Cooling the AMD FX 9590

I never realy heard of that as an true issue on Corsair aio´s.
Pump failuers did happen sometimes back in the day.
But their newer units have diffrent pumps.

A H100 wouldn't really be a good choice? It is on pare with a D14. Which may struggle to keep your temps down under load. At least a 280 rad ?

I would stay away from cheap aluminum radiators, especially if you have copper blocks for CPU and/or GPU. Why? It creates heavy corrosion problems in you loop if you don't compensate for it with tailored coolant. And coolant with additives can be a bit of a bother as it is usually more messy, ordinary deionized/distilled water is always preferable with a silver coil/anti-bacterial agent.

Another thing with aluminum rads is that they are noticeable worse compared to copper/brass rads. Yes they really are, a proper single 120 mm copper rad will beat an alu rad any day and be noticeable quieter as the fan don't have to run as fast. And copper rads aren't very expensive, EK/Alphacool/Swiftech are all very good and affordable. A single 120 or 140 Swiftech would have no problem cooling a 9590 for example. Swiftech also makes stuff like these:

Check out their site for specs etc (seems to be on sale) http://www.swiftech.com/MCR140-X.aspx

It's a 140 proven copper rad, a reservoir and a very decent PWM pump all in one. No coolant, connectors or any blocks included. Should be more than adequate to cool a 9590 with an ordinary CPU block. You'll need a 140 fan, connectors, some tubing/hose and a CPU block. With a copper block all you'll need is deionized water and some anti bacterial like a silver coil and you'll be set for a long time. Can be reused/re-purposed for GPU cooling etc when you move to a new computer. Yes more work than a off the shelf AIO, but also better/more flexible. If you want you can put quick dis-connectors on it/the tubes/blocks for it to be very easy to service the computer. I have tested Swiftechs own brand and they are very good. Expensive ofc, but good. I think EK has plastic ones that should be cheaper. The MCR140-X rad is about 12-14 FPI so you won't need a high rpm fan. The mid rpm EK Vardar 140 would probably work very well and last as long a very long time (double ball bearing).

EK also has some very decent copper rads, and so does Alphacool. Not as clean inside as Swiftech, so remember to flush them before use. I wouldn't trust a cheap alu rad off ebay not to be full of crud (flux, solder etc) either. Only Swiftech has been immaculate in my experience as they ultrasonically clean all their rads. I know for a fact that Alphacool doesn't, plenty of crud in the their rads. I bought some EPDM rubber tubing from EK, it had plenty of crud (char) in it too. To be fair, they warn about this in their store page.

On the subject of hoses/tubing... Many have plasticizes in them to make them flexible. This is a problem as it will get into your coolant loop an gum up you blocks, pump, rad etc. It can be bad. To avoid this annoying problem (just flush your loop every X months, he hehee .. NO.) I use EPDM rubber hoses. EK stocks this and call them Zero maintenance tubing. You can probably get this form hardware store etc too. The dimensions are about 10/16 mm ID/OD (3/8 by 5/8 inch) and ordinary cheap barb fittings (10 mm or 3/8) work very well. I prefer ordinary barb fittings as they aren't very expensive and a ordinary clamp will secure the hose more reliably than those expensive gimmicky compression fittings. And I think ordinary barbs are easier to work with too. 10/16 hose/tube is thicker and easier to route as it doesn't kink very easily. No anti kink coils are usually needed, only in extreme cases, and then you probably want a 90 degree adapter or similar anyway.

Here's a couple of pics of my setup with the EK EPDM-hose, Alphacool rads, a Swiftech micro res etc:


The pump is in the CPU block, it's an old Swiftech Apogee Drive 2, it has a Swiftech MPC35X pump. That pump is too powerful (18 Watts!) and as it is a modified Liang DDC design it get quite noisy on high RPM. That very irritating high pitched kind of noise. I have a PWM fan controller to keep it low, nowdays there is not as much need for that legendary high head pressure anyway. Newer, improved DDC pumps (MCP50X) are much preferable (or the ubiquitous D5). And as the MB Vregs aren't cooled by the loop I put that small fan there on top. This MB has been a disappointment, but that's OT.

Edit: Note that this cooling loop is kinda serous overkill, the lower double rad is probably not really needed. If i would do a similar loop today, I would probably try to keep it simpler.

Me neither. Corsair ship a lot of AiOs, there are bound to be some failures. Generally they seem to have pretty good quality overall.

Using distilled water and flushing it out every ~6 months has been enough to avoid any corrosion for myself. I've never had an algae or corrosion problem.

EDIT: I usually do a flush every 6 months anyway for regular dusting and "hey, I want to take apart my computer for no reason" kind of things.

I have to disagree about the aluminium rads though. Copper conducts heat better but aluminium radiates heat better because of their different densities and structure. This is why some manufacturers mix and match certain materials and is where coated copper heatsinks came from.

