Corsair H115i - Where to connect this to?

By Odom
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Odom Member

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Hi,

 

probably a dumb question, but I'm building a new PC for my brother, been a long time since my last one, and I'm hooking up a Corsair H115i. For the life of me I cannot figure out where to connect this cable to (attached picture). The manual is pretty useless, apart from the sentence "Now connect the cables" it provides no clues. I think I've seen these before, maybe with Fan Headers? But I do not find the counterparts to these two cables. Also couldn't find any instructional videos online for the H115i, only for older models.

 

The Corsair H115i as a USB cable that goes to the motherboard USB header. A SATA Power connector that goes to the PSU cable for SATA Power. A fan header that you can connect to the motherboard CPU header. I have the ASUS VIII Hero and it has a dedicated Water Pump header, so the cable when in there.

But I can't figure out these two. I have no other place to hook them up to. Am I missing something obvious?

 

For reference, the parts I have are:

Be Quiet Dark Base 900 (case)

Be Quiet Dark Power Pro 11 650W (PSU)

ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero

Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3000 DIMM CL15-17-17-35 Dual Kit

Samsung Evo 850 500GB

 

Many thanks in advance!

 

 

IMG_20160710_213718.jpg

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Odom Member

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^^Thanks for the hint!!

 

You are right, they are supposed to be connected to the two fans of the radiator. Seems that the SATA connector provides all the required power, which is also looped through the CPU heatsink and the two cables coming out of it, where the fan headers of the radiator connect to.

 

I guess I'm too tired and should take a break before I misconnect something else :)

 

Thanks a lot!!!

 

Grand Master

Circaflex

Posted
Posted
Just now, Odom said:

^^Thanks for the hint!!

 

You are right, they are supposed to be connected to the two fans of the radiator. Seems that the SATA connector provides all the required power, which is also looped through the CPU heatsink and the two cables coming out of it, where the fan headers of the radiator connect to.

 

I guess I'm too tired and should take a break before I misconnect something else :)

 

Thanks a lot!!!

 

No worries, I just looked at their manual and I can see why you might have overlooked it, their instructions are somewhat confusing. Good luck!

Experienced

conna

Posted
Posted (edited)

What is the USB connection for?  

I looked it up.

Built-in Corsair Link for monitoring, customization and control

Attach the included Corsair Link cable to a USB header on your motherboard and download the free Corsair Link software to unlock even more power.

You can customize cooling performance, monitor coolant and CPU temperatures, and change the color of the RGB LED lighting from the default white to match your system, or to change color based on temperature readings and other inputs.

fluff.

 

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Odom Member

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:)

It's my first attempt at watercooling, I was excited to get it going. Had to fiddle around with the case to make the radiator fit. The plastic on the motherboard guarding the ports sticks out a lot and I couldn't put it in as the fan on the radiator was blocking the way. Thankfully the case allows the motherboard tray to be adjusted so I moved it down 1 cm, now things fit perfectly. The Radiator has two 140mm fans pulling the air into the case and through it. I thought it should go the other way around, but that was the recommendation I read everywhere. Also makes sense, when you think about it.

Grand Master

+Gary7 Subscriber²

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19 minutes ago, Odom said:

:)

It's my first attempt at watercooling, I was excited to get it going. Had to fiddle around with the case to make the radiator fit. The plastic on the motherboard guarding the ports sticks out a lot and I couldn't put it in as the fan on the radiator was blocking the way. Thankfully the case allows the motherboard tray to be adjusted so I moved it down 1 cm, now things fit perfectly. The Radiator has two 140mm fans pulling the air into the case and through it. I thought it should go the other way around, but that was the recommendation I read everywhere. Also makes sense, when you think about it.

Per corsair you should have one fan blowing cold air in on the back of the radiator and one blowing towards the other fan. That is what the call the push pull

 

 

Grand Master

DevTech

Posted
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2 hours ago, Gary7 said:

Per corsair you should have one fan blowing cold air in on the back of the radiator and one blowing towards the other fan. That is what the call the push pull

 

 

Just adding a note in case your comment might confuse people.

