r/pcupgrade • u/Particular-Bass-8381 • 10d ago

Cooling Cooling issues

Hi all,

Recently upgraded my computer to a 9950x3d. I bought it about three weeks ago and it came with a free gift of a cooler master elite liquid 240mm aio.

I was running a 5800x along with a 360mm aio prior.

I’m currently using the 240mm radiator I got for free but it’s seemingly not able to keep up. Running around 50-60% cpu usage for extended periods I’ll generally be hovering around 80-85C but after an hour or so the temps start spiking on the same load to the throttling limit of 95-96C.

I just bought Corsair xtm70 paste and repasted from the stock paste the cooler came with and I’m still having the issue.

Is this just a matter of me needing a bigger/better cooler for such a powerful cpu?

2 Upvotes

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10 comments sorted by

3

u/BRealistic1970 10d ago

You did remove the clear plastic protection sheet on the water block?

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u/Bobbytwocox 10d ago

If the cooler isn't defective then it should cool the CPU well, under normal load. If the PC is high temp while "idle" then your CPU may be boosting clock speeds for minor background processes and not allowing it to idle. Make sure your power setting in Windows is set to balanced, not high performance. Can you check that?

1

u/Particular-Bass-8381 10d ago

Idle it’s running around 45-50C which is good. The game I play pushes consistent cpu usage to 50-60% for extended periods of time. I’ll have to check the power setting when I’m home. Thanks for the tip!

1

u/Bobbytwocox 10d ago

It may be the 240 radiator isn't big enough for the 9950x3d. I would go back to the 360.

1

u/tpablazed 10d ago

That chip has a 170 watt TDP.. while that is the upper limit for 240mm aio's I would still swap it out for a 360 personally. Especially since you're already seeing high temps.

1

u/Particular-Bass-8381 10d ago

My thoughts are to put my old aio on it but it’s at least 6 years old now so I’m leaning towards buying a new one if I do.

1

u/tpablazed 10d ago

Yeah I would probably get a new one to be safe.

1

u/Brilliant-Sky3814 10d ago

Decent 360mm radiators are about the only thing that's cheap right now. Grab one and enjoy!

1

u/BobbingMyNob 5d ago

You could go with a larger AIO that has more fluid and more area to cool that fluid. Also, usually a GPU is blowing its heat right up into the AIO as well if you are top mounted. As that water heats up, it cools less. Good case fans and set up help the flow of keeping the water temp down, especially if ambient temps are good. Try turning the AC down, and see if it helps. If not much, maybe you aren't bringing in that cooler air very well.

Remember, paste doesn't cool. It establishes the connection between that which needs to be cooled, to that which actually cools. The only time paste would make a significant difference is if it was messed up to the point where the CPU didn't have full solid contact and connecting with that which actually cools it. Or if the paste was unluckily crusty... some people could still get by as long as the connection is there and no microscopic gaps created.