Solved Corsair h80i Thermal Paste

[Boozad]

I can't believe I can actually see a difference between the 4670 and the 4790 already, what a CPU. I thought I may have wasted my money and should have gone for a 980 GPU instead but now I'm chuffed to bits. It's taken my WEI up 0.1 to 7.8 as well, small things and all that.

I'm off to have a bath, that was hot work (the PC work and the meal). Photos and write up coming shortly...

 

[essenbe]

I'm glad you are happy with it. But I hate to tell you. But, there is no rule that says you can't get a 980 too. I promise, you will see a difference in that.

I have a 780 Classified in my spare rig. Newegg is running a sale of a Factory refurbished 780 Classified for $280. 1 year warranty. I'm awful tempted. But then I'd have to decide which cards to put in which rig. Too much deciding.

 

[Boozad]

Okay the wife's commandeered the bathroom so here's some photos.

 ONE

GPU removed, i5-4670k removed and i7-4790k fitted. Rear fan removed.

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 TWO

Rear fan moved to roof of case for extra airflow.

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 THREE

First rear fan and radiator fitted. This was really awkward and I really could have used another pair of hands.

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 FOUR

Second rear fan being fitted.

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 FIVE

Pump bracket fitted.

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 SIX

At this point I found a downside to the Sabertooth motherboards. The wife was nagging me about the groceries that had been delivered being wrong, and I managed to drop a standoff behind the assistant fan on the board. The TUF armour just stopped me from getting it so I had to dismantle some of the board to get the standoff back out. I had to go for a smoke then to calm down so I didn't break something.

It all got fitted eventually though.

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And we have power!

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A very worthwhile venture for me, it's been ages since I've dismantled a PC to that extent so needed the practice and the boost in performance is well worth it.

 

[Boozad]

I'm glad you are happy with it. But I hate to tell you. But, there is no rule that says you can't get a 980 too. I promise, you will see a difference in that.

I have a 780 Classified in my spare rig. Newegg is running a sale of a Factory refurbished 780 Classified for $280. 1 year warranty. I'm awful tempted. But then I'd have to decide which cards to put in which rig. Too much deciding.

Missed this while I was posting nonsense. I'm going to wait for the 980ti I think Steve, it may be next year now but I will upgrade that GPU.

 

[Boozad]

This cooler is bloody loud. That looks like my gaming sessions out of the window if the missus is watching the TV.

 

[essenbe]

Most of the stock fans are.

 

[Boozad]

I need to source two new fans then, these get on my nerves let alone the missus'. I might install the Corsair Link cable as well to see if I can better control over the fans.

 

[Golden]

Nice.....take it for an IBT and you will see how much cooler it runs.

 

[Layback Bear]

I couldn't take the noise the stock fans the cooler came with.
Installed two Noctua fans. That solved the noise problem and the temps stayed the same.

 

[essenbe]

I couldn't take the noise the stock fans the cooler came with.
Installed two Noctua fans. That solved the noise problem and the temps stayed the same.

+1

 

[Boozad]

Noctuas it is, good choice. What model did you get Jack?

 

[AddRAM]

The 4790K is an awesome CPU, 4.0 out of the box, and they used a better TIM on it. I want one but that would mean a new board and selling my Z77 and 3770K, something to think about.

I have these on my rad Boozad, I like em

Air Series SP120 PWM High Performance Edition High Static Pressure Fan Twin Pack

 

[Boozad]

I was looking at those last night, nearly pulled the trigger on them. I think its between a couple of Noctuas and those, either will be better than the stock dross on there now!

 

[Boozad]

I ordered a twin pack of the SP 120 PWMs yesterday, they're cheap enough to try our although they look good. I've got to give it to Corsair too, I generated a ticket complaining about the noise of the fans on Saturday (or Sunday) asking if there's any way to reduce the noise and asking if I'd have to replace them. Got back home from work today and had four emails from Corsair saying my RMA had been Processed, Approved, Updated and Shipped so it looks like I have two new fans coming direct from Corsair too. I don't know what model they are (probably direct replacements) but as long as the 120s do the job I'm not bothered. I thought that was excellent customer service.

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[Layback Bear]

Noctuas it is, good choice. What model did you get Jack?

This is what I chose. I run them at full voltage all the time like I do all my fans.

NF-P12: The NF-P12 has been designed with more pressure demanding “high impedance” applications in mind. It provides an even balance of high static pressure, high airflow and excellent quietness, which has made it a standard choice for low noise CPU cooling, cases with tight fan grills and other low noise cooling applications with mid- to high airflow resistance.

 

[Boozad]

Those are the ones I narrowed down to on the Noctua website. I like the look of them Jack, I may buy some for my case fans. I'll have a lot of choice soon fan wise so I can play about and find out what the best configuration is.

 

[essenbe]

Gav, I bought these Noctua.at - sound-optimised premium components "Designed in Austria"! . They can be loud, but they put out more static pressure than any fan I am aware of. That means I usually run them at about 1600-1800 RPMs and they are pretty quiet, yet still put out about as much SP as anything else. But, I also have the option of turning them up to 3000 RPMs, and get excellent results, as long as I wear headphones. Any fan that runs 3000 RPMs is going to be pretty loud. I have them on a Lamptron FC5V3 Fan Controller.

 

[Boozad]

Colin, just wondering where you have your Corsair's fan cable to and how do you control the fan speeds? I hooked my pump up to the CPU fan header on the motherboard then connected both fans to the pump via the splitter cable. Now AI Suite III isn't picking up the CPU fan (I'm 100% certain that it was showing when I first booted up after the CPU and cooler installation) so I've no control over the two radiator fans so it seems. They're not bad at idle after boot but if I do anything CPU intensive they ramp up and seem to stay there (unless that's the pump working harder?), even if I close everything down.

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All other fans are being picked up fine in Fan Control, I've even uninstalled AI Suite and reinstalled it with no joy.

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[AddRAM]

They should go up and down depending on the water temp.

Corsair has an excellent no questions asked RMA service

 

[Boozad]

Quick update. Just installed two Air Series SP120s to replace the stock Corsair fans on the H80i and wow, the difference is phenomenal. The stock fans while the system was at idle were louder than my old heatpipe cooler under load, I couldn't stress the CPU (no gaming, video rendering, anything) while people were in the room as the noise was just downright offensive. Now with the SP120s in my rig is back to whisper quiet at idle again and I won't have to worry about gaming while the wife is watching EastEnders.

I'm going to get two more of these to replace my two Cooler Master intake fans on my case I think (or go for some Noctuas) as the cooling difference is amazing as well. They've taken a whopping 5°C off my CPU temp at idle, so for that noise level and cooling capacity I may as well put to at the front to give my hard drives some love. Kudos to you guys for the input and recommendations, I can see some more mods coming on my rig in the not too distant future.