EKWB Strix 3090 Water Block - Coil Whine and Toasty Memory

[@extraglutenplz3758]

The strix 3080 has the same issue with this setup. I found that just keeping the backplate screws somewhat loose helped A LOT, then EK revised their installation guide to not use pads on the backside of the vrms. Only the memory. By doing this it eliminated nearly all coil whine to inaudible. I'm using the same exact kit and plate as you.

[@UnhingedSystems]

Nice! Next time I tear it apart I'll give that a shot too. Mine aren't that audible anymore, but it's still a bit annoying. I noticed my 3090FE has a tiny little bit of coil whine stock, even with a solid Seasonic PSU.

[@timwong6818]

Honestly coil whine is very common on Asus cards, particularly and ironically, strix. At some point, after the card have been used for 1-2 yrs, or in my case, 6 month of intensive MachineLearning. The coil simply cannot stop vibrating all the time. I believe it is electronically degraded, but no in a way that could damage other parts. So I learnt to live with it and no bothering about this anymore. Btw, I am using stocker cooler with Laird HD90000, which is considerably better than TR’s hyped pads.

[@07wrxtr1]

Yeah mine has kind of a higher pitch to it, but it doesn't really bother me as I have earbuds in 95% of the time when I'm using the computer. Hoping it won't worsen over time (Card is less than 2 weeks old). 3080 Strix OC LHR...

[@timwong6818]

@@07wrxtr1 The sound really depends on your workload. To me, it is directly related to frame rate and or other workloads. Interestingly, mining is the only workload that won’t cause it to whine…

[@reesonnz8467]

@@timwong6818 Thanks for the tips on pads. I spent a few hours trying to find stuff direct from china after being frustrated about the high costs and limited supply of good alternatives. All i could find was half dodgy looking suppliers with MOK of 10,000 pcs. Very appreciated tips.

[@francislee7770]

Coil whine could be from backplate adding noise to the DCDC controller’s feedback pin having disturbance.

[@ian221]

I have the asus 3080 strix OC and changed the back plate and package side thermal pads to the thermal grizzly minus 8 pads and got the same temperature drops. Thank you for doing this video

[@UnhingedSystems]

My pleasure! Glad you were able to get those temperatures down! Thank you for the comment and for watching!

[@07wrxtr1]

@@UnhingedSystems Okay so what are the best of the best of the best no compromises Thermal Pads for us Newbies that got a strix 3080 and want it to actually make it to the five year mark? I Can tell you one thing: I won't need to run the heat in the house because this computer will do the job! and it's not even winter yet!

[@UnhingedSystems]

@@07wrxtr1 I'm loving the Thermalright Odyssey, they really perform extremely well. Fujipoly is better, but more expensive. The best thermal pads would be a non-conductive pad with the highest W/mK rating. I'm standardizing on the Thermalright Odyssey pads for my builds, they perform even better than the thermal grizzly pads.

[@07wrxtr1]

@@UnhingedSystems Well I just ran HW Info and played Cyberpunk 2077 for 4-5 hours, max junction temp was 80c, max "hot spot" temp was 85.4c, GPU Temp 68.3c. So maybe I got a decent copy of the Strix OC, it is the LHR version, so I'm guessing they improved the thermal pad aspect within manufacturing for later cards? Based on those max temps, do you think it would be worth changing pads? I did not mess with any settings in Cyberpunk, it's totally whatever it defaults to when you jump in and start playing. Fun game, I'm hooked.

[@UnhingedSystems]

@@07wrxtr1 Those temps are all well within spec. I wouldn't worry too much about it. If you are obsessed with cooling (like me) then it becomes a mission to keep shooting for lower temps, but it isn't necessary. The way I look at it is if one were to spend the $$$ on water cooling then one would be silly not to use the best thermal compounds and thermal pads along with it.

[@vch42]

Unhinged systems. => probably the cleanest and most hinged PC mod video out there. 😅

[@UnhingedSystems]

LoL I am the one becoming more Unhinged every day 🤦

[@xINTENSORx]

This dude has a wallpaper of his PC that's right next to him. LOL

[@UnhingedSystems]

Haha I sure did! Good times 😁

[@xINTENSORx]

@@UnhingedSystems I love it. Your rig is beautiful by the way.

