Question How to reduce temps on H100i Elite Capillex?

[g-unit1111]

I'm having issues where my H100i is running really hot to the point where the coolant is overheating after even like an hour of any gaming or anything that really stresses the CPU. After an hour of gaming, the coolant registers 55'C on iCue and the pump starts blinking red. Is it an issue with my H100i or is it something else entirely?

Here's my system specs:

Case: Lian Li Dan A4-H20
PSU: EVGA Supernova GM 850W
Motherboard: MSI Z790i Edge Wifi
CPU: Intel Core i7-13700K (stock speed, no overclock)
Cooler: Corsair H100i Elite Capillex
RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR5-6200 (running XMP)
Storage: 8TB
GPU: Zotac GeForce RTX 4070TI

 

[punkncat]

Standard fare would include asking things like how old is the unit, have you been cleaning the fans and radiator alongside the other case components, installation where air bubbles could get trapped?

From a quick search it appears that your cooler can't really be older than ~4y but AIO are well known to have issues at 5+, this could be early failure. Now, alongside that I am not sure I feel 55C is overheating by any metric so then the question becomes have you checked your manual or tech support for information on what this blinking light means? (this consideration could have a lot to do with ambient temperature where you are)

Do you have an air cooler of suitable rating to test in order to see whether the perceived issue resolves? Not trying to be any 'way' about it but aside from the 55*C gaming temp and an unfamiliar blinking red light are you having any real world performance issue otherwise?

 

[g-unit1111]

Standard fare would include asking things like how old is the unit, have you been cleaning the fans and radiator alongside the other case components, installation where air bubbles could get trapped?

From a quick search it appears that your cooler can't really be older than ~4y but AIO are well known to have issues at 5+, this could be early failure. Now, alongside that I am not sure I feel 55C is overheating by any metric so then the question becomes have you checked your manual or tech support for information on what this blinking light means? (this consideration could have a lot to do with ambient temperature where you are)

It's not even a year old yet. I just built the system in June of last year. All the parts I used in the system are brand new.

Do you have an air cooler of suitable rating to test in order to see whether the perceived issue resolves? Not trying to be any 'way' about it but aside from the 55*C gaming temp and an unfamiliar blinking red light are you having any real world performance issue otherwise?

I do not. And installing an air cooler in that system is not exactly what one would call "easy". Since it's an SFF build I'd basically have to take the whole system apart. I haven't really had any issues with it. I've even done some mild overclocking on the CPU and got it to run at 4.5GHz without issue. I set it back to defaults because I thought that might be the problem but now I'm not so sure.

 

[thestryker]

That coolant temperature is very high so there's definitely a problem. Fan speed could come into play here so make sure that they're not set too low. You might want to make sure the CPU isn't set to unlimited power as well as this could artificially raise wattage for even gaming.

Do you have the pump speed set dynamically?

 

[Paperdoc]

One suggestion to check. The Corsair systems using iCUE software are unusual in one point at least. iCUE allows YOU to set the PUMP SPEED, whereas most AIO systems just run the pump full speed always. All of this is to avoid having the pump speed change frequently and cause control issues.

Allowing infrequent MANUAL setting of a fixed pump speed, as iCUE does, makes sense. You can set it so that the rate of fluid movement (and heat transfer to the rad) matches the rate of heat generation in the CPU. You do this by ensuring the PUMP SPEED is set so that the RAD FANS can do their cooling job well at relatively lower speeds and never need to reach high speed for normal workloads. For PEAK workloads the rad fan speed should ALMOST reach max, but not all the way to max. Your symptoms (high fluid temps and high rad fan speeds) may indicate inadequate flow of cooling fluid through the loop. So check how your PUMP SPEED is set in case it is too low. Other items could cause this, too, but pump speed is easy to check and alter.

 

[TerryLaze]

Motherboard: MSI Z790i Edge Wifi
CPU: Intel Core i7-13700K (stock speed, no overclock)

99% the mobo is overclocking the CPU, or even worse and very possible pushing a lot of power through the CPU without even increasing the clocks.
You have to go into the bios and change all the auto settings in the cpu/oc tab to manual to see the real values the mobo is using and change them if needed.

