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I swapped to the Asrock Z390 Phantom Gaming ITX motherboard last night, and it was relatively seamless transition. I downloaded all the Asrock drivers ahead of time, and just uninstalled Asus drivers afterwards. Removing Ai Suite 3 was tricky and more tedious requiring some manual regedit and also used CCleaner to remove some of the Asus referenced apps / drivers / paths.
I decided to try the U9S with 2x NF-B9 redux 1600rpm PWM fans. Airflow goes from bottom intake (2x NF-P12 redux 1700rpm) to rear exhaust. I am biasing GPU cooling at the moment. My graphics card only got to low 50s after 30 minutes of gaming. Windowed side panel.
Ram is the same 2x16gb VLP Crucial (Micron) 2666 sticks.The VLP seem to allow slightly better airflow.
I haven't play with the Asrock UEFI much. The power limit is set to unlimited, which meant the CPU will boost all the way to 5ghz on all cores, and get to a mighty toasty 90c with the U9S. Power draw was quite insane at 250+ watts. I use Intel XTU to limit short term boost to 180w, and long term boost to 140w. This allowed 5ghz speeds for gaming (60-65c), and 4.6ghz speeds for CPU rendering workloads with MCE on (85c).
I might switch back to the vented side panel with the old C14 cooler. With the vented side panel, I will switch back to brown fans. Bottom and side fans will be 4x A12x25s. Rear will be an A9x14. I might test it with and without a 5th A12x25 underneath the C14 fin-stack.
I decided to try the U9S with 2x NF-B9 redux 1600rpm PWM fans. Airflow goes from bottom intake (2x NF-P12 redux 1700rpm) to rear exhaust. I am biasing GPU cooling at the moment. My graphics card only got to low 50s after 30 minutes of gaming. Windowed side panel.
Ram is the same 2x16gb VLP Crucial (Micron) 2666 sticks.The VLP seem to allow slightly better airflow.
I haven't play with the Asrock UEFI much. The power limit is set to unlimited, which meant the CPU will boost all the way to 5ghz on all cores, and get to a mighty toasty 90c with the U9S. Power draw was quite insane at 250+ watts. I use Intel XTU to limit short term boost to 180w, and long term boost to 140w. This allowed 5ghz speeds for gaming (60-65c), and 4.6ghz speeds for CPU rendering workloads with MCE on (85c).
I might switch back to the vented side panel with the old C14 cooler. With the vented side panel, I will switch back to brown fans. Bottom and side fans will be 4x A12x25s. Rear will be an A9x14. I might test it with and without a 5th A12x25 underneath the C14 fin-stack.
Minor updates based on:
Tweaks with XTU...
The Asrock Phantom Gaming ITX has an USB 2.0 header, which allows me to Install a Corsair Commander Pro + Corsair Link for fan controls:
- Both bottom 120mm fans ranges from 1000 to 1700 rpm, and is based on GPU temperatures
- Both 92mm fans ranges from 1000 to 1600 rpm, and is based on CPU temperatures
- even though these are the Noctua redux fans, and I am using the glass panel, temperatures and noise are acceptable (to me). I'm liking this setup!
Photo of the Commander Pro shoehorned in the right side... the right panel sticks out by 1mm, but that's ok, the right side of the M1 faces away from me
Tweaks with XTU...
- Turbo Boost power max (both long and short term): 180w
For CPU rendering 8c/16t workload, CPU speed 5ghz on all cores, temperatures after 30 minutes+ was 88c
- Turbo Boost power max (both long and short term): 215w, per Noctua 9900K recommendation page.
For CPU rendering 8c/16t workload, CPU speed 5ghz on all cores, temperatures after 30 minutes+ was 92c
The Asrock Phantom Gaming ITX has an USB 2.0 header, which allows me to Install a Corsair Commander Pro + Corsair Link for fan controls:
- Both bottom 120mm fans ranges from 1000 to 1700 rpm, and is based on GPU temperatures
- Both 92mm fans ranges from 1000 to 1600 rpm, and is based on CPU temperatures
- even though these are the Noctua redux fans, and I am using the glass panel, temperatures and noise are acceptable (to me). I'm liking this setup!
Photo of the Commander Pro shoehorned in the right side... the right panel sticks out by 1mm, but that's ok, the right side of the M1 faces away from me
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Moving this back the the M1 to better cool the GPU. Not really working so far. It’s still running at 80c. I have more work yet...
I used to have a 1080 ti on an ncase m1. (striix with nff-12fans mod)
I believe the M1 traps the gpu heat on the bottom.
I flipped the case and temperatures on gpu vastly improved!
Results from tests here.
I should have tested the normal orientation with extra back exhaust (90mm).
Don`t have the system anymore. =(
I should have tested the normal orientation with extra back exhaust (90mm).
Don`t have the system anymore. =(
Thank you for sharing!Results from tests here.
I should have tested the normal orientation with extra back exhaust (90mm).
