Question How hot is too hot?

[Arminius537]

So I just purchased a new PC and I've been doing some testing with it because this is my first PC to have water cooling for both the CPU and the video card. My thoughts are that the ambient temp inside the case could hamper the water cooling, or am I overthinking things...? The case has a glass side panel so I just put a thermometer inside the case so I could check it while the PC was under load (gaming) and when it was idle.

When the PC is idle, the ambient temps inside the case are 79-82 F.

When I'm gaming, say playing Battlefield V Firestorm, the temps rise up to about 105 F inside the case.

The CPU temps look like they're within parameters, ie CPU at idle is 33-36 C and when gaming it climbs to mid 70's to low 80's C.

I guess my question is does the ambient temp inside the case greatly affect the water cooling unit's ability to cool the CPU and video card? Is 105 F inside the case too high, ie do I need to add some fans to expel the air more speedily?

ASUS ROG Strix Z390-I Gaming (Intel Z390 Chipset)
Intel Core i9-9900K (5.0 GHz Turbo) (16-Thread) (8-Core) 3.6 GHz
GeForce RTX 2070 8GB
(512GB Samsung 970 PRO) (NVM Express)

 

[Gmoney06ss]

What cooler? What case? Current fan setup?

 

[Arminius537]

What cooler? What case? Current fan setup?

The case dimensions are 6.5 inches wide, by 22 inches high, by 18 inches deep. It's the Digital Storm Bolt X if that helps.

I couldn't tell you the actual manufacturer of the cooling unit because it has Digital Storm's branding on it, but the entire system only has two fans on a 240 mm cooling radiator for the CPU and GPU circuit. It's exhausting out the top grill.

I haven't had any issues with the PC throttling yet, knock on wood, and the PC is performing like a top! I was just surprised at the lack of fans on the system and so trying to see what is what...

 

[neojack]

add two or more fans as inlets.

now you are only puching air outside, meaning that the pressure becomes negative inside your case. negative pressure at a long term increases dust inside the case. Also if the case is too starved of air, temperature will rise.

install filters in front of your intake fans though

But hey an i9 9900k is hard to tame. don't expect miracles. a triple fan watercooler would be best for this model.

 

[Arminius537]

add two or more fans as inlets.

now you are only puching air outside, meaning that the pressure becomes negative inside your case. negative pressure at a long term increases dust inside the case. Also if the case is too starved of air, temperature will rise.

install filters in front of your intake fans though

But hey an i9 9900k is hard to tame. don't expect miracles. a triple fan watercooler would be best for this model.

Well, I wish I could post a picture of the layout, you could go to digitalstorm(dot)com to look at the system layout (it's the Bolt X model)... Regarding adding fans, that's kind of the issue because the case is pretty well packed space wise. I honestly don't see anywhere I could mount one, let alone two...

My question overall is "Is 105 F inside the case going to adversely affect the water cooling units ability to keep the CPU and GPU cool enough so that they don't throttle back?"

I've run a CPU Temperature app while gaming, and at idle, to monitor the temps of the processors and they seem to be a little high compared to my nephews machine which has a 240mm all in one water cooling system dedicated to his CPU. His GPU is just a Geforce 1070 FTW with it's own fans (8gb).

His idle temps are like 25 C and gaming he hits 55 C. Obviously, the i9 9900K gets a little hotter than his CPU, but 25-30 degrees hotter? He has an i7 2600K

 

[oldcracc]

His idle temps are like 25 C and gaming he hits 55 C. Obviously, the i9 9900K gets a little hotter than his CPU, but 25-30 degrees hotter? He has an i7 2600K

Well, yeah, the i9-9900k is a beast to cool, much more difficult to cool than the i7-2600k. Anyways, mid 70's while gaming is perfectly normal, its a problem when it gets to high 80's and above. Computer parts can withstand very high temps, the i9 has a max of 100C before it dies, so 100F (33C) is nothing to worry about in your case.

 

[rubix_1011]

Is it this one: https://www.digitalstorm.com/bolt-x.asp

If so, that looks like a Swiftech H220X or Drive X3. Both are pretty good coolers, but you're looking at a 240mm radiator trying to dissipate heat from a 9900k and 2070? I don't understand why these boutique builders watercool components only to limit cooling because they don't adequately account for loop TDP.

9900k is a 130w (stock) part
RTX 2070 is a 175w (stock) part

I am not seeing what the CPU is overclocked to, but if it is, this bumps up the TDP due to per-clock-cycle and voltage required for stability at that speed.

 

[Arminius537]

Well, yeah, the i9-9900k is a beast to cool, much more difficult to cool than the i7-2600k. Anyways, mid 70's while gaming is perfectly normal, its a problem when it gets to high 80's and above. Computer parts can withstand very high temps, the i9 has a max of 100C before it dies, so 100F (33C) is nothing to worry about in your case.

Thanks for the reply, appreciate ya! System seems to be doing just fine, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't shortening the life of my components.

 

[Arminius537]

Is it this one: https://www.digitalstorm.com/bolt-x.asp

If so, that looks like a Swiftech H220X or Drive X3. Both are pretty good coolers, but you're looking at a 240mm radiator trying to dissipate heat from a 9900k and 2070? I don't understand why these boutique builders watercool components only to limit cooling because they don't adequately account for loop TDP.

9900k is a 130w (stock) part
RTX 2070 is a 175w (stock) part

I am not seeing what the CPU is overclocked to, but if it is, this bumps up the TDP due to per-clock-cycle and voltage required for stability at that speed.

Yeah, that's the one.

I went with the flexible hoses instead in case I wanted to do something after the fact like switch out components, et al. Having hard lines limits my access to the parts and would require complete breakdown and drainage to do things like putting new TIM on the processor after a year or so, etc

What do you mean by "loop TDP"?

I'm not technically overclocking the 9900. I have the bios set to normal turbo operation meaning it intelligently ups the speed if I'm doing something intense on the machine. It'll ramp up to 4.7-5ghz from time to time in games, etc...

Temps for the processor will reach high 70's to low 80's (Celsius) in game, but runs high 30's low 40's (Celsius) with internet browsing, editing files, etc... The ambient temp inside the case is anywhere from mid 70's (Farenheit) at idle to 100's (Farenheit) in game.

 

[Karadjgne]

You have a liquid cooled loop. Throw out whatever thoughts you have about normal operating temps according to pc's which run aircooling. They don't apply.

Cpus do not care one way or the other about running temps, to a cpu 55°C is the same as 80°C, lower than throttle temps.

A liquid can absorb a massive amount of energy, far more than a metal, but there's a difference between heat and heat energy. With your case at @ 33°C, your liquid temp will be slightly higher. Then you run a game, cpu jumps to 80, liquid is still 36. That liquid goes through the rad, transfers the heat energy to the metal fins and the fan dissipates it. Even heavy gaming won't raise the liquid temp much past 40°C, so even at cpu 80°C, you still have room to move. Aircoolers are direct heat. That cpu heats up, so does the heatsink, and the fan needs to dissipate all that heat quickly and efficiently or temps skyrocket quick.

It takes an aio between 15 and 30 minutes to bring the coolant to equilibrium, it takes an air cooler about 3 seconds. The cpu reports temps 2x per second.

That Swiftech aio is @ 300w TDP. Between the cpu and gpu you are looking at @ 300w TDP. That's seriously pushing it close, so your running temps are going to be high, no avoiding that.

 

[rubix_1011]

I also wonder if the radiator isn't getting enough fresh air to maintain good temps.

That might be another question that can be easily answered by removing the case panel and turning on a house fan.