It's been a few months since I built my PC and despite being very happy with it, one thing is worrying me slightly. Whenever it's been under constant load for a period of time - say after an hour of BF4 - the air coming from the radiator out of the front of my case feels very warm. Warmer than I'd expect given that the indicated CPU temp (according to MSI AB and HW info) shows a peak temp of ~52C but mostly hovering around the mid-40's. This is my first water cooler of any kind so I don't know how warm the exhaust air should feel but dang, it gets very warm! Should I be concerned or am I worrying over nothing? Cheers.
Out the front? That's a very weird way to have your fans set up... It's normal. The air that comes from the rad shows that the coolant is circulating and that it is doing its job efficiently. There's nothing to worry about unless your CPU temps just keep climbing.
You are worrying over nothing. The fact the rad is hot is testament to the fact it works. You should try and touch my Titan X single 120 rad when she's under load. And dear god, when I fitted an AIO to my GTX 480 Lightning.... But through all that the 480L was only hitting 48c so I would say a job well done.
Cheers folks. I was hoping that was the case but being a watercooling/AIO noob I thought I'd better pipe up, just in case. Not in a Corsair Carbide Air 240, it's not. Top/down view. Case front is to the right.
Hmm. I would have two fans in the front drawing in cool air, fan in the bottom bringing in cool air and rad in the roof with the fans on push shoving the heat out of the top. Oh, and rears on exhaust.
The rad will only fit on the front (see the clearance on each side of the mobo - there's only just enough room for the case fans alone, let alone a rad too). Works really well as it is tbh. Temps are great. Edit: remember this is a top/down view. The top of the picture is not the top of the PC. The top of the PC is actually the windowed panel which was removed to take the picture. Edit2: Since taking the photo, I've altered the rears slightly so they are angled at about 45 degrees and blow directly onto the VRM/ CPU socket area.
I once had a QX6800 in a Mountain Mods case being cooled on its own loop with a Thermochill PA120.3 (showing my age here...), even in push/pull with 6 Yate Loons the air coming out would warm up enough to cause the 2 7950GX2's to start thermally throttling... Fun times, back then.
Blimey. Since every PC I've built in the last 18 years has used "on-chip" air cooling and exhausted from the rear of the case, I didn't realise until now quite how warm the exhaust air gets. It's an eye opener and has really made me appreciate just how good a job a water/rad setup does at getting rid of all that energy as quickly and cleanly as possible. (And it keeps my shins warm, which is a bonus. )
Quick update in case it helps someone in the same boat: I've discovered the reason the air coming out of my case felt so warm. The fine mesh "filter" in the case panel was obstructing the airflow from the radiator. With the mesh removed, the air coming out feels much cooler and CPU temps are a bit better too. Obvious really but never mind. Job done.
The only issue with water cooling and rads is that it usually leaves poor circulation for the board itself. And chipset cooling is just more expense...
'Board circulation isn't a problem - you remember the case pic, right? It was just the grill. Without it, the air escapes the case much easier than therefore. There's still a mesh on the panel, but it's a much coarser mesh that sits further away from the rad so barely feels warm to the touch. The mesh I removed was much finer, comletely flat and sat very close against the fan mounts. It was effectively semi-sealing the back of the radiator.