Don`t have the system anymore. =(
Switched to C14 with 5x Noctua A12x25 fans. I’m stubborn about not having any exhaust blowing at me, so both the left (front for me) fans and bottom fans are set to intake. Rear A9x14 fan is set to exhaust. Also elevated the case slightly with the Cerberus feet.
Played around with some overclocking:
UEFI settings:
MCE on
Locked boost power limit at 190w per Noctua recommendation for the C14.
Gaming boosts up to 5ghz
Torture tests boosts to 4.5ghz
GPU boosts up to 2010mhz
Prime95 small FFT and Heaven running at the same time:
CPU 75c
GPU 64c
Gaming temperatures:
CPU 50c
GPU 64c
I think the U9S might be dissipating heat faster than the C14.
Played around with some overclocking:
UEFI settings:
MCE on
Locked boost power limit at 190w per Noctua recommendation for the C14.
Gaming boosts up to 5ghz
Torture tests boosts to 4.5ghz
GPU boosts up to 2010mhz
Prime95 small FFT and Heaven running at the same time:
CPU 75c
GPU 64c
Gaming temperatures:
CPU 50c
GPU 64c
I think the U9S might be dissipating heat faster than the C14.
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So, you are using 2x NF-A12x25 fans as push-pull for the C14?
Is there a reason you do not use 2x NF-A14 fans?
I think hot air is not being exhausting out of your M1 fast enough, with only one exhausting fan (A9x14).
So, air exhausted through the C14 in all direction is unable to be extracted out quick enough, resulting some of them to be recirculated back. As for the U9S, the air exhausted through is already lining up in the direction of the rear exhausting fan, thus it is more happy than the C14.
Yes. If I switch the bottom fans to exhaust, I would probably get better CPU cooling.
No worries! With the windowed panel, the CPU and motherboard VRM runs hotter as expected. I only checked CPU temperatures at first, but started noticing VRM throttling with the Strix Z390i heatsinks removed (to fit the C14 or C14S). CPU ran about 5-10c higher. No data on motherboard temp other than it was throttling the VRM.
Switched to C14 with 5x Noctua A12x25 fans. I’m stubborn about not having any exhaust blowing at me, so both the left (front for me) fans and bottom fans are set to intake. Rear A9x14 fan is set to exhaust. Also elevated the case slightly with the Cerberus feet.
Played around with some overclocking:
UEFI settings:
MCE on
Locked boost power limit at 190w per Noctua recommendation for the C14.
Gaming boosts up to 5ghz
Torture tests boosts to 4.5ghz
GPU boosts up to 2010mhz
Prime95 small FFT and Heaven running at the same time:
CPU 75c
GPU 64c
Gaming temperatures:
CPU 50c
GPU 64c
I think the U9S might be dissipating heat faster than the C14.
Are those temps with the side panel closed? I'm curious because those do look promising for when I upgrade my CPU (have similar cooling setup with C14). Only difference is that with the GPU bottom intake, I have the right side fan setup as exhaust for the GPU.
Yes, with panel closed. CPU power limit Is set at 190w.
I need to run more extended GPU tests to see if the GPU need a proper exhaust. There is a lot of trapped heat in the case between the GPU and CPU.
The latest version of HWinfo (6.0), exposes VRM temperature readings. On the Strix Z370-i the VRM throttles at 115C. Might be different on the z390-i due to the different VR setup, but I don't have a board on hand to test with.
Thanks!! I’ll look into HWinfo v6. I may need to update it. I was relying on XTU to inform me on what’s throttling, and what’s the limiting factor (power vs temperature)
Yeah I was using XTU too to give me that information, I suppose that having access to the actual temperature made it easier to determine the vCore and AVX offset at which the VRMs would stop throttling.
In my case I needed an AVX offset of 5 at 5.0GHz to run Prime95 without the VRMs hrottling. Realbench runs fine with an offset of 2. 8700K at 78C
In my case I needed an AVX offset of 5 at 5.0GHz to run Prime95 without the VRMs hrottling. Realbench runs fine with an offset of 2. 8700K at 78C
Was the Strix z390 heatsink/shroud hard to remove? I'm thinking about removing it so I can place another 92 mm fan. Alternatively I might switch over to the asrock board instead. How are you liking your asrock board compared to the previous strix?
I tried out HWinfo, but wasn’t sure what the motherboard VRM is labeled as. I found one temperature reading that said 78c, I assume that was the VRM, as my CPU was at 100c. (running Prime95, with unlimited power limit, and throttling).
I updated the Asrock BIOS to 1.3, and the overclocking line items got moved around a little bit. No more MCE toggle, as it got combined with something else. Took me a few minutes to find it. I grouped all cores to run at 5.0ghz.
As for AVX offset, I set mine at -2, so that the CPU runs at 4.8ghz for AVX tasks. With power limit at 190w, the 9900K runs Prime95 small FFT at about 75-80c. Very manageable IMO.