 

The Corsair instructional video has a fan on either side of the radiator and both fans are blowing out of the case. This is the standard configuration for these devices because it works well enough and does not generate any controversy.

 

Odom is reversing that so both fans are blowing into the case with a fan on either side. This is a more efficient way to cool the CPU since the input air is often much cooler than the standard method. People sometimes find this odd since other fans elsewhere in the case might also be blowing inward but that's just because humans are not wired up to visualize air flows properly.

 

In my case, in addition to blowing inward, I also mount the radiator on the outside of the case which really makes a nice difference when working on the inside.

 

 

 

Grand Master

Circaflex

Posted
Posted

Just ensure fresh air is being pushed/pulled through the rad for the most efficient temps. Realistically the differences are minimal in temp (push/pull vs pull vs push) this was researched on XS forums you can visit there to see the data. But, again, fresh air is the best no matter the configuration. 

 

 

d8641d6f_vbattach201757.png

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Odom Member

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Hi Circaflex, Gary7, DevTech,

 

Thanks for the information and instructional video :)

 

The reason I set up the fans on the radiator that way was because I followed DevTech's advice in another thread that I had posted (Link here). His explanation made lots of sense to me, even though it was contrary to all my previous builds so far.

This time I put the radiator at the inside of the top of the case and underneath it the two fans, side by side, pulling air in. I have another fan at the back pulling air out of the case, two fans at the front pulling air into it.

I am considering of attaching another 140mm on the side panel and pulling air out, as that one will be right on top of the GPU. Or maybe it is better for it to pull fresh air in on top of the GPU? This makes me think that the fresh air will go over the GPU, getting hotter and then be spread around the case. I guess I'll just have to try it and measure the temps. See what works best.

 

 

Grand Master

DevTech

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, Odom said:

Hi Circaflex, Gary7, DevTech,

 

Thanks for the information and instructional video :)

 

The reason I set up the fans on the radiator that way was because I followed DevTech's advice in another thread that I had posted (Link here). His explanation made lots of sense to me, even though it was contrary to all my previous builds so far.

This time I put the radiator at the inside of the top of the case and underneath it the two fans, side by side, pulling air in. I have another fan at the back pulling air out of the case, two fans at the front pulling air into it.

I am considering of attaching another 140mm on the side panel and pulling air out, as that one will be right on top of the GPU. Or maybe it is better for it to pull fresh air in on top of the GPU? This makes me think that the fresh air will go over the GPU, getting hotter and then be spread around the case. I guess I'll just have to try it and measure the temps. See what works best.

 

 

In general it is a waste of fan noise to pull air out of the case, you will see better performance taking those fans out and throwing them away. That is because you never end up with an actual suction in a typical case. Always blow cool air in where it will do some good. (You can always put your hands on the things that get hot and see how you are doing.)

 

For the GPU you have to look at the design of your GPU cooling. Where does it need cool intake air? If you can give it cool air, that's great. Blowing air out near the GPU is more likely to just starve it of air flow. Either way, it is testable.

 

The most you should ever need is 4 fans:

 

1) CPU Radiator blowing cool air in

 

2) Disk drives blowing cool air in over drives but blowing hot air across them is ok as well, drives just need a bit of airflow of any type.

 

3) Side fan or internal fan blowing on mobo to give air flow to the chipset and the CPU power components. Cool air is good, some air is required since there is no other airflow on the mobo due to water cooling the CPU.

 

4) Blow cool air on the GPU if the GPU card wants to cooperate with you.

 

With everything blowing in, the air finds it's way out and ripping out the exhaust fans gives extra holes for that. Leaving the exhaust fans in place can skew the airflow in unpredictable ways, usually for the worse.

Grand Master

+Gary7 Subscriber²

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^I understand what you are saying but Corsair seems to disagree with you. That being said your point has been argued for years. All I can say is that I have my H-75 fans set per Corsair and it seems to be working.  I have 4 fans as you said a 200mm bringing in cool air from the front of my HAF-912 case , the two fans on the cooler and a 120 mm fan taking hot air out of the top. I used to have a 200mm fan there but with addition of the H-75 it would not fit. Well I did not count the fan on my GPU as it is built in.

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