PC Cooling Advice Needed!

B

Beege

Member
I recently bought my PC from PC Specialist direct and have had a couple of RMA issues which have now been resolved, however under load the fans sound like they are attempting to make the PC hover which is a separate matter to the RMA issues.

I was wondering if anyone could give advice on;
1) What I could do to cool the system further and;
2) What (if anything) I could do to reduce the sound.

Water cooling was never an option for me but when the gfx card is running at 51oC under load then I'd like to see what options I have.
See below for full build.
Case BE QUIET! BASE 601 TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)Intel® Core™ i7 12-Core Processor i7-12700K (3.6GHz) 25MB Cache
MotherboardASUS® TUF GAMING B660-PLUS WIFI D4: ATX, LGA1700, USB 3.2, SATA 6GBs - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2200 MB/R, 1500 MB/W)
1st Storage Drive2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
DVD/BLU-RAY DriveNOT REQUIRED
Power SupplyCORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor CoolingCorsair iCUE H100i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal PasteSTANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound CardONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network CardNOT REQUIRED
USB/Thunderbolt OptionsMIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating SystemWindows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System LanguageUnited Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery MediaWindows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office SoftwareFREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-VirusBullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
BrowserMicrosoft® Edge
Warranty3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
DeliverySTANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build TimeStandard Build - Approximately 11 to 13 working days
 
Aza

Aza

Rising Star
Im assuming you are using iCue to control the cooler?
Have you set your own fan curves or are you using the default ones?

Not familiar with your case, so no idea what the thermals/airflow is like. With a Intel 12700 I think they tend to advise the H115i coolers rather than the H100i so you may find its having to do more work/more often.

How have you got things set up? Do you have any temp probes in there for internal case temperatures, do you know what kind of temperatures the coolant in the pump is siting at or the CPU?

You may find it useful to download stuff like Prime95 and HWMonitor and set that running to stress test the CPU, have HWMonitor running and iCue open on the cooler while you do and see what kind of temperatures you are getting after ten minutes or so (leave Prime95 running and just position your windows before you start it going so you can see everything).
www.cpuid.com

HWMONITOR | Softwares | CPUID

HWMonitor for Windows® x86/x64 is a hardware monitoring program that reads PC systems main health sensors : voltages, temperatures, powers, currents, fans speed, utilizations, clock speeds ... The program handles : CPU and GPU-level hardware monitoring...
www.cpuid.com www.cpuid.com
www.guru3d.com

Download Prime95 version 30.19 Build 20

Download Prime95 - a handy tool for overclockers and system stability checkers, Prime95 has a feature called "Torture Test" that allows maximum stress testing on the CPU and RAM. There are several options allowing the stress test to focus on the memory, processor, or a balance of both.
www.guru3d.com www.guru3d.com

If you can build a better picture of the thermals in the case and the CPU itself, it will let you know how much wiggle room you have with the fan curves and help guide how to set them up.

This may or may not be useful, as its a different setup to your own, but I was talking about coolers and fan curves here so theres some screen shots of custom curves to at least give a starting point
 
Aza

Aza

Rising Star
Going off the details I can see on theri site https://www.bequiet.com/en/case/1506 (the case isnt available on PCS atm) Im assuming theres one front fan, one rear exhaust and then likely the cooler radiator is in the roof?

If you havent already, i'd suggest adding fans so theres three front intakes, cooler in the roof and a rear extract (so two extra fans?)
But need to know the current setup. Personally, i'd replace the two fans that came with the case for Corsair ML120, 3 at front one at rear. (Or noctua ones).
 
B

Beege

Member
Aza said:
Im assuming you are using iCue to control the cooler?
Have you set your own fan curves or are you using the default ones?

Not familiar with your case, so no idea what the thermals/airflow is like. With a Intel 12700 I think they tend to advise the H115i coolers rather than the H100i so you may find its having to do more work/more often.

How have you got things set up? Do you have any temp probes in there for internal case temperatures, do you know what kind of temperatures the coolant in the pump is siting at or the CPU?

You may find it useful to download stuff like Prime95 and HWMonitor and set that running to stress test the CPU, have HWMonitor running and iCue open on the cooler while you do and see what kind of temperatures you are getting after ten minutes or so (leave Prime95 running and just position your windows before you start it going so you can see everything).
www.cpuid.com

HWMONITOR | Softwares | CPUID

HWMonitor for Windows® x86/x64 is a hardware monitoring program that reads PC systems main health sensors : voltages, temperatures, powers, currents, fans speed, utilizations, clock speeds ... The program handles : CPU and GPU-level hardware monitoring...
www.cpuid.com www.cpuid.com
www.guru3d.com

Download Prime95 version 30.19 Build 20

Download Prime95 - a handy tool for overclockers and system stability checkers, Prime95 has a feature called "Torture Test" that allows maximum stress testing on the CPU and RAM. There are several options allowing the stress test to focus on the memory, processor, or a balance of both.
www.guru3d.com www.guru3d.com

If you can build a better picture of the thermals in the case and the CPU itself, it will let you know how much wiggle room you have with the fan curves and help guide how to set them up.

This may or may not be useful, as its a different setup to your own, but I was talking about coolers and fan curves here so theres some screen shots of custom curves to at least give a starting point
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for the detailed reply.

