5800X3D - Closed loop through a 240mm top-mount radiator.
3090 Ti - Air cooled. All 3 fans run hard all the time in the sim, and that GPU (mild O/C) is a furnace. It’s the reason I want to liquid cool it.
I have plenty of airflow in my current Corsair 5000D chassis:
3 x 120mm front intake fans.
3 x 120mm side-mounted intake fans on the side ducted to flow over the motherboard.
1 x 120mm rear exhaust fan.
1 x 120mm Zero RPM top exhaust fan (curve tied to system temp. At idle it doesn’t turn. I could turn this into an intake fan if my solution reduces positive pressure too much.)
The CPU and GPU temps are fine. But I’m thinking of switching the GPU to liquid, mainly to get the hot air its fans are exhausting into the case out. My MOS and System temps are higher than I like, and I think one of my proposed setups will help that a lot. Help me choose.
Proposed setup 1 - Cheapest:
Leave everything as is. MOS and System temps are fine.
Proposed setup 2 - more expensive, but with some compromises:
Swap the existing 240mm top-mount exhaust radiator for a 360mm one, and add the GPU to the loop. This would put the CPU and the GPU on the same pump/ reservoir. Not sure this is a big enough heat sink for both.
Proposed setup 3 - More expensive, but still some compromises:
Convert the GPU to liquid cooling, move the existing 240mm exhaust radiator to the side, and connect it to the GPU and the existing pump/ reservoir. I’d remove two of the 120mm intake fans there now. That would leave one intake fan on the side. This lets me keep the existing 240mm radiator and save a little money.
Convert the CPU to a top mounted 240mm exhaust AIO.
Proposal 4 - most expensive, but best cooling.
Discard the 240mm top mount exhaust radiator (I don’t think I can add an AIO pump/heatsink to a separate radiator - or can I?) Replace it with a 360mm top mount exhaust radiator and connect the GPU to it - the GPU would be the only thing on the pump/ reservoir. I’d only need to modify some of the flexible hose lengths in order to reach the GPU water block.
Add a 360mm side-mount CPU AIO.
Questions:
If I switch the CPU from closed loop on a reservoir to an AIO, should I upgrade it to a 360mm side-mount exhaust AIO, or is 240mm enough? (The side-mount location has the room for it.) Seems to me the extra volume of water in the closed loop (240mm rad) helps keep temps down. They’re right where they need to be now.
Is a 240mm radiator enough to cool this GPU on a closed loop?
Temps are fine - just keep all intakes and filters clean with an occasional fan blades and case interior clean. A slight positive positive pressure is preferred to reduce dust contamination,
If flying was difficult engineers would do it,
I marked it solved. I’m going to keep things status quo. No need to spend money on water that I could (will) be spending on other things to enhance the sim experience.
Funny I just got rid of my fully water cooled computer. Had dual 360mm radiators. Had a i9-11900k and 3080ti. Thing cranked out a ton of heat and was loud with fans.
New system has a i9-13900k and 4090 in a smaller case. 280mm aio on the cpu and stock fans on the gpu.Systen runs very quiet and temps are not bad. Never going back to water cooled.
Your temps are within the range recommend by the manufacturers. Don’t waste your time/money on the improvements which are not required by the technical specifications of your components.
You could modify the GPU fan profiles (maybe, depends on hardware/software etc) to run slower and reduce the noise and see what the impact on temps is?
Probably still not as noisy as airplane engines
You may consider applying some fan speed curve, as long as the temps are below the throttling level nothing bad will happen to your components.
I’ve played around with them quite a bit. Even though my GPU is only around 65°C @ 70% load, I hesitate to adjust its fan curve closer to the recommended max of 91°C, especially since I’m going to be getting into VR soon.
The case fans could be turned down a bit, but I feel like the VRM temp of 50°C is high enough that I need to take care with that as well. Maybe I’m a bit overprotective of that component. But IMHO, it’s important to keep that as cool as possible, as it contributes mightily to system stability.
I have an inexpensive motherboard (MSI B550A-Pro) but it supposedly has a pretty good VRM section.
And in fact, with the quality and number of fans running, I don’t think they’re the source of much noise. Regardless, the fan noise hasn’t been bothering me much, even when I fly using the speaker system at moderate volume instead of headphones.
I reality, the wind sounds that FS Realistic adds are noisier.
When I’m in VR the sound of the fans is quickly forgotten. It would be in part due to the speakers being right there at my ears, but I think the amazing immersion factor also plays a role.
Not sure if everyone experiences fan noise this way, but I hope you do when you get the VR set up.
I have a 4090 and a simple 13600k with is-67-xt, undervolted (-0.125) and not overclocked, because it is not necessary! I can go to 5.6mhz, but there is no point on that, I tested it
all in a fractal ridge, enough if you manage temps, the noctua 60 as exhaust is great
everything max in msfs settings ultra like crazy, 255tlod, 200 (max) the other setting, 200% wmr, 40-50 fps average, hp g2 vr
and the 13600k air-cooled at 10-15 ms, 65-70C not idle but with some addicional room
there is not need for liquid and those things, the focus should be on saving for a great gpu
Maybe my 13600k undervolted is too good. I do run EVERYTHING ultra, with Dlss quality, and the 2 detail settings at 255 (remember multiples os 50 plus 5 rule) and 200 (200 is the max), and all traffics at 80%. and cpu is not bottleneck at 30-40 FPS (215% Render WMR). Awesome visuals.
I do run dx12, that I guess is more painful for gpu
I do not use FTLS. i know that is a cpu killer. No real time traffic. That might be the cpu feature that makes cpu bottleneck, I do not know.
Make sure dram is gear 1 with decent timings (cl16 or lower), this improved smoothness for me
