[SOLVED] CPU recently getting hotter. Is AIO, case or ambient temp the problem?

[Sean87NC]

Hello,

Thanks in advance for any help/information. I have my computer specs below after my explanation of events that have unfolded recently. I have slowly upgraded my computer with new parts etc and have kept an eye on CPU and GPU temps while gaming. I never ran a benchmark like Prime95 for example. Anyways, as a benchmark I used the game AOC. I bought a CORSAIR - Hydro Series H115i PRO 280mm Liquid Cooling System and two cheap 140mm fans. Cooling system could only go in the front of the case and the two extra fans at the top as exhaust. When playing AOC I noticed during high loads the CPU temps got up to the the low 80's. I was able to fix this by buying a jig saw and cutting a big rectangle in the front case panel. The hole is pretty much the same width/height as the radiator. I did this because I noticed the front panel would get extremely hot during gaming. The front panel is solid so this case isn't the best for cooling. With the hole, all that hot air is coming out now. Its so hot it can heat the room. I was able to drop my temps down to 75 at max load while gaming. This was fine with me. Now here is the crazy part which has been driving me mad for a couple weeks(also, I made a crude drawing in MS paint of my fan config which I will include below).

I recently bought some upgraded memory because it was 49% off on Amazon. I was using Corsair 4x8GB 2400Mhz and the new memory is Corsair Pro RGB 2x16GB 3200Mhz. The timings with XMP are almost identical. I had to update my BIOS in order for the new RAM to clock that with XMP enabled. Once I did this I was gaming that night and noticed my temps getting in the high 80's. With that said I figured it was the memory and maybe some issue with the voltage due to intel turbo boost. That does not seem to be the case after a week of troubleshooting. I put the old memory back in the computer and it still runs hot. While gaming it gets in the 80's. It never did this before with the old RAM and modified front case panel. So, I figured it must be the ambient temps. The only other change was that my computer moved to a new room. I still keep it cool in the room with it being about 73-75 degrees AC on full blast. If I take the front case panel off I noticed a drop in temps while playing AOC. One core got to 80c but no higher. So maybe I was wrong about ambient temp or its a combination of that and bad fan setup? I really hit a dead end on trying to lower the temps.

GPU temps are the same. They stay cool. Its hard to square that with it possibly being hot inside the case. As a matter of fact, ever since I cut that huge hole in the front of the case the temps on the GPU went down and it runs no hotter than 60c.

Obviously, if I take the front panel off my PC and the temps go down then I still have an issue with air flow/cooling. I am not sure why its an issue now and not before. Again, the only reason I can think of is that the change in the AC has raised ambient temps. I did once while gaming take off the side glass panel and check inside immediately and it seemed barely warm. Which I don't understand. If I run Prime95 small ett test on 8 cores I have seen it hit 90c. Front panel off it drops a few degrees. Soon as I stop the test it drops back down.

Here is a crude drawing of my PC cooling setup. Water cooling mounted in the front. Two 140m fans mounted at top as intake(tried both exhaust and intake and makes no difference) and a rear case fan as exhaust. I wonder if I should just get a new case and while at it a new motherboard. Also, does anyone else have this AIO and get very hot air coming off it? When I touch my front case panel its hot. More so than it should seem.

I worry when the temps look like this https://ibb.co/Pjz8Xv6 while watching a YouTube video with nothing else going on.

Case cooling setup - https://ibb.co/G9Lk4FP - Yes, I laughed at the drawing as well.

MSI Z370M MORTAR Motherboard
Intel - Core i7-9700K 9th Generation 8-Core - 8-Thread 3.6 GHz (4.9 GHz Turbo) Socket LGA 1151
Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3200 (PC4-25600) C16
EVGA Supernova 750 G3, 80 Plus Gold 750W, Fully Modular,
Phanteks PH-EC416PTG_BK Eclipse P400 Steel ATX Mid Tower Case
MSI Gaming GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB GDRR5X DirectX 12 352-bit
Samsung 860 EVO 500GB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD
CORSAIR - Hydro Series H115i PRO 280mm Liquid Cooling System with RGB Lighting - Black/Gray


The whole thing has been exhausting to say the least. I don't mind if the temps jump to low 80's while gaming but that is with the front panel off of my PC. There is another test I want to do which is to remove the cooling pump and reseat it. I feel there maybe something wrong with that. I used Artic Silver paste after taking off the paste that was pre-applied to the pump.