[@UnhingedSystems]

@@xINTENSORx Thank you! I just built a massive system for a client, dual 480mm radiators, dual loop, 3d printed parts, custom display bezel, acid etched glass, will be editing a video on it this week! It's simultaneously the most beautiful and most expensive system I have ever made!

[@xINTENSORx]

@@UnhingedSystems That’s awesome. I started a small business doing builds about 3 years ago.

[@UnhingedSystems]

@@xINTENSORx How do you enjoy it? I've been doing it mainly as a hobby business, I work a pretty time consuming full-time job, but computers are my favorite past-time.

[@Par2Pixel]

I have the same block and it just cracked out of nowhere a few days ago looking for a new one but seems to be hard to find this late int he life cycle

[@UnhingedSystems]

@@Par2Pixel It doesn't help that EK is pretty much a defunct company at this point. Sorry to hear about your block! Where did it crack? Was it at the fittings?

[@thegrindizreal5896]

I wonder if cutting some slits in the backplate could help with passive cooling off the fans in system to keep memory cooler. Gr8 vid btw iv purchased one recently with water block attached ,an the seller was nice enough to be honest an mentioned the slight coil whine when under extreme loads for a while hence why im browseing the web trying to find a solution

[@UnhingedSystems]

Honestly even the new 4090 cards air cooled have coil whine noticeable from out of the box with an air cooler. It isn't too noticeable, but it's definitely there. I still have a little bit as well, but I game with headphones on now so I don't hear it anyways 👍

[@thegrindizreal5896]

@UnhingedSystems I heard watercooled front an back is the way to go with these cards just at the extra cost of 100 to 150 but would leave plenty of head room for custom bios's an overclocking.

[@UnhingedSystems]

@@thegrindizreal5896 Honestly the liquid cooled backplate is a nice touch, but it doesn't have quite the impact one would hope for the added cost. A good back plate is more than sufficient to keep the memory cool as long as it has high quality thermal pads. Even EK stock thermal pads are not very good compared to higher end ones. Sufficient, but not taking advantage of liquid cooling as much as one would expect. For me if I am spending the money on liquid cooling I want to transfer as much heat as is cost effective to transfer so I always buy top tier thermal pads and never use the provided ones.

[@syberpunk]

I have crazy coil whine on my stock, non-watercooled Strix :/ it’s so obnoxious that I can even hear it thru my headphones.

[@UnhingedSystems]

My Strix was dead silent stock, but Watercooled I haven't been able to completely get rid of the coil whine. If I use thinner pads on the backplate side opposite where the coils are it's nearly silent. My 3090FE has some light coil whine as well. My 980Ti only ever had coil whine if I overclocked it heavily. It appears even the manufacturers can't quite kick it.

[@HeyDan1983]

If Im not wrong the coil whine its independant of the tecnology, could be brand new could be old, could nvidia or amd, it depends more on the components.

[@wakegary]

Safe bet to grab some 2mm high qual pads and risk the teardown? LoE vs ROI?

[@UnhingedSystems]

100% swap out the pads. Best to use the same thickness that is already on there. I think on the 3090FE they are mostly 2mm anyways, I'll be doing mine shortly.

[@ACOGLMT556]

Is it only the 3090s that have coil whine?just installed the assembled my 3080 ti and can't test it for a week or so. Just checked the manual again and the active backplate came with 8mm screws so I'm hoping that the issue was fixed. I do wish I saw this vid about the thermal grizzly pads before I assembled mine though. Not really wanting to take it apart so I'll hold off for now

[@UnhingedSystems]

All high-end GPUs can have some coil whine. There is a lot of power running through these things. My old 980Ti would get some light coil whine playing certain games.

[@Milkysoyboy]

Interesting video! Very informative as always!

[@UnhingedSystems]

Thank you for watching Nhat Le!

[@DSteuber0352]

Nice video dude, informative and well done!

[@UnhingedSystems]

Thank you! I appreciate the support!

[@francislee7770]

One solution is to find the feedback pin along with the two output closed-loop feedback resistors and put a kapton tape over those components and the sound will go away. The whine will affect DCDC efficiency so doing so will be best

[@UnhingedSystems]

I'll give it a go!

[@jameslam2848]

Hi you a diagram, to show me how to do that

[@cpufrost]

What you need is spacers not longer screws. ;-)

[@UnhingedSystems]

Definitely! There is way too much tension by design, EK engineers recommended longer screws and thicker pads, but ultimately it is the lack of tension that does it. Would be great if EK would design spacers to take the pressure off of the coils. I've got the coil whine 90% eliminated now with some new pads and some tension adjustments.

[@Fartuch87]

@@UnhingedSystems ah got the same problem, why EK still selling wihout longer screws and manual said is 1 mm pad 😞 i bought gelid 1mm and this is so intence and loud

[@nikobobich9726]

Did you try undervolting it? Im hearing that helps.. I heard platinum power supplies work good also the asus ROG

[@UnhingedSystems]

I did yes, it needs to have the power limit slider reduced to almost 50% for the sound to be completely gone. I've managed to get it to be quite quiet now with some different pressure and better thermal pads though so honestly once the fans ramp up I don't even notice it anymore.

[@TheBogism]

Wallpaper is an image of the computer that is sitting next to himLMAO

[@UnhingedSystems]

You sir have a keen eye lol

[@Ashtels]

Imagine a leak 😳😳😳 I would be way to scared to do a build like this

[@UnhingedSystems]

A leak would be very scary! I always buy a few extra fittings just in case! I've done a decent amount of liquid cooled builds, no leaks so far, but maintenance and monitoring is key. I don't like leaving water-cooled PCs on overnight or while I am away from home. Dedicated server PCs for me are always air-cooled just for peace of mind.

[@reesonnz8467]

lolz yer after a while you get used to water cooling and dont stress so much. Just buy good quality fittings, they last forever and seals can be replaced not that i have ever needed to. Do not buy no name brands and you should be fine with the fittings. A leak tester is probaly advised but ive never used one.

[@charleswgod7652]

I didnt have a ”coil whine”, more like a light buzz. So i swapped power supplys 5 times with my rtx 3090 gaming x trio early 2021 and the buzzing stopped when i installed a be quiet dark power pro 12 850w 80+ platinum PSU. Stock cooler and asus rog strix z490 motherboard. Thank god for free return + free shipping on all those PSUs…

[@UnhingedSystems]

Nice! Yea I have heard a lot of people getting rid of the coil whine by swapping to a different PSU or isolating the computer's electrical circuit from LED light bulbs and other electronics causing noise on the circuit. That buzz is coil whine and even my 3090FE has a little tiny buzz if I put my head up to the case (Seasonic Prime Plat. power supply). Unfortunately with the stock cooler there was no buzzing at all but as soon as I switched to the EK block it was buzzing really loudly. Dropping the power limit on the card to 60% makes it instantly go away, but then what's the fun in using 60% of a 3090? Haha

[@S4SK__1]

weird, i got the gaming x trio version and theres no coil whine + memory junction never goes over 60 while playing even while having it clocked +1400

[@UnhingedSystems]

They must be using good thermal pads then, the stock thermal pads and pastes on most of the cards aren't very good. They are just "good enough".

[@S4SK__1]

@@UnhingedSystems with the ek pads i could up the mem to 1k, i put ec 360 silvers on it tho they have like 12 m/k, with liquid metal on the silicon it never goes above 35c even tho i have the 500w bios on it, i really didn't expect the ek block to be any good tbh. maybe i just got lucky with the absent coil whine tho i heard its card specific to some extend

[@alexgta5gaming392]

Great video bro!!

[@UnhingedSystems]

Thank you! I appreciate that!

[@Petelecaster]

5:30 Those must be some tiny coils somewhere there.

