Aurora R9, DIY project

Just got my brother a new Aurora R9 as a gift. Here is the specs: 9900K+ 2080Ti + 850W PSU+ Lunar light

We saw a few interesting posts in this community (very helpful and informative) and decided to do some DIY mods by ourselves before PC arrived. Basically, there are three phases in our project. 

Phase 1: Replace top and front fans. Add push-pull setup for CPU cooling, and extra top front intake fan. Replace memory with 3200 ones. 

front intake fans -> Gentle Typhoon 2150RPM 4-pin  Using Noctua Y-splitter and connect to front_fan header

top fans-> ML120Pro (push-pull)  Using Noctua Y-splitter and connect to top_fan header

Memory-> G. skill gskill trident z    2*16GB  3200 CL14 

We never tested the stock fans. First thing we did after taking it out of box was replacing the fans. Now, idling is about 28-30 degrees on CPU, about 32 degree on GPU, and noise is very minimal after we adjusted the curve.  Full load, CPU is about 55-60 and GPU is about 70. 

For pushj-pull setup, l was considering to add one extra fan on top of radiator directly after removing top cover however, there is no enough space between top cover and top bezel to fit the pull fan. You have to remove the whole CPU cooler to add the fan. And it is quite tight so be careful not to damage any component when installing.  

For top front fan, thanks to this community, I find the weather strip is the best way to secure the fan there. Otherwise, only 90mm fan can be fit in with the HDD cage.

However, there are a few problems here after replacing the fans:

1. AWCC only displayed % RPM reading. Even if we set it to max manually, it would only show about 59% for top fan and 45% for front, because the software is using stock fan max RPMs to calculate the %.  ML120pro has 2400RPM which is about 60% of stock top fan max RPMs. We tried some other software but only Intel XTU can give you the RPM readings. So if you replace the fan, don't worry about the % reading.

2. If I manually set both fans at max before stress test, top fan would slow to min RPM. If I set top fan at 70% speed, then front fan will slow. If I set both fan at 70% speed, no issue.  I also had both fans running at max for 30 mins while PC idling and no issue.   There are two possible reasons, one is unstable voltage when CPU is consuming more power. Second is unstable PWM signal.  IMO, this problem seems to be related with PWM signal since CPU pump fan is working perfectly under stress test all the time, which shares the same +12V source with top fan but without PWM control. If it was becasue of unstable voltage, then pump fan should also slow but it did not.  

 

Here are a few pics

 

 

 

Phase 2: Upgrade 2080Ti blower to water cooled.   To be continued。。。。。