Hi everyone, I have just completed my first ever watercooling build and I just noticed an issue with both my R9 290 (using an EK block). They work fine but I noticed that whilst mining the VRM1 is reaching some crazy temperatures (it goes up to 112C). As per this thread, I have put a drop of TIM under the thermal pads of the voltage regulators: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=266061 Have I done something wrong? Or is this normal? Anyone else with a watercooled 290 that can confirm the VRM1 temp under load? Many thanks for any help.
Did you put thermal pads included with the block on both VRM points, 2 places per card? There are two thickness of pad, perhaps you used the wrong one, or used the ones from stock cooler that won't work.
FYI the VRMs do get that hot on air they are designed for it and if your water cooling setup is not very effective then when mining you will see similar temps to air if everything is in the same loop as the cards do pump out a lot of heat, I recently rebuilt my setup as it could not cope well with 290s. Been running for days now and in ~26C ambient (yup bit toasty, missus and her need for heat) I see the following That is full pelt in a closed case mining whilst also encoding videos for my daughters tablet, GPUs and OC'd Ivybridge in the same loop.
Ok, I figured it out. Like an idiot I have misread the instructions and placed the long pad on the tall boxes on the left of the VRMs. I have drained the loop and placed the pad correctly and now the temps are a bit more sane (73c). FYI the cards are XFX R9 290. I am using the Enthoo Primo case, a AX480 rad on top and an AX360 on the bottom, both as exhausts. Sandys: these are great temps! What are you using? I am still tweaking my system and will post back with more questions, especially on how to silence the whole thing. Cheers,
Going by sandys VRM temps I'd say yours are still too high bearing in mind you have more than enough rads. The other thing to check is that you have used the correct thickness pad in the right place. What are your GPU temps?
Mine are perhaps not a fair comparison, I forgot about my custom profile for mining which has tweaked clocks and dropped voltages to drop a shite load of watts (~200) , I will knock it up to get a reasonable number later. Would say you are about right considering the load impact mining has, in fact just switched it and in less than 30 secs am already up to 62C from a steady 48-50.
I let it run full pelt and and the temps did increase, this was left for a few hours Not much extra mining done for the bump in speed and power so better to clock down and undervolt.
I am definitely about 10c hotter than you when mining. On the other hand my setup is aimed at silence. The D5 pump is at setting 1 (turning it to 5 only shaved off a couple of degrees) and the fans are at 900rpm. The bottom AX360 (in push) has a limited exhaust area under the case (might have to lift the case to help that, or try setting it as intake).
Yes mine is not silent, fans typically running 1500rpm but I find it reasonable and consistent sound which is important to me, it does not ramp up and down when gaming like it can on air.
Oh and very last nooby question. All my rads are set up as exhausts. I am toying with the following ideas: 1- Switch them around to intakes 2- Add another row of fans on top and make it push/pull. I know that intakes lead to slightly better temps but warm up the inside of the case. However how about the noise? Instinctively I would think that fans blowing inside would be quieter (direction of sound, etc). Is this the case?
You'll probably get a couple degrees improvement at most on the CPU and GPU switching the fans round. If you're happy with your temps I'd leave it as it is as the Mobo will benefit from slightly cooler air. Noise depends on the fans and the rads, you can only really tell by experimenting but if you're running slow speed fans you're not likely to notice a difference. Even at full speed there might not be much in it.
I found adding push pull fan setup didn't add to noise at all and gave a benefit to cooling particularly when I was running lower fan speeds but your temps sound OK so its probably not worth the investment. As mentioned if this is just mining temps downclock and undervolt temps will lower as will energy costs. gaming never gets near mining temps.