[@UnhingedSystems]

The induction coils (or chokes) are actually quite low-profile and sit on the GPU die side of the card. They are very compact. The pressure of the backplate pulling together the backplate and the waterblock is enough to slow the vibration and make it audible. It doesn't affect performance. I'll show the induction coils in a future video where I am trying Thermalright's thermal pads and thermal compound.

[@joecall95]

My feedback based on my experience, just switch your current EK backplate which is the nickel plated aluminum version and take the same but on black version which is the anodized aluminum. I've had the same coil whine issue with my 2080Ti few years ago and tried like you to change the thermal pads and to tighten less or more the backplate but nothing changed until I switched from the nickel to the black backplate, then the coil whine disappeared. My assumption was that the nickel version due to the characteristics of the materiel was more subject to electromagnetic interferences with the electronic components in the PCB, I've found some people reporting the same issue on forums so I decided to return my backplate and it has solved my problem. Just try it and lemme know.

[@UnhingedSystems]

Nice I'll give it a go. I know that I was involved in a few Reddit threads on this over the last year and we found several interesting solutions.

[@reesonnz8467]

thats weird that nickel could be the culprit. lolz

[@leotheevinci]

Odd that I never experienced a coil whine in my whole life. I have an EKWB 3090 exactly like yours but it's not whining. Try replacing your power supply with Phanteks Revolt X or Seasonic Prime PX Platinum, or whichever you like. Mine's a Seasonic Prime PX Platinum 1000W. Actually that's the very first time I heard a coil whine, here in this video, and I never thought GPU's makes that screeching sound. My liquid setup makes almost zero noise, with just 3 iPPC 3000RPM Noctua's running max at 1800RPM, and a D5 pump at 50% idle and 80% load so I would know if there's a coil whining.

[@UnhingedSystems]

The coil whine is just a fitment issue. Lots of people are having issues with this particular block / backplate combo. I'll have another video in a few weeks with another full teardown (trying some different brands of thermal pads again) and I am certain I can get the coil whine to go away by alleviating some pressure off of the coils. It is kind of fun because another 1/8 turn on the screws and I can actually make the coil whine louder. With some tweaks I have made it is quieter than the fans right now so it's pretty good at the moment.

[@leotheevinci]

@@UnhingedSystems What's odd though is that what's the difference between your RTX 3090 and mine? I'm sure its exactly the same model, and my thermal pads btw are 1mm thick Fujipoly thermal pads. I am certain there's something in your system that makes those coils whine, a not so clean power source, or a fan with faulty motor. I don't know but you could also try removing all the fans connected to your MOBO just leaving the 2 pwm pins and route the power directly to your power supply to reduce the load from your motherboard.

[@UnhingedSystems]

@@leotheevinci I've fully isolated the card from the system and used different power supplies, the coil whine is still there. Your use of the Fujipoly thermal pads may be playing a role there. The EK thermal pads are terrible. EK's engineers provided me with 8mm screws as they have identified the problem with coil whine to be related to the pressure applied directly to the coils by the 7mm screws in conjunction with their pads. Removing the backplate eliminates the coil whine entirely as it alleviates any pressure on the coils slowing down the vibration (pulling the block down with more tension with the backplate installed). As you said there may be some other factors at play as well, I agree. In my case the primary factor is the tension between the backplate and the block.

[@leotheevinci]

@@UnhingedSystems If the coil whine persist, how about trying their active back plate if it fits? Maybe because their current back plate is so thin, it's acting like a drum amplifying the supposedly inaudible coil whine?

[@UnhingedSystems]

@@leotheevinci That's a great idea! I would love to give the active backplate a shot!

[@SuperChaoticOne]

Any thoughts on the newly arriving Active Backplates by EKWB? Will you be possibly trying them out?

[@UnhingedSystems]

I'm not sure if I'll be able to get one right away, but it is a cool little item. For extreme overclocking it is a cool concept, but I bet I can keep the VRAM temps under control even more just with some better thermal pads (testing some more soon) and a passive backplate. If it was available when I did this build I may have done it! It will definitely help getting the most possible heat away from the GPU! I would be willing to bet it still comes with average performance thermal pads that need to be replaced with something better to take full advantage of the block(s).

