For future reference.
My PC is running an i7-12700k processor (stock, not OC!) and I wanted to try liquid cooling for it. It took a little reading to check the compatibility and reliability on Linux but it looked good so I went for it.
Hardware:
Corsair H115i pro XT liquid cooler, not as flash as the H115i Elite Capellix but from research it seems to be the quieter cooler under load and has more mature Liquidctl support. I don’t care about the LED extras as the case isn’t situated where I’d see all that anyway.
After some testing the temperatures are great, even during a 2 hour+ gaming session I haven’t seen the processor pass 45°C and generally it’s sitting around 25°C. While writing this and listening to some music I’m seeing 20-25°C on the cores and a liquid temperature of 28.7°C with Liquidctl status.
I’d heard the 12700k was a hot chip and was worried the H115i wouldn’t be up the job, almost opting for the H150i model. So far it seems like that would be massive overkill though I don’t overclock so maybe that would change things.
The only time the cooler noise has been noticeable was when I first tried initialising the device with Liquidctl which causes the fans to fire up to 100% until you tell them to slow down, they’re fairly loud at that point and you’d notice the noise in a quiet room.
Under general use and gaming I can hear the GPU fan and case fans over the cooler, none of which are very loud and get drowned out by simple keyboard usage.
Software:
I’m using the Liquidctl software to interface with the cooler, generally it’s controlled with the iCUE software on Windows but that’s flaky at best on Linux and basically a no-go.
After a couple of days Liquidctl is doing great work, no noticeable issues at all.
It’s super easy to configure via the command line, letting me control the pump/both fans/LED.
The main github page (with lots of great documentation and installation methods) is: https://github.com/liquidctl/liquidctl
I installed mine via. pamac on Manjaro, it worked fine.
Though I haven’t tried it there’s a GUI front-end for Liquidctl called Coolero: https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.coolero.Coolero
Configuration:
It’s super easy to configure via the command line, letting me control the pump/both fans/LED. The github page has detailed info on the commands and flags you can use depending on your model of cooler (Liquidctl supports a lot more devices than just mine).
I have my PC set to start Liquidctl via. systemd using the file located at /etc/systemd/system/liquidcfg.service.
The file is easy to configure using the same commands you’d use to make changes with the command line, below is the configuration I’m using at the moment with the fan curve that works for me.
(By default the pump is set to the balanced profile but could be tweaked and added to this file to force another profile if needed.)
[Unit]
Description=AIO startup service
[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=liquidctl initialize all
ExecStart=liquidctl set fan speed 20 20 30 30 40 50 50 60 60 75 70 100
ExecStart=liquidctl set led color fixed 00ff00
[Install]
WantedBy=default.targetAfter adding the configuration I needed to let systemd in on the new changes with:
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start liquidcfg
sudo systemctl enable liquidcfg
Update: 19/07/2022
Something updated today and broke the auto startup, prior to X loading I receive the message:
Failed to start AIO startup service.
Upon checking liquidctl and any AIO errors in journalctl, it’s related to the kernel now picking up the RGB options of my motherboard which causes liquidctl to now see multiple devices instead of just my cooler.
To fix the above startup config I need to specify the device with “–match Corsair” as shown below!.
[Unit]
Description=AIO startup service
[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=liquidctl initialize all
ExecStart=liquidctl --match Corsair set fan speed 20 20 30 30 40 50 50 60 60 75 70 100
ExecStart=liquidctl --match Corsair set led color fixed 00ff00
[Install]
WantedBy=default.targetAlso the liquidcfg.service daemon was having issues starting at reboot and required me to run reload with:
systemctl daemon-reload
After making the above changes startup is working as intended.