Quiet and cool.

Frankly, it’s a lot better than it has to be. I’m just testing things out but on the hottest day of the year (90’s) with no air con it was in the mid 80″s indoors, yet I couldn’t get the cpu temp above low 50’s celsius. That’s on burn-in programs that before would be in the 90’s c.

It is easily able to run the fans at about 700 rpm, less than about 45%, which is very quiet.

It took me most of the day because, as it turns out, {gulp} the case I put it in isn’t supposed to work with a 240mm radiator. My goof in assuming it would work without actually reading the case promo….

The grill at the top is a little too close to the motherboard. But I was able to mount the radiator and fans a little off-center and have everything fit.

This motherboard has all kinds of ways to control the water pump and fans. I tried something simple and could easily tweak the fan curves to where I wanted them. I won’t go into it because you’re not likely to have the same brand and model. I’ll just say that the ASUS Maximus VIII “Ranger” is WAY overbuilt for tweaking at higher clock rates. I’m still running at my old standard 7% overclock with the RAM at 3000MHz, but it just purrs like a kitten, even on hot days.

I suspect I may revisit higher speeds, but for now I feel the processor won’t be accidentally overheated.