Question MSI Core Liquid - need to re-tighten screws every few days / loss of performance - any tips?

[ChrisHerrmann]

Hi all, I have an MSI Core Liquid 240R. I noticed while gaming my temperature went up to 100º C/212ºF. It had always been just below 80 max, I use CPUID Hardware Monitor to check from time to time and I had noticed more fan noise than usual, so ran a quick check.

My system is only 6 months old. (Specs below), so I started googling and found some posts about making sure the cooler is tight on the processor. I tightened the screws, and behold, temps went down to 80 - 85max over longer sessions of gaming. That was 3 days ago.

Yesterday it was again up to 95, I noticed because the fan noise increased noticeably again. Again, tightened the screws and it went back to 80 - 85max.

So the screws seem to be loosening? Is that normal?

I have them pretty tight now but tried not to overtighten.

ALSO: It also seems that it's not running as cool as when the system was new, I think I hardly ever hit 80 in the bginning. Could the paste need some renewal after 6 months of intensive use? (It's my work and gaming machine).

Surely having to tighten the screws every few days cannot be the norm. And I have a feeling cooling is degrading a little. The GFX card even under high loads never goes above 70º. I live in the south, it's cool here now but in summer there will be 10º more in my office, so 85º now could well be 95º then ... any tips what I should look at and how I can maintain this to keep my processor cool under heavy gaming loads?

I mostly sim race, triple screens, but would have thought that's more of a GFX card hog, but the card seems to hold up better than the liquid cooled processor!

Cheers

Chris

P.S.: the tower stands on my desk and the desk moves a little when I sim race due to the whell movement. I wouldn't have thought enough to loosen any screws or contacts though


System specs:
Intel Core i7-11700K 3.6 GHz
MSI Z590-A PRO
Intel Core i7-11700K 3.6 GHz
Kingston HyperX Fury Black DDR4 3200Mhz PC-25600 4x8GB
MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 8GB GDDR6X

 

[faalin]

The screws loosening and the re tightening it back down will cause issues with the paste as it keeps breaking the bond between cpu and cold plate. more then likely the pump vibrations is what is loosening the screws over time.

If you want you could use some loctite purple 222 to hold the screws in place, has a very low strength which should not cause any issues trying to remove later on.

 

[ChrisHerrmann]

thanks for that @faalin - maybe repasting would be a good idea if the elasticity of the paste is gone?

 

[ChrisHerrmann]

I just ran a stress test, Intel XTU, and it maxed out aty 90º. Running at 80º most of the time.

Then I tried again to tighten the screws but were wasn't much there, at best symbolical.

Then I ran the test again and it maxed out at 80º, running at 70º most of the time! That's a huge difference!

Then repeated both steps and it runs another 5º cooler, hradly into the 70s and maxed out at 75ºC.

So even the slightest nudge on the screws/cooler seems to make a difference, which makes me think the contact isn't 100% clean.

Time for a repaste?

And one last thing: one of the screw heads is already wearing out a bit, I'm thinking it only has a few more of these tightening operations in it. Can I get replacement screws for this?

Cheers

Chris

** Update: I bought a mounting kit that seems to have the same 4 screws. It's for LGA1700, mine is LGA1200 but the springy screws seem to be identical, I hope they really are. Also bought thermal paste and paste cleaning kit, so I'll do a repaste,see what gives.