All testing I've seen and all the testing I myself has done shows copper rads to be better than alu ones. Copper seems to simply be better in this application. If you have data to the contrary, feel free to share as I love information on the subject :-)

For example, I ran an overclocked 4820K and an overclocked and overvolted AMD 290 on one slim Swiftech 2x120 rad. Fan speeds was reasonable low, under 1500 rpm, so it was reasonably quiet. Sure the rad got toasty, but the CPU and GPU had very reasonable temperatures running Prime95 and Furmark. I wager you could not do this on a slim alu rad with quiet fans. Noisy fans sure, I kinda dislike noise.

Complicated loops are a pain to flush, also a point to keep loops a s simple as possible. GPU blocks are notorious for trapping air bubbles in them, and depending on how your loop/case are etc it can be some work to get rid of them. My loop is over complicated and and seriously overkill. If I would re-do it today, I would probably try something different. Extra thick 140 rads doesn't add much, and there really isn't a need for multiple ones. I could probably run my loop fine on one triple 120 rad. Would be quieter too, the selection of good 140 fans have been slim for a long time, 120 has many more options (including the very nice Nidec Servo ones).

Starts writing a response where I was going to link the "aluminium" rad I use on my GPU and I just read that it's actually "mostly copper"

Ohhhh! Snap, son! So that example is tera-bad. But I'll go ahead and explain where my reasoning was coming from. Like I said, copper conducts better but aluminium radiates better. Even my rad, which is copper after all, has a coating like I mentioned. I forget exactly what they use, I think it might be a ceramic, but you'll notice that all these copper radiators are black... copper isn't black. That's what I was referring to. The coating is there because it radiates better than the copper would by itself. And come to think of it, most aluminium rads I see also have that coating... I'm a bit on the move, so you might have to look this one up yourself until I get back. The rad I linked says it's coated with "dark green paint" but... wtf does that mean? It's not actually paint, that would be stupid. If I can remember what forum I was on where somebody broke this whole manufacturing process down and described what chemicals were being used for these reasons, I'll post it here.

Also, look at CPU heatsinks. Most are aluminium. Copper heatpipes, mind you, because that conducts better. But the actual radiation area, the fins themselves that have the job of dispersing the heat, those are almost always aluminium. Hell, even the stock heatsinks on GPUs are aluminium for this reason.

So basically, my philosophy on coated copper vs aluminium rads is "if it works it works."

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Yes about that, it really only comes into play at higher temperatures (~100C and more IIRC). Add to that that most (all?) radiators have some black paint on them, so for heat radiation a painted alu rad is the same as a painted copper rad. But the copper one has superior heat conductivity, so the coolant sheds heat faster to the rad metal. I'm not a 100% on the science, I would love for some engineer to correct me.

This gets me wanting to test radiators again. Some company recently released alu rads, think it was Thermaltake. Should get one of those and compare it to a cheap Swiftech. I've been thinking of getting a D5 for my loop anyway. I just need some convenient heat load....

Yeah, at this point I'm just going to leave it open for somebody with a specialized degree to answer the question. I've got to get on the road so I don't have the time to dig any more into this. I'll see what some others have to say later today.

100% with you on that one. And it was ThermalTake, their "Pacific" line of radiators. All alu "Anti-Corrosion Aluminum Alloy". Kinda like marine radiators with zink "sacrifice" anodes if I understand them. Maybe I can get them cheap somewhere.

@Pholostan, @Tek_Elf Hey you guys, I really appreciate all your feedback, and valued information (I will definitely save this post for future reference). After doing extensive search online, I finally pulled the trigger on this bad boy right here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835214061

I really wanted a shot at a custom loop, but given the lack of freelance work as of late, and the price to performance of this Enermax AIO - I couldn't pass up the affordable price of this one. I'd be hard pressed to recommend any more Corsair AIO now. This thing has some pretty sweet features in terms of physical design (both aesthetically, and functionally).

So let's talk temps. I don't have an elaborate Excel sheet for you all to look at, but running idle with the fans on the lowest settings, runs between 15c - 20c (mind blown). Those temps seem to be around the same regardless if I'm overclocking it, or running stock speeds, (which I have trouble running it stable past 4.8 (any tips to get up to 5.0 would be appreciated ;) )). Also it runs ~2 degrees cooler on the medium fan settings. I did a few renders with high settings (shadows, anti-aliasing), running at 3040x1920 resolution. I was using 3ds Max with a scene over 3+ million polygons, most textures at 4096 and 2048. Each render takes maybe 40-45 minutes to complete.

The first render, I was seeing temperatures running at 50c then steadily holding at 52c for the last ~40% of the render. The fans were at the medium setting.

The second render, I was seeing temperatures running at 52c then steadily holding at 54c for the last ~40% of the render. The fans were at the lowest setting.

Haven't payed much attention to the temperatures when gaming. However I did peek at them when playing War Thunder, and I don't believe it went past 40c - 45c respectively.

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