 

[g-unit1111]

99% the mobo is overclocking the CPU, or even worse and very possible pushing a lot of power through the CPU without even increasing the clocks.
You have to go into the bios and change all the auto settings in the cpu/oc tab to manual to see the real values the mobo is using and change them if needed.

On my particular motherboard it does have a preset 1 click overclocking setting that will run it stably, at least on idle. I haven't tested it with running any particular applications yet. But for now I just have the motherboard set to factory defaults.

 

[punkncat]

That coolant temperature is very high so there's definitely a problem. Fan speed could come into play here so make sure that they're not set too low. You might want to make sure the CPU isn't set to unlimited power as well as this could artificially raise wattage for even gaming.

Do you have the pump speed set dynamically?

Am I seeing this correctly that the coolant is 55* and is considered high why?

I must be missing something....

 

[TechyInAZ]

Coolant temperature is very different from CPU temperatures. Normally high coolant temperatures are much lower compared to CPU temperatures. I'm not sure exactly why, but i suspect high coolant temperatures aren't helping protect the tubes and pump area from wear and tear.

Typically coolant temps stay roughly around ambient temps. They can definitely get warm under load, which is completely normal, but 55C is unusually high.

 

[TechyInAZ]

Does your case have good airflow? Lack of good airflow can be one reason the coolant temps are high.

 

[geofelt]

The pump blinking red is a warning that something is wrong with the pump. I doubt the problem lies elsewhere.

Possibly less than good rotation, or obstructed fluid flow.

If the pump were connected via a variable speed fan header.
That could be an issue, but I understand that the icue works differently.

Run hwmonitor to see what the cpu temperatures are.
An issue where heat increases over time could be explained by less than good fluid flow.

I think it is time to contact Corsair support for a Replacement.

 

[thestryker]

Am I seeing this correctly that the coolant is 55* and is considered high why?

I must be missing something....

While the temperature might not seem bad compared to the CPU temperature it can get rather dangerous for the internals of the AIO (think things melting/degrading). While I wouldn't say it's to the damaging temperature height yet it's still much higher than I would expect. In gaming workloads where the wattage should be relatively low (TPU's 13700K review showed highest was still under 130W) coolant temps shouldn't really get above the mid 40s even in a fairly hot room.

I could get into thermal transfer and how much power it takes to heat liquid, but those aren't my forte and aren't particularly important for what's going on here.

 

[punkncat]

Gotcha, so true story, never had an AIO that showed me anything but CPU temp. I was not aware that this was a thing. I guess my next silly question would be to ask WHERE is the sensor getting that temp from, the inlet or outlet on pump facing side, middle of rad, etc. ?

Thanks for learning me something.

 

[punkncat]

The pump blinking red is a warning that something is wrong with the pump. I doubt the problem lies elsewhere.

Possibly less than good rotation, or obstructed fluid flow.

If the pump were connected via a variable speed fan header.
That could be an issue, but I understand that the icue works differently.

Run hwmonitor to see what the cpu temperatures are.
An issue where heat increases over time could be explained by less than good fluid flow.

I think it is time to contact Corsair support for a Replacement.

This was my thought and I searched for a manual or FAQ to confirm (blinking LED meaning) and it seems all they have on site is the multi language quick start guide. I didn't devote a whole lot of time when it didn't jump out at me but do think it rather odd not to be one of the prominent items. I do have a lot (else) going on so I well could have missed it.

 

[g-unit1111]

Coolant temperature is very different from CPU temperatures. Normally high coolant temperatures are much lower compared to CPU temperatures. I'm not sure exactly why, but i suspect high coolant temperatures aren't helping protect the tubes and pump area from wear and tear.

Typically coolant temps stay roughly around ambient temps. They can definitely get warm under load, which is completely normal, but 55C is unusually high.

So do I need to start contacting Corsair for a replacement then? I can always go to Micro Center for a diagnostic since I don't have the time and/or resources to diagnose it myself.

The pump blinking red is a warning that something is wrong with the pump. I doubt the problem lies elsewhere.

Possibly less than good rotation, or obstructed fluid flow.

If the pump were connected via a variable speed fan header.
That could be an issue, but I understand that the icue works differently.

Run hwmonitor to see what the cpu temperatures are.
An issue where heat increases over time could be explained by less than good fluid flow.

I think it is time to contact Corsair support for a Replacement.