[@SuperChaoticOne]

@@UnhingedSystems Thanks for the reply. Looking forward to your further tests. I've got a Dark Hero, monoblock, 5950x and 3090 FTW finally gathered and will be doing a WC build as well so very interested to hear your thoughts. Your videos so far have been very eye-opening with regards to the thermal pads and coil-whine inducing backplates. My previous/current build was a WC'd 1080ti but luckily I never encountered these issues. I've been reading that they are quite prevalent with the 3090s.

[@UnhingedSystems]

@@SuperChaoticOne The 3090 is a heavy power eating card, but with the right amount of pressure applied it should be possible to reduce the whine further and still maintain good thermal performance. I will be doing another teardown and testing Thermalright pads and compound on the GPU soon!

[@sneedsneed460]

@@UnhingedSystems Definitely try the 17w/mK Fujipoly pads. I have those on my 3080 Strix with the same block and my VRAM temps top out at 48C under full load overclocked to +1300 mining Eth. Its a 30C drop from the stock EK pads and 45C drop from stock

[@UnhingedSystems]

@@sneedsneed460 I definitely will! Slowly testing all of the pads I can get my hands on 👍

[@mahaji9062]

0:01 Imagine having a setup like that

[@alexgta5gaming392]

Fact bro😞

[@MarztechRacing]

Hey great video, I will add that I did my system with the Strix 3090 an easy lucky to not get any coil whine👏🏼 Vid on my channel

[@UnhingedSystems]

Lucky!

[@ikefka5117]

Has a general consensus been found on how to solve the coil whine issue?

[@UnhingedSystems]

I've gotten the coil whine about 90% gone by using very little tension on the screws, thicker pads, and the longer screws provided by EK. I haven't been successful in eliminating it 100% and I've torn down the card three times now. The air-cooled card had zero coil whine with all the same components (PSU, etc), I'm at 44 C on the GPU now with some higher-end pads and pretty happy with the now barely audible coil whine. The block/backplate design just puts a lot of pressure on the coils and slows the vibration enough to make it audible. Hard to find the right balance between sufficient tension for cooling without causing coil whine.

[@eliaschami5614]

Am not sure if to get this for my strix 3090 or the bitspower one, what would you recomend me

[@UnhingedSystems]

I'm still trying to reduce the coil whine, but it fits great, install is easy, and it performs very well. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this one, but I would swap out the stock EK thermal pads for much better pads.

[@jarviszhang5021]

Omg, did you mean your 3090 had no coil whine before water cooling? My strix 3090 has serious coil whine even with air cooling. :(

[@UnhingedSystems]

Thank you for the question! Yes I fully test all hardware before any modifications. Air-cooled there was zero coil whine on the card, it was completely silent. I'm certain I could completely eliminate the coil whine if I played with the screw tension more. The last time I replaced the pads with Thermalright Odyssey I didn't tighten the backplate screws much and the coil whine is mostly gone. I can still hear it in certain games. Dropping the power limit on the card to 70% also eliminates the coil whine. Unfortunately any real pressure against the inductors will slow down their vibration and make them audible. There is zero coil whine with the backplate removed but obviously that will make the RAM on the back side get too hot under workloads so that isn't an option.

[@jarviszhang5021]

​@@UnhingedSystems Thanks for your detailed answer. I understand it is very inconvenient to adjust something in the water loop.

[@vjn5270]

active watercooled backplate

[@playdodgy995]

Obviously it won't make any difference. You increase the pads by 1mm and lengthen the screw by 1 mm there is no difference in pressure than before. Use 2 mm pads and the 7 mm screws. To increase pressure.

[@UnhingedSystems]

Right? Tell that to the EK engineers that recommended the design change lol

[@playdodgy995]

@@UnhingedSystems I just bought the 2mm pads and waiting for them, let you know what temps are when fitted to the front of gpu. Still waiting on active back plate . Running with no back plate at moment.