I am using iCue on default currently to monitor the temp sensors and control the fans as a result. I will have a look into the H115i or H150i as I've already got them in an Amazon wishlist and can put the H100i in my daughters system instead.

You are also correct about the default fans, one front one rear and the radiator at the top for the cpu cooler.

Thank you for the ML120 recommendation, I'd already also book marked the QL120/140. Would the ML line be better?

@justrandom - thank you for the reassurance regarding the temps with my gfx card and recommendation for the case fans. If I remove the ones from my case to upgrade to the Corsairs mentioned above and pop them into my daughters PC, then at least I know hers has had a cooling upgrade too. 😎
 
Aza

Aza

Rising Star
ML is short for magnetic levitation, they are very quiet and generally corsair/noctua fans are decent quality and perform well.

I am not familiar with the BeQuiet fans and have no idea on their performance/quality, Corsair ML120 would also have a higher rpm but not so much its going to make a huge difference, or at least not as big a difference as having three intakes compared to just one would anyway.

Its a valid point abou the GPU though, so worth looking into exactly where the noise is coming from, and if your GPU is under 60C when youre putting it under load then theres plenty of room to relax the fan curves on those if its going full pelt.

What GPU is it? (make/model)
 
B4zookaw

B4zookaw

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Be Quiet fans are very good when it comes to acoustics, I have a silent wings as an rear exhaust on my PC and it's near silent, even at high RPMs.

Steps I would take is to isolate what fan(s) are contributing to the noise levels the most. GPU? Case Fans? Radiator fans? And then apply appropriate fan curves to achieve a balance between managing thermals and acoustics. I found the default fan curve for my GPU was ramping the GPU fans way too high, and a custom fan curve brought the max rpm to about 60%, which was much quieter. Similarly for case fans, custom fan curves to keep fan RPMs low for idle CPU loads. Undervolting also helps lower thermals and fan noise too.
 
B

Beege

Member
1654771679811.png


This is what iCue is showing at the minute, albeit this is not under load as I'm on a break from work.

@Aza is this enough info re: the graphics card?

How would I look to add to the fan curves and amending the voltage to lower the thermals and balance the performance?
 
B4zookaw

B4zookaw

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Looking at the H100i fans, they seem quite high RPM for low CPU load. Your GPU fans certainly shot up for a period, but yet GPU never touched 70C. So definitely some tweaking.

Have you pinpointed which fans make the most noise? You should be able to set the H100i to zero RPM in icue to test them, you might have to unplug the case fans (switch power off first!) to isolate them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Aza
B4zookaw

B4zookaw

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
It's worth taking the time to figure out the source, before you go making changes needlessly. In my build, I couldn't understand why it was still "noisy" after turning off most of the fans, until I realised the HDD was the culprit. Nothing to do with fans or cooling, just a noisy mechanical HDD, which was quickly removed and replaced with a silent SSD.....
 
B

Beege

Member
So have been looking at it since finishing work at 5, and there is no way to individually address the fans to change their speeds within iCUE. After a few Google searches, I've seen this may be because the fan controller isn't listed on iCUE, I believe it to be the iCUE commander CORE that has come with the H100i but I'm unsure because of it not being recognised in iCUE.

Also to mention there are only two fans plugged in to the controller. So the two case fans aren't being monitored by iCue.

At this point I'll mention that my RMA's have been related to the DIMM slots previously showing as fault on the motherboard, however when the RMA was completed they replaced the RAM (1st RMA) and then the CPU (2nd RMA). Could it be a fault on the motherboard causing the fan control issue?

Sorry for being a total newb!
 
Last edited:
B4zookaw

B4zookaw

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Beege said:
and there is no way to individually address the fans to change their speeds within iCUE.
Click to expand...

Which fans are you referring to here? The two fans connect to the H100i radiator? Or the two Pure Wings 2 that came with the case?

The former should be visible in iCUE and be controllable (using the quiet, balanced, extreme or custom profiles). The latter, I think are connected to a 3 step fan controller, with the switch on the front of the case. So less control than a PWM fan connected to motherboard header unfortunately.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Aza
B

Beege

Member
The two case fans were what I was referring to. So it's good to know that I can address those through iCUE if I buy the ML120/140 replacements.
 
B4zookaw

B4zookaw

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Beege said:
The two case fans were what I was referring to. So it's good to know that I can address those through iCUE if I buy the ML120/140 replacements.
Click to expand...
Yep, if you stick to Corsair fans, you can control them all in a single app. But you could also buy any PWM fan (4 pin connector) and connect them to the motherboard and use the BIOS, Asus Armoury Crate or Fan Control to set curves.
 
B4zookaw

B4zookaw

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Beege said:
I have Fan Control, but it doesn't pick up the case fans only the fans within the H100i.
Click to expand...
Yes, correct, as they are just connected to a built in controller (three position switch on case), rather than to a fan header. In theory you could disconnect them from this controller and connect to the MB, allowing them to be controlled by Fan Control.
 
Aza

Aza

Rising Star
The elite cap comes with a core unit doesnt it?
Cant they just be plugged into that?

Im sure thats what I did with the ML120 I added, and then the RGB controls for it were under the cooler section in iCue ( I think I still wired teh fan itself into my commander core instead though....i'd have to check)
 
B4zookaw

B4zookaw

VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Yes, you're right, although the case fans are 3 pin DC ones, so not sure how well they'd work compared to the ML 4 pin PWM.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top