If worst comes to worst I'll definitely contact Corsair for a replacement. For an SFF case, it does have really good air flow, which is why I purchased it over some other cases I could have considered.

 

[TechyInAZ]

When you first built the machine do you remember what your coolant temps were?

Actually better yet, is this the first time the cooler has been showing a red light?

Just double checking that its the actual unit and not an issue with something else.

 

[g-unit1111]

When you first built the machine do you remember what your coolant temps were?

Actually better yet, is this the first time the cooler has been showing a red light?

Just double checking that its the actual unit and not an issue with something else.

Honestly not sure, I kind of wish I had stress tested the machine when I first built it to see if it had any faults but I didn't.

However, last night I did update the BIOS on the motherboard to version 1A1 (dated 2/27/24), set everything back to factory defaults and updated the firmware on the cooler itself. So far I didn't have any problems running anything for any length of time. It did get hot, but not so hot that I had to shut down what I was doing or playing, and there were no blinking lights or anything. I took a couple of screenshots of the BIOS and of iCue that I can post.

 

[TechyInAZ]

Hopefully it was just the firmware that needed to be updated!

 

[Paperdoc]

Glad to hear you have some progress. I did not mention one important point. Did you connect the AIO system cables correctly? See your manual on p. 24 and ensure you did all of that as directed. This system MUST have its 3-hole cable from the pump connected to the mobo CPU_FAN header where iCUE expects to find the PUMP speed signal. Then there's a larger cable to connect to the included Commander Core box. That box needs two key cables - one wide one to a SATA power output from the PSU, and a smaller one that MUST go to a mobo USB2 header. This latter is how the iCUE software can communicate with the AIO system. THEN you connect the motor and lighting cables from the rad fans to that box. If you don't get all these done properly, the AIO system will get incorrect signals or sometimes even no control by iCUE.

You updated something on your AIO system and it appears to have made an improvement. That action may have re-set the iCUE setting for the PUMP speed. Monitor your system performance to verify whether that improvement is permanent and adequate. If not, be sure to check the iCUE setting for pump speed before taking any further action and before contacting Corsair Tech Support for a warranty replacement. It is STILL possible that there IS a failure in the system, but you want to know the issue is NOT caused by a setting or connection error.

 

[g-unit1111]

Glad to hear you have some progress. I did not mention one important point. Did you connect the AIO system cables correctly? See your manual on p. 24 and ensure you did all of that as directed. This system MUST have its 3-hole cable from the pump connected to the mobo CPU_FAN header where iCUE expects to find the PUMP speed signal. Then there's a larger cable to connect to the included Commander Core box. That box needs two key cables - one wide one to a SATA power output from the PSU, and a smaller one that MUST go to a mobo USB2 header. This latter is how the iCUE software can communicate with the AIO system. THEN you connect the motor and lighting cables from the rad fans to that box. If you don't get all these done properly, the AIO system will get incorrect signals or sometimes even no control by iCUE.

You updated something on your AIO system and it appears to have made an improvement. That action may have re-set the iCUE setting for the PUMP speed. Monitor your system performance to verify whether that improvement is permanent and adequate. If not, be sure to check the iCUE setting for pump speed before taking any further action and before contacting Corsair Tech Support for a warranty replacement. It is STILL possible that there IS a failure in the system, but you want to know the issue is NOT caused by a setting or connection error.

No but I will definitely check to make sure that the pump was installed correctly when I get a chance. Yeah a lot of times it usually is just a simple fix like that. iCue did show that the pump was operating at normal capacity. I didn't notice any temperature spikes in the CPU itself.

 

[Paperdoc]

Good news so far.

 

[g-unit1111]

I think I might have figured out and fixed the problem. I noticed iCue wasn't detecting the 2nd fan. The main fan was fine. So I opened up my PC and moved the fan from port #1 on the RGB controller to port #3 and so far it's detected everything and it works fine right now.

The fans are still spinning really loudly though, and the coolant is running at 45'C. I don't know if that's too hot to run on idle or not though.

 

[g-unit1111]

Well finally found the culprit. Turns out that my AIO had a faulty fan / RGB controller. Hooked both fans directly to the motherboard and it works fine now. Now I have to e-mail Corsair and deal with an RMA. Fun times!

 

[Paperdoc]

Good detective work! Glad to hear the real source of problem (and solution) has been identified. Thanks for the update.