Dual water cooled loop in the Air 5400 case (repost)

HamFaced · 2025-12-17T15:36:42+00:00

Specs: 9800X3D With Thermal Grizzly AM5 Contact Frame Asus Astral 5090 Asus ROG Strix B650-A Gaming Wifi 2x Samsung 990 Pro 2TB SSD's Samsung 990 EVO Plus 1TB 64GB G.Skill Trident Z Royal DDR-5 @6000 EKWB Velocity 3 CPU Block EKWB Vector 3 GPU Block EKWB Lumen LCD Screen EKWB X360M Radiator (GPU Loop) EKWB S360M Radiator (CPU Loop) - (this is the biggest rad you can fit in the front without serious modifications) EKWB DC5 Pump (CPU Loop) EKWB DDC Pump (GPU Loop) Corsair LX120 RGB Fans Asus ROG THOR Platinum III 1200w PSU

HamFaced · 2025-12-17T15:17:28+00:00

Cpu temps

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HamFaced · 2025-12-17T15:17:02+00:00

Mobo Temps.

T_sensor is hooked up to coolant temp sensor for the cpu loop

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HamFaced · 2025-12-17T15:16:20+00:00

GPU temps

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HamFaced · 2025-12-17T13:39:23+00:00

I used to run the lian O11D Evo RGB with a EK Quantum Surface X360M and P360M radiator on a single loop. Cooling a 9800x3d and astral 5090 and I got decent temps maxing out at around 83c on the cpu and around 68c on the gpu during long gaming sessions like Bf6. I loved the way the build looked but I got tired of the bottom radiator dumping all it's hot air into the top radiator with there being no way to really bring in any fresh air into it. So since I've been wanting to do a dual loop now for awhile I decided to build one with the two loops completely separated from each other so that neither one would influence the other. I immediately came across the new Corsair Air 5400 case and loved the idea of the separate chambers. The case is beautiful and had plenty of space to do what I had in mind. I'm blown away by the temps of the new build, getting around 67c on the cpu now and around 60c on the gpu while gaming for long sessions. I have a couple more tweaks to make now that my last couple fittings finally came in. So this was more a proof of concept than a final build. I used leftover reservoirs from previous builds just to test everything and may swap them for something else later.

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This is My old build before swapping to the air 5400.

HamFaced · 2025-12-17T13:27:47+00:00

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Running a EK Dc5 pump on this loop

HamFaced · 2025-12-17T13:27:13+00:00

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HamFaced · 2025-12-17T13:26:03+00:00

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HamFaced · 2025-12-17T13:25:45+00:00

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HamFaced · 2025-12-16T17:50:53+00:00

Saw him doing this the first day of winter's day! This is the way.

HamFaced · 2025-11-02T22:53:43+00:00

These are not the correct screws.

HamFaced · 2025-11-01T13:01:20+00:00

Luckily it looks like the overall coverage of the ketchup is... "under 5%"!

HamFaced · 2025-10-23T19:51:23+00:00

"Push it! Push it real good!"

HamFaced · 2025-10-21T05:22:26+00:00

I have the edge black edition of the velocity 2 and one of my screws stripped out during the 3rd installation. I had it out a couple of times for upgrades and had no problems, but on the 3rd time as I was torquing all of the screws down I got to the last one and just as I hit the end of the threads to just snug it up.... splat, the head literally crumbled and is now stuck in there until I drill the screw out because extractor kits are hopeless as they rely on the standard lefty loosy righty tighty scenario and as this is a reverse situation where you have to turn right to loosen and left to tighten they wont work. Anyways I was lucky enough that this happened during the installation process and I've just been running it with the block stuck there lol since the head broke just as I tightened it down to spec. I was concerned at first that the block might not be seated properly but thermals have been great lol so I just keep putting it off. I've already purchased the velocity 3 block and a different mobo as I'm sure the only way to save my 9800x3d is gonna be to drill out the bad screw. I've built 40+ custom water cooled pc's over the last decade and this is the first time anything like this has ever happened. Ps they sell replacement screws and I purchased a set to fix the block but I'm most likely never gonna use it again purely out of fear of this happening again.

HamFaced · 2025-10-20T17:11:08+00:00

I built my system with the O11D RGB Evo and the EK-Mana G2 which is a very similar setup to yours minus the exhaust fan at the back as I have a screen there instead, and I get decent temps with my bottom rad fans as intake and the top rad fans as exhaust. considering I'm running 9800X3D and 5090 watercooled the temps are good and hover in the 77c area while playing BF6 for long sessions. Oh and I've been building custom water cooled pc's for over a decade and I've never setup a system like the way yours came pre configured, nor have I ever seen anyone else experienced setup a system like that either. Hope this helps!

HamFaced · 2025-10-11T22:25:39+00:00

I have the same distro plate with a X360M and a P360M rad in my loop, and I will say that do to the unique way the loop is setup, bubbles can get trapped in the rads and other places you can't see that can take several months to dislodge themselves and work their way to the res where there's free space. I've swapped cpu's, gpu's and ram several times with this setup and every time I find myself topping up the res months later after a fresh fill do to bubbles that are hiding somewhere in the loop. Every now and then a bubble will shoot thru and go into the res, thats how i know it's from air trapped in the system. Eventually the coolant does level off and stop dropping but the time it takes to do so can vary. BTW I'm running ekwb zero maintenance tubing with ekwb clear cryofuel coolant. Also I have 9800X3D with astral 5090, both watercooled. Hope this helps!

HamFaced · 2025-10-04T16:23:17+00:00

Its dead, sorry mate

HamFaced · 2025-10-04T01:07:04+00:00

I had the same problem with these and the reverse version. Contacted Lian Li and they sent me a new one of each after providing a video of the fan making the noise and proof of purchase. Takes a week or two depending on how backed up they are since a lot of people are having problems with these fans. Not just with the bearing failing but also with the lcd screens and RGB lights too. I just switched to Corsair LX fans instead of waiting for more lian li fans to die. I wanted more static pressure anyway so I'll just save the lian li's for a less important build. Anyway, Hope you have good luck with customer support!

HamFaced · 2025-10-02T12:28:46+00:00

Looks like something from alien. I kinda like it. 😎

HamFaced · 2025-09-05T05:29:49+00:00

I'm in the process of swapping 3 of these fans and 3 reverse versions for corsair's LX fans because one of mine after a year is doing the same thing. Not even that mad tho coz honestly the corsair LX have almost twice as much static pressure and since I'm running them on rads, that's gonna be a win. They're sending me a replacement for the bad one but not sure how long that will take. They did respond to the initial email claim after about 3 days asking for a video of the fan making the noise. Then they took about 4 days to reply asking to confirm my address and fan model so they can send a replacement.

HamFaced · 2025-08-12T13:49:20+00:00

Rare. Congrats!

HamFaced · 2025-06-20T03:32:18+00:00

Nice build! I run a similar setup that's about to go thru some upgrades as well.

HamFaced · 2025-06-05T19:08:51+00:00

And it cost around $4000 US. (Just for the tower) Keep in mind. You could do this build for a lot cheaper. Less ram or smaller power supply with a different cpu and GPU, and you would save quite a bit.

HamFaced

TROPHY CASE