Aurora R9, CPU/RAM upgrade/heat question

yeah, sorry about not having numbers for the 'interim' solution.

I'll tear it apart again tomorrow to try to figure out what I did wrong to have it so hot at idle.  I did a quick look, and everything *seemed* in place...verified the top fan is blowing out, pulling air through the radiator.  I didn't have screws to mount a 'push' fan (another ML 120 Pro) for a sandwich, but have them on order.  I know the pump is connected, or I'd be hitting a thermal stop.

Currently, with cpu at 6% (idle), temp is ranging from 50-52C.

Maybe I should go with a good thermal paste?  I had read that the Innovation Cooling Graphite Thermal Pad was just as good or better and easier to work with.

I'll grab the Noctua...thanks for the recommendation.

yes, cleaned with isopropyl alcohol.  If I remember correctly, the idle temp after installing the H60 but before switching out the cpu was in the mid-40s, but I don't have it recorded anywhere.  The thermal pad claims 35W/m-k thermal conductivity, so that's probably not an issue.  I'll pull it apart, clean everything again, and reassemble tomorrow.

thanks!

Yeah, that is pretty high for idle.  Did you remember to completely remove the preapplied thermal paste from the H60 before installation of the graphite pad? 

And Corsair H60 with i7 

All - thanks so much for the info...I pulled it all apart, cleaned everything, and added a 'push' fan so that the radiator is sandwiched.

As I'm typing this, I'm idling at 6% CPU and 31C.

Keep up the great work - this forum is extremely helpful!

thanks for the tip on HWinfo...will check it out.

...and I finally figured out how to set fan curves.  I set a curve for the top fan going pretty much straight line from 0% offset at 0C up to 55% offset at 50C and 80% offset at 80C.

currently, with AOE II Definitive Edition running windowed, I'm at 24% CPU, 37% GPU, 42% top fan speed, and 51C CPU.  Top fans are barely noticeable sound-wise.

*sigh*  was up way too early this morning for an east coast meeting...was looking at GPU temp.

My CPU is idling at about 42C, which is certainly better than above 50C, but still warmer than it should be.

Can anyone point me to a walkthrough for setting fan curves?  The AWCC built-in help is fairly useless.

@carlwf-gmail.com 

I can confidently say that with my R8 which also has an i7 and H60, it idles at or around 35-40C. The main thing that you should probably keep an eye out on is if you play any games or such, the CPU shouldn't be exceeding 80C for a long period of time.

But if you need to check the fan speed of the radiator, download HWinfo and use the sensors button to check the fan speed in RPM. Most likely you'll need to adjust the fan speed manually in AWCC so that it reaches ~1200RPM for maximum efficiency which correlates to somewhere between 40-50% offset in AWCC.

with the new fan curve, temp at idle is now 33C - 36C.  That's with the top fans running at 30%.

I haven't switched yet...thermal paste is on the way, but with the current success, I think I'll keep it  in reserve.

OK, I removed my Aurora R9 stock water cooler system from my motherboard and went with a Aquacomputer pure copper water block with an external water tower/ pump setup.

Since the CPU water pump power connection on the motherboard is disconnected.

When booting the system ,I now get a Preboot system performance check, which it see's that there isnt any fan/pump connected to the CPU ...

How do you disable or make the system Bios forget about the fan or the lack of a fan since its now an external part????

There's no option to turn the error check off in BIOS if you leave the CPU and PUMP headers empty.  

You can hit/hold escape to manually skip during boot.

You can do a workaround like by plugging a small 3 pin fan in there. Most 4 pin fans will still trigger the error message.