still have it with me. Later that day I researched the best CPU coolers. I wanted to order another because I was honestly burnt on liquid coolers and Corsair, plus their RMA process could take weeks causing me to wait a long time for a PC that would start. I decided to go for the Cryorig R1 Universal which had great reviews, was supposed to be almost inaudible while idle, and cool nearly as well as the h100i. I thought purchasing another aftermarket CPU cooler for $90 since I didn't necessarily want to OC was overkill, but I figured after all my trouble I should pick something quality with the potential to OC later if I wanted.
The set-up process wasn't nearly as easy as others made it seem mainly because of difficulty in viewing the screw holes and getting the cooler to line up, but with the help of my dad we eventually did it. We tightened down each of the two screws a half turn at a time and they both tightened to their max at the same time for a good fit. I plugged in both fans into the CPU_FAN header and started the PC up with high hopes. Unfortunately, the similar fan speeds began and I got a sick feeling in my stomach. I haven't done much testing as I realize the problem isn't in the cooler and I've got similar results when idle and under load. When idle, I get temps in the teens according to Speedfan which is strange seeing as it's cooler than ambient. In Corsair Link I get temps around 30c and in BIOS about 35c. I tested with the case open so I could see if there was an airflow problem but that didn't help either. My motherboard may have given it an automatic OC since on start-up below the ASUS logo it always says "Overclock 15%" but I haven't seen this backed up anywhere else (I've only ever seen it listed as @4.0). Plus, with my cooler I should be able to keep that OC stable. I currently have a front bottom intake and a back exhaust which the cooler blows out through. I wouldn't obsess over these temps if there wasn't the noise that came along with them. It's not a grindy or a vibration noise, it appears to be the noise of the fans having to run very fast when doing very little. It's annoying when I'm trying to watch a show on simply browse Reddit and I have to hear the fans climb to very loud speeds when backing out of a thread. I thought maybe I need to adjust the fan curve (although others reported great noise level and temps when simply plugging everything in) but then I went into a game. I started Call of Juarez: Gunslinger and temps instantly climbed into the 70s and could potentially go higher which is very poor for an aftermarket $90 cooler. Temps like that are more suited for stock fans and others reported their CPU never got over 50c even in load. I didn't test much after that but things appear to be nearly identical to before.
My family was saying I should be okay with the noise but I know it's not normal. Most of my build is optimized for silence and my cooler is supposed to be one of the coolest and quietest on the market. If I recall correctly, it's also louder than my previous two PCs and the PCs I've used at school which would obviously have very poor coolers. It's hard to believe my expensive build could be on the low end in terms of sound and that everyone else experiences fan speeds louder than this. For a little more clarification, the CPU fans are the noisiest in my case and I can't hear the case or GPU fans over it even though the GPU is usually supposed to be the noisiest thing in the case.
I wish my CPU came with a stock cooler so I could compare noise and temps, but most importantly so I would've had an intermediate cooler. If I did, I wouldn't have had to spend $90 on this one. At this point I'm all out of guesses and would just really like to solve this problem. I don't know what will happen with my old $110 cooler but I'm hoping I can RMA it and sell the replacement as new and reclaim some money but that will take a while and I'll still be losing. If I could just get this one to work optimally it'd be the greatest.
I've researched this problem a lot but no one seems to quite have the same problem as me so I've made these threads. Nearly every CPU overheating thread I've encountered ends up being because the person uses a subpar stock cooler, but I've been using expensive aftermarket coolers from the beginning. It's also not a dust issue which many people have since this happened since I put it together and I cleaned it since I built it. Similarly, this isn't a problem that has occurred halfway through the PC's lifespan where it could be some electrical failure due to a storm, anything degrading due to heavy use and age, or a PSU or other part they skimped on. I think all of my components have a pretty good quality. I've also tried using aftermarket thermal paste, my MX-4 to lower temps and remounted the previous cooler to ensure good contact. When looking at this cooler it appeared to make good contact and we screwed down each side in increments.
I've been using pretty commonplace parts and settings so I would've expected it to just work now like it has for others, but no such luck. I haven't changed much in settings I think but feel free to leave suggestions on the software side too since it seems I did what I could on the hardware side, but I'm not sure. I did try disabling Intel Turbo Boost which didn't help and I changed the CPU Fan setting to PWM instead of DC which gave it a better fan curve and runs a tad quieter on idle although I can always clearly hear it spinning even with background noise, but it's more bearable for now. However, it still spikes up to higher temps easily when browsing which causes the fans to spin very loudly for a moment. And remember, this is all on quiet settings in BIOS. The next two higher settings should logically bring better temps but they're much too loud to be bearable.
After exhausting the other possibilities the only the thing I could think is that it's something on the CPU side but I don't know. I thought that it could be a voltage problem but I checked the reading in BIOS and looked up the default setting for my CPU and they were the same. I also haven't changed it. My other thought was that my CPU could be faulty and run too warm but I'm hesitant to go out and RMA it in fear of what happened last time. However, I do have two back-up computers I could use if the CPU is the problem and needs a replacement.
I realize this is a tough problem and no one seems to know the solution yet but surely some of the very knowledgeable members here will know what to do. I'd be very thankful for a final fix to this. If you need more information just let me know and I'll be happy to help. To possibly gain more insight into my problem you can view my previous thread here which links to my first thread about this problem: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3123860/corsair-h100i-cooling.html I've also cross-posted this to here: https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/4upvy9/pu_not_cooling_well_after_two_aftermarket_coolers/
Specs:
Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor
CRYORIG R1 Universal 76.0 CFM CPU Cooler
Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory
Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB FTW
Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case
EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer