New user to LIQUID cooling - Coolermaster LIQUID LITE 120

Bigfingers

It's a media pc? Are you hosting plex to multiple clients that need transcoding?  Otherwise most of the time it will be ticking over doing nothing. It may not be worth throwing anymore money at it?

mclingo

i've ripped my entire bluray collection and i'm hosting it on there for quick easy access, they are all remuxed and so the file sizes are 30-60 gig each, its about 30 TB worth  I dont use plex for movie playback, I use KODI DS and MADVR, I use plex for music as I can play my own local collection  Alexa which is great. Its on during the day only so I can access it from work for web browsing as internet access at work is monitored and really slow but RDP connections arent

mclingo

out of interest, I have my pump connected to the only 3 pin connector on my board which is called PWR/FAN - Targas Monitor clocks the RPM at around 2260-2265 and never changes, is this right, does the pump always run at full tilt and at this speed?

Bigfingers

Thats correct, they will more often then not stay at a constant speed, unless there is software to alter profiles ect. I use a D5 pump which has an adjustable speed 1-5 via a variable resistor underneath. I have dialed mine right down to 2 even though its quite a big loop.
I have tested CPU temps from 1 to 5 (5 being full whack!) and the difference in idle or 100% in Cinebench15 are negligable.

mclingo

if my PC is pretty quiet and it never goes above 64 at full load, is there any point spending any more time faffing just to get the idles down a few degrees, should I just leave it now?

Bigfingers

For a media server? I would leave it alone. It shouldnt even break sweat.

mclingo

yeah no gaming, i'm only using a beefy GFX card (GTX 580) to upscale my 1080p stuff to 4k using MADVR which eats GPU shader units for breakfast.

Darren Heal

I think the liquid cooler PUMP should be run off the CPU fan header on the motherboard and everything else should be run off the chassis fan header.  Then the pump only runs when needed.

If in doubt buy some Molex to fan adaptors off Amazon or eBay and have both the liquid cooler PUMP and radiator fan, as well as the case fan(s) running all the time.  You can't over-cool the CPU (well, not without dry ice or suchlike) and if you have decent fans the noise won't bother you.

mclingo

Thanks for the advice. I've not got everything working properly I think. I have the pump running off the PWR header which means its running at fll speed all the time, its clocking about 2600 rpms which is correct,  the model I have doesnt have have incremental speed control so this is correct.