[SOLVED] Terrible experience with the Kraken x63

[Fiorezy]

I used to cool my 3700x with the Hyper 212 BE RGB, it was performing fine for a $30 cooler, giving temps of 36-45c idle, 55-63c gaming, 70-75c heavy tasks, all in an ambient temp of 25-35c. However, during summertime it started to become noisy and performs a bit worse which was expected,

So I decided to upgrade to the Kraken x63 hoping for better temps and noise management, I mounted the rad to top exhaust, but I was surprised that there was no improvement over the Hyper 212, and it was acting worse sometimes, 20% cpu usage will make it reach 60c.

The mounting screws are tighten and the thermal paste is fine.

Fans are one of the worst I have ever used, they vibrate at 60%, and the bearing is noticeable at low rpms unlike my Arctic P14 fans.

Another issue I faced was the inability to set a custom curve for the pump from the bios, even though it was connected to the pump header, I can see the rpm, edit the curve, but the rpm doesn't change at all, I tried pwm and dc, no luck, in fact, it reports the last rpm value set by nzxt cam.

Speaking of cam, holly $#!t that software is a disaster! In just 2 days, I had to reinstall it 4 times because it randomly stops working and then refuses to start, I was forced to use it in order to set the pump curve and rgb, and no I don't have any interference with other softwares. The other issue with cam, it was preventing the system from idling as it was consistently waking up the cpu, and if I close it, I will lose my pump curve.

For my airflow setup, I have the MC600P case cooled by 4xArctic P14 (3 front intake and 1 rear exhaust), and ofc the kraken mounted at the top pull exhaust.

Setup:
MSI MPG x570 Gaming Plus
R7 3700x
4x8GB Corsair Vengeance Pro RGB 3200MHz CL16
Palit RTX 3070 JetStream OC
Corsair RM650i
MC600P

Is there anything I can do to improve the performance of this AIO?
How can I set a custom pump curve in the bios?

 

[MeanMachine41]

I would say you unfortunately have a lemon or the pump is not functioning correctly. RMA the unit. I hope you haven't overtightened the hold down brackets. Should be finger tight only.
All the Kraken AIOs I have installed have run fine with good to excellent performance.
I usually recommend changing the standard fans for Mag Lev series for quieter operation during general use and for longevity.
I connect the Radiator fans to the CPU_FAN header using a splitter and they should not be adjustable but rather 100% operational.
It is your case fans that should be made Bios adjustable via your Fan curve profile.
4pin PWM fans are adjustable in Bios whereas 3pin fans require a hub or dc adjustable via the case power switch or some new motherboards have this capability.

 

[Fiorezy]

I would say you unfortunately have a lemon or the pump is not functioning correctly. RMA the unit. I hope you haven't overtightened the hold down brackets. Should be finger tight only.
All the Kraken AIOs I have installed have run fine with good to excellent performance.
I usually recommend changing the standard fans for Mag Lev series for quieter operation during general use and for longevity.
I connect the Radiator fans to the CPU_FAN header using a splitter and they should not be adjustable but rather 100% operational.
It is your case fans that should be made Bios adjustable via your Fan curve profile.
4pin PWM fans are adjustable in Bios whereas 3pin fans require a hub or dc adjustable via the case power switch or some new motherboards have this capability.

Pump is functioning correctly as I can hear it adjusting itself when I adjust the curve in cam, it is just not adjustable in the bios despite connecting it to the pump header, it is a 3 pin connector and my mobo have the option to adjust dc, in fact my stock case fans are 3 pin and I was able to adjust the them from the bios via dc.

As for the AIO fans they are connected to the cpu header and they are adjustable from the bios, so no issue here, but I may just replace them with Arctic P14.

And no I didn't overtighten the screws.

 

[MeanMachine41]

I've never used CAM software however it's bad reputation precedes it. The ones I have installed, the fan curves are controlled in Bios and connected to the CPU_FAN1 header I connected the pump to CPU_OPT header.
Some third party apps do not gell well with Bios so I don't know what's going on there.
Your MB varies from the ones I have worked with and I reviewed the connections watching youtube vids and indeed you use the pump_fan header for CAM control.
This is a decent instruction vid for a kraken x63 connections

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtwZGHDmKcg


If CAM is not working correctly then try reinstalling it.

 

[geofelt]

My suggestion... Send it back.
Buy a replacement 120mm tower cooler like a noctua nh-U12s

Your cooling was just fine with a simple tower type cooler and a 120mm fan.

Mounting a aio is a catch 22 issue.

When you mounted the radiator on top as exhaust, the radiator gets warmed motherboard and graphics card heated air to work with. Cpu cooling will not be as effective.

Conversely, mounting the radiator in front will cool the cpu better, but the motherboard vrm and graphics card will get heated air to work with.

 

[Fiorezy]

My suggestion... Send it back.
Buy a replacement 120mm tower cooler like a noctua nh-U12s

Your cooling was just fine with a simple tower type cooler and a 120mm fan.

Mounting a aio is a catch 22 issue.

When you mounted the radiator on top as exhaust, the radiator gets warmed motherboard and graphics card heated air to work with. Cpu cooling will not be as effective.

Conversely, mounting the radiator in front will cool the cpu better, but the motherboard vrm and graphics card will get heated air to work with.

My old cooler was fine in cold or average ambient, now during the summer it is around 35c (95F) and I have no air conditioning, the Hyper 212 became too noisy in order to work efficiently and that was the main reason why I went with an AIO, yes temperature is better than the Hyper 212 but I was expecting much more for the price difference.

Right now I set all chassis and AIO fans to run at a fixed 850rpm so it is quiet for my taste, and tbf there was only a 2c difference between 850 and max rpm for the nzxt fans.

So these my temps now:

Ambient: 30c
Idle: 40c-45c, if I close CAM it lowers to 35-38c with spikes up to 50c if I open a program.
7z compression: max 59c
Cinebench R20: Max 67c
Gaming: 53-60c and for some reason Far Cry 5 gets up to 66c despite having 30% cpu usage.

Not sure if these values are normal for the x63 considering my high ambient temperature.