Question: High-performance games and H110i GT (Corsair)

[thomkohler]

Hi all, this is my first thread on Tom's Hardware. I'm writing this from university so I may not have all the specs listed for my build, but I will put the essentials.

Recently I had to get rid of my H100i GTX (Corsair) cooling solution because it was defective. I replaced it with the H110i GT (Corsair) and it has worked great, correctly functioning out of the box. I get idle CPU temperatures of around 19-21 degrees Celsius.

Now I play different kinds of games, from League of Legends, to Borderlands 2, and to test out my build I bought XCom2. My load temperatures (when gaming, doesn't matter which game it is) are around 28-40 degrees Celsius. My fans are set to 40% unless my temperatures go above 40 degrees Celsius. Very rarely do my fans need to go above 40%.

I noticed however, that when I play XCom2, which is a recent game and is high-performance, there is a buzzing or electrical sound coming from the H110i GT if I put my ears next to it. It isn't loud, especially with headphones on, but it is observable. This electrical sound doesn't happen with any other game I play. The fans and the rest of the components that I measure and adjust using Asus AI Suite don't show any changes to fan speed, voltages, or pump speed. Nothing has apparently changed in terms of the hardware and software but there is still a buzzing electrical sound.

When I stop playing the game, when I exit the software the sound ceases. It doesn't seem like a critical problem, but being somewhat anal about things functioning correctly it can get on my nerves. Anyways, thanks for reading this and I look forward to some replies from those with better knowledge of these things.

Cheers, Thomas K.

Update: (forgot to put some hardware specifications);

Motherboard: ASUS Maximus VIII Ranger
CPU: Intel i7 4Ghz "Skylake"
CPU Cooler: Corsair H110i GT
Graphics: AMD r9 390 8GB
Power Supply: Corsair RM750 80 PLUS Gold

 

[Lutfij]

1| have you ruled out that the noise isn't the sound of the pump's impeller or the whine from your CPU's power delivery or the GPU and or your PSU?
You are dealing with an AMD GPU while the power delivery on the Maximus is quite robust.
2| I would like to stress that you shouldn't tinker with pump speed since it needs to be regulated via the CPU fan header while the pump does the smart calc's to regulate the fan speed.
3| As far as I know the game that's giving you the issue is CPU(and resources) heavy and thus demands pretty much all your resources from your system. The taxation can and will cause coil whine form your power delivery.

In hindsight you could open a dialogue with Corsair and state the issue both for the cooler and the PSU with a video documenting the issue and see if they're willing to proceed with an RMA. Might also be good to bring your reseller in the loop.