[@UnhingedSystems]

@@playdodgy995 I did another video where I replaced all the pads with Thermalright Odyssey pads. After some minor adjustments the coil whine is all but gone (still a little, but great improvement). The trick seems to be balancing the backplate tension to a minimum.

[@playdodgy995]

@@UnhingedSystems yep seen it ,I have gone for those ones as well 2mm for the front. Not decided on thickness for the active backplate yet.maybe trial and error.

[@AlexanderDinebier]

From a physical standpoint you're not completely correct. A thicker pad made out of the same material will not produce as much pressure as a thinner pad with shorter screws. There's just more material to absorb the occuring pressure when screwing the plate down. Of course that's just a tiny difference, but still. ;)

[@mikhmikhser]

Честно не придраться только корпус не особо интересен надо через 3d принтер вырезать отверстия водяные с логотипом корпуса или материнской платы ! А так ну очень интересно и недоступно в России. (враньё можно собрать везде свои )😎👌

[@UnhingedSystems]

Большинство людей не находят это интересным. Кейс используется часто. Я доволен результатом. Спасибо за ваше сообщение!

[@mikhmikhser]

5:15 через год все термо-сопли проникнут внутрь и уже ничего не сделать. Только отдельный контур на задний блекплейт с не сосущими прокладками !!!!

[@UnhingedSystems]

Колодки ЕК очень плохо справляются с термосоплями. Колодки EK пропускают масло по всей доске. Прокладки от Термалрайт намного лучше. Цена, которую мы платим за производительность и охлаждение.

[@tttdlll]

Use active backplate

[@UnhingedSystems]

I might get an active backplate, but with proper thermal pads the passive backplate enables memory to stay cooler than 60C under all loads.

[@SubZeroooSWE]

Wtf music that u use ? I mean everyone has a different taste but that music for this video-- NoOoOoOoOoO

[@UnhingedSystems]

😂 sorry you don't like it, cest la vie

[@Joerooe]

Coil whine has to do with the components, not your thermal pads. Poor information.

[@UnhingedSystems]

That's not quite right. Coil whine is a sound produced by the inductor coils on your GPU. Adding additional pressure onto the coils slows down the vibration of the coils which moves the sounds which are normally out of the range of human hearing into our hearing range. Pads have a significant role to play in this. Pads that are too thick will apply more pressure to the coils, causing the noise to become more audible, while pads that are too thin wouldn't dissipate heat effectively. The pressure combination of the pads (thickness, firmness) and the screws tension on the back plate will be the difference between loud coil whine, barely noticeable coil while, and no coil whine at all. As in my case, simply changing the pads (video not long after this one) actually did significantly reduce the whine, even with the same pressure applied from the back plate. My point is, the pads do have a role to play. Power supply quality, quality of your power source, length and quality of your GPU power cables, these are all variables that can contribute to coil whine. Pads are one of those variables (specifically the pressure applied to the inductor coils).

[@Joerooe]

@@UnhingedSystems Correct. Though My point is, you shouldn't give the impression that it's only due to thermal pads, and screw pressure by only mentioning the above. It gives the wrong message. (Not the full message) being that you never mentioned the actual fact that coils will whine because of their actual quality which is the main reason. A reason that can't just be fixed with thermal pad placement, and pressure. Aside from that, a good video. Just better attention to detail would be appreciated on a subject like this one, with a lot of money involved on these high-end GPUs and people desperately looking for the right answer, and help on the matter.

[@UnhingedSystems]

@@Joerooe Appreciate the feedback! Looking forward to bringing more comprehensive content to everyone! Takes a while to find a groove with KZbin, always looking to improve! I actually want to take more time to script my content so that I can check all the boxes. 99% of my content has really been unplanned and improvised as a "just for fun" thing, but since the channel is continuing to grow I want to keep bringing myself to a higher standard. Thank you!

[@Joerooe]

@@UnhingedSystems For sure. Completely understandable. That's how you grow. I dig that, and for all of that, and with your open, educated understanding I'm now subscribed. Good luck on the channel 💪