Gracias,
Sean

 

[Sean87NC]

Ran a Prime95 test for a bit. Here is what the temps look like.

https://ibb.co/XLYxG9Y

Now that I am reading about it, the fans on the radiator appear to be pushing air through it and out the front of the case. I thought it was doing the opposite.

 

[Sean87NC]

I think blowing that hot air into my case would be worse but then again, my only intake are the two top 140mm fans. Anyone have an opinion on this? Would it be better to have my front mounted radiator pulling air inside the case and then have my two top 140mm case fans exhaust along with the rear? I watched a video where a guy compared these different setups and the best was the front mounted radiator blowing air in but his fans were mounted on the opposite side of the radiator so they blew through it and into the case.

 

[Paperdoc]

Yes, by all means, make that change. I was alerted at the start when you said there is a lot of hot air blowing OUT from the front-mounted rad. As you have it now, all the air used for cooling the rad (and hence the CPU) is from INSIDE the case and somewhat pre-warmed, although not a lot. Add to that: you have more exhaust than intake, so air flow balance is off and somewhat reduced by this. When you remove the front panel in this situation, basically you are allowing extra room air to enter the case and be sucked out through the front rad, helping to cool it.

Re-mount the fans on the front rad so they suck air in from the front through the rad - that air (from the room) will be cooler. Re-mount the top two fans so they are exhaust fans, and see how that affects things. Then you can experiment with whether or not the front panel should be missing, present with the hole you cut, or restored.

 

[Sean87NC]

Yes, by all means, make that change. I was alerted at the start when you said there is a lot of hot air blowing OUT from the front-mounted rad. As you have it now, all the air used for cooling the rad (and hence the CPU) is from INSIDE the case and somewhat pre-warmed, although not a lot. Add to that: you have more exhaust than intake, so air flow balance is off and somewhat reduced by this. When you remove the front panel in this situation, basically you are allowing extra room air to enter the case and be sucked out through the front rad, helping to cool it.

Re-mount the fans on the front rad so they suck air in from the front through the rad - that air (from the room) will be cooler. Re-mount the top two fans so they are exhaust fans, and see how that affects things. Then you can experiment with whether or not the front panel should be missing, present with the hole you cut, or restored.

Edit - You said mount in the front of the rad so I will do that, like in the video. Can't wait to try this out actually.

Thanks. I have been thinking about this specifically all morning. I will try it out and report back the results. Should I place the fans in front of the radiator at the front or behind the radiator, or does it not matter? In the video I watched, he has the fans mounted in the front of the radiator at the front so the air <--rad<--fan|

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNAMxZgvves&feature=youtu.be
11:42 mark shows placement.

 

[Sean87NC]

Yes, by all means, make that change. I was alerted at the start when you said there is a lot of hot air blowing OUT from the front-mounted rad. As you have it now, all the air used for cooling the rad (and hence the CPU) is from INSIDE the case and somewhat pre-warmed, although not a lot. Add to that: you have more exhaust than intake, so air flow balance is off and somewhat reduced by this. When you remove the front panel in this situation, basically you are allowing extra room air to enter the case and be sucked out through the front rad, helping to cool it.

Re-mount the fans on the front rad so they suck air in from the front through the rad - that air (from the room) will be cooler. Re-mount the top two fans so they are exhaust fans, and see how that affects things. Then you can experiment with whether or not the front panel should be missing, present with the hole you cut, or restored.

Dude, I am completely stunned. So, I just turned the fans around on the radiator to provide intake. I forgot to turn the fans around at the top so at the moment they are still doing intake as well with just my rear as exhaust. My temps have dropped dramatically. In Prime95, I didn't go above 83. In game when testing, I think I hit like 61 max temp during my testing. My idle temp is 5-6 degrees lower on the actual pump and maybe 3-5 degrees on the CPU. My GPU temp even decreased so in game my max temp was 56 on all max graphic settings in AOC. See screenshots below.
I didn't expect this...cold air coming out of the custom front panel now...didn't realize how much trouble I was causing myself by having my radiator setup like that and apparently, more intake is better. I maybe will switch the 2 top 140mm fans but I don't think I need to to be honest...

Lowest idle temp so far is 27c. That is a big decrease. I am just a bit amazed how much of a difference there is with that one small change.

AOC Game Max Temp - https://ibb.co/xL20rgW
Prime95 Temps - https://ibb.co/71nTDm4

In game, we are talking a decrease from highs of 80-83 to 60's. That is huge.
Thanks for your post. I was probably going to try something with the cooling but wasn't completely motivated. Guess I needed a push.

 

[Paperdoc]

Thanks for Best Answer. I realize it was your idea, really, and I just gave you encouragement.