[SOLVED] Custom water loop running too hot whilst gaming ?

azed3000

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Feb 16, 2012
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Hi All,

I setup a custom water loop for the first time with my RTX 3080 and 10900k being in the same loop. Ever since the custom loop, my CPU has been getting very hot during gaming making my overclocks unstable upon reaching equilibrium.

The 10900k during isolated prolonged benchmarks hits maximum of 70 degrees, this includes cinebench, blender, AVX Stuff etc.. Works 100% fine and passes all tests.
During gaming the 10900k reaches 85+ degrees Celsius with only 25% - 35% usage and crashes 30 minutes into a game. If i have the cpu in a seperate loop like an AIO, it works fine.
The 3080 idles at 20 degrees and reaches a max of 57 degrees celcius.
Room temperature is 24 degrees

My setup is as follows:

CPU: 10900k @1.288v, 1.256v with load line calibration (Vdroop) lvl 5, @5.1GHZ
Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix z-490
Ram: Corsair Vengeance 3900mhz CL19
SSD/HDD: Corsair NVME MP600 Gen 4 1tb
GPU: RTX 3080 MSI Ventus - corsair waterblock
PSU: Corsair RM750i
Chassis: Corsair 570x
OS: Windows 11 Pro

Water cooling:
EK Classic RGB CPU waterblock
Corsair GPU waterblock made for MSI Ventus
EK SPC waterpump - at max speed (2700rpm)
360mm THIN Corsair Raditor with SP120 fans (50% max fan speed)
240mm THICK ek radiator with EK Vardar fans (100% max fan speed)

Loop setup: Pump --> 360mm rad -->240mm rad --> CPU --> GPU --> Pump
Case fans are all intake, trialed and tested intake + exhaust, all exhaust, still same results.

After searching the web, from what i can gather, the CPU shouldn't really be getting hotter at all despite being in the same loop as the GPU, have i done something wrong here?? Is it my water pump speed? Fans not pushing enough heat out?
 
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Solution
I added a third 240 radiator to my Thermaltake Lvl20VT because under constant loads, the top glass panel wasn't allowing enough air from the radiators to escape into the ambient room air, so I modded the spacers so that now there's about 3cm of gap where there was maybe about 7mm before. Airflow is MUCH better and I can run fans at 55% PWM at all times under load with about at 15C drop in temps.

Airflow with watercooling is so important, especially getting cool air to the rads and getting hot air away from them. Sometimes many people underestimate how poor their airflow actually is.
EKWB and Corsair have a number of parts in their portfolio, which one are you using? Can you specify which parts you've chosen from their respective portfolio's? EK and Corsair at the front of, say, radiator, doesn't exactly help narrow things down.

To note, when you parse a thread of troubleshooting nature, you're advised to list your specs like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:

In this case, the other set of specs are your watercooling gear. If you're unsure of the parts used, parse their links, we can piece them together.

To add, on the specs list, surface area wise for the radiators you should be fine(not taking into account thick or thin radiators). I'm wondering if you didn't prime your loop properly.
 
Hey there,

What are you 'benching' with?

It seems you haven't stressed tested the CPU OC with something like Prime. But given you're already at 85c at gaming load, I don't think running Prime95 is gonna reveal anything other than an unstable OC and even higher temps.

You might take off both OC's (CPU/GPU) and test both at stock, to ensure they are truly stable. Then crank up the OC's again from scratch.
 
Thanks for your quick responses, see below

Can you specify which parts you've chosen from their respective portfolio's?

No worries, i have added the details to the original post

Hey there,

What are you 'benching' with?
You might take off both OC's (CPU/GPU) and test both at stock, to ensure they are truly stable. Then crank up the OC's again from scratch.

Benching with: Intel XTU, Cinebench R20, Cinebench R23 on loop for 10 minutes, Blender, Passmark performance test - all in the same run one after the other.
As mentioned before, the cpu is stable if the RTX 3080 isnt in the same loop while im gaming. When all components are in the same loop, the temps of the water gets too high making my OCs unstable, i just cant figure out why since i have plenty of rad surface area.

Prime 95 results here:

View: https://imgur.com/a/KymJtTI


can you take a picture of the loop and post it, you can use https://imgur.com to host the image and just past the link.

Saying that you remove the 3080 from the loop and the cpu is fine, make me wonder if the GPU isnt set up right or the pump doesnt have enough head pressure to make it thru the second block.

Yep can do! Idle temps are all fine, GPU sits at 20-22, CPU at 25-29. Its only when gaming and GPU comes into play when the whole loop gets really hot
 
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I set my fan speed from 50% static to standard profile on the 360mm radiator, temps dropped to a max 72 on the CPU and 53 on the GPU. I now just have a noisy setup.

I guess I cant have both silence and good cooling. ughh. Might invest in PWM fans for the front.
 
I added a third 240 radiator to my Thermaltake Lvl20VT because under constant loads, the top glass panel wasn't allowing enough air from the radiators to escape into the ambient room air, so I modded the spacers so that now there's about 3cm of gap where there was maybe about 7mm before. Airflow is MUCH better and I can run fans at 55% PWM at all times under load with about at 15C drop in temps.

Airflow with watercooling is so important, especially getting cool air to the rads and getting hot air away from them. Sometimes many people underestimate how poor their airflow actually is.
 
Solution