How to fix CPU heat soak with Valkyrie V360 MERLIN?
This AIO was basically on vacation while my CPU was in a sauna—the irony was almost funny if it weren't so frustrating. HWInfo revealed the Valkyrie V360 MERLIN pump was idling at 2000 RPM in default mode, meaning heat wasn't moving from the block to the radiator fast enough, and core temps spiked to 98℃. I tried adding more case fans to the top, but the coolant temp stayed high; just throwing more fans at a bad pump strategy is a waste of time. I switched the pump to 'Full Speed' mode and dropped the radiator fan trigger threshold to 50℃. The core temps immediately dropped to 72-78℃, and those annoying heat-induced frame drops vanished. I did notice a slight resonance hum at full speed, so I dialed it back to 90% to keep things quiet. Now the coolant is 35-40℃ and cores are 75-81℃. I exported the logs to confirm the stability, with fans steady at 1400-1600 RPM.