Hi, I just purchased a Nepton 140XL for a new 4790k build with an ASRock Z97 Extreme6 and Fractal Design R4. This is my first liquid cooler and I have some questions. Here goes:
1. Does orientation or the radiator in the case matter?
2. How much thermal compound should be applied? I usually use about the size of one grain of rice on socket 1150 CPUs but the Nepton water block surface is much more rough than on the air-cooler contact surface I've used in the past. 3. Fans are current wired via the Y-cable to the 4-pin CPU1 header and the pump is on the 3-pin CPU2 header. Speed in BIOS is controlled together for both CPU1 and CPU2. Should the pump be run at full speed all the time or is it OK to control the fans & pump together? I'm concerned that the pump will not flow sufficiently at low fan speed. There is a 3-pin PWR-FAN header than I believe supplies 12V all the time that I could use but I don't think I would get a warning if the pump fails. Also, the pump emits a very high frequency noise when I have it connected to the PWR-FAN connector that I find annoying. Not sure if that is normal. 4. I have it pulling in air from the back of the case and will have a 140mm fan on top pulling air out. Does this sound like a good way to go or is there a more preferred option? 5. When I load my 4790k with Prime95 CPU core temp reaches 80oC on the hottest core. CPU is not overlocked. This is much higher than what is shown on the box. Does it indicate that there is a problem?
Thanks!
addendum: Regarding #3, most posts I found suggest that pump should be run at 100%, but it whines really bad when plugged into the PWR-FAN header... it's not bearable for more than a few minutes.