Keeping It Cooler

[DroidUreLookin4]

Hello Loyal Linusites,

 

I'm having an issue where my PC is getting very warm while gaming, even when I have everything set to low settings.

 

I find it will get to around 80c when a game loads (recent titles such as Stray, The Quarry, Halo Infinite for example), and will gradually climb from there. 

 

I have cleaned dust from the system, and have it sitting on my desk. I have a Lian Li 011D with a Kraken Z63 AIO. The AIO is at the top of the case, and have another three Lian Li A120s at the back, and another three at the base. Top and Back fans are set as exhaust, with three fans under the GPU at the base set to intake.

 

I'm curious if it's just the nature of the games, my hardware and the location of the system, or if there is some other things I could do to cool the system down better.

 

Full Specs of the system are:

• CPU
  Intel i9 11900k 3.5GHz
• Motherboard
  ASUS ROG STRIX Z590-E Gaming Wifi
• RAM
  G.Skill Trident Z 64GB DDR4 3200MHz
• GPU
  MSI GAMING X TRIO RTX 2080 Ti
• Case
  Lian Li 011D
• Storage
  3x M.2 NVME Storage Drives
• Display(s)
  2x ASUS ROG PG279Q 27
• Cooling
  NZXT Kraken Z73. 9x Lian Li AL120 Fans
• Operating System
  Windows 11 Pro

 

Thanks for any and all advice.

[RadiatingLight]

11900K runs hot, so getting to 80c isn't a huge surprise. If it reaches above ~90C, then you might want to start really looking into it. 80c is normal (especially if your motherboard has MCE enabled) -- However, there might be some low-hanging fruit to improve temps.

You could try re-mounting the cooler and replacing the thermal paste (especially if your PC was prebuilt or you used generic TIM, this might improve temps by a few degrees).

You could also just increase fan RPM or pump speed.

[DoctorNick]

33 minutes ago, DroidUreLookin4 said:

Hello Loyal Linusites,

 

I'm having an issue where my PC is getting very warm while gaming, even when I have everything set to low settings.

 

I find it will get to around 80c when a game loads (recent titles such as Stray, The Quarry, Halo Infinite for example), and will gradually climb from there. 

 

I have cleaned dust from the system, and have it sitting on my desk. I have a Lian Li 011D with a Kraken Z63 AIO. The AIO is at the top of the case, and have another three Lian Li A120s at the back, and another three at the base. Top and Back fans are set as exhaust, with three fans under the GPU at the base set to intake.

 

I'm curious if it's just the nature of the games, my hardware and the location of the system, or if there is some other things I could do to cool the system down better.

 

Full Specs of the system are:

• CPU
  Intel i9 11900k 3.5GHz
• Motherboard
  ASUS ROG STRIX Z590-E Gaming Wifi
• RAM
  G.Skill Trident Z 64GB DDR4 3200MHz
• GPU
  MSI GAMING X TRIO RTX 2080 Ti
• Case
  Lian Li 011D
• Storage
  3x M.2 NVME Storage Drives
• Display(s)
  2x ASUS ROG PG279Q 27
• Cooling
  NZXT Kraken Z73. 9x Lian Li AL120 Fans
• Operating System
  Windows 11 Pro

 

Thanks for any and all advice.

For that cooler it seems normal. You could upgrade to something like an Arctic Liquid Freezer II 360/420, 280 might even be a little better than what you have now.

[SamClan]

1. Check if other people with similar hardware have the same temps. There might be some reviews of your cooler with that CPU. 

 

2. You might wanna revisit the location of your cooler or the fan configuration intake outtake. Right now it uses hot air to cool your CPU down. 

[DroidUreLookin4]

Thank you all for the responses and insights.

 

Quote

11900K runs hot, so getting to 80c isn't a huge surprise. If it reaches above ~90C, then you might want to start really looking into it. 80c is normal (especially if your motherboard has MCE enabled) -- However, there might be some low-hanging fruit to improve temps.

You could try re-mounting the cooler and replacing the thermal paste (especially if your PC was prebuilt or you used generic TIM, this might improve temps by a few degrees).

You could also just increase fan RPM or pump speed.

Yeah that makes sense. I've boosted the pump a bit to try and help. Main issue is that with all fans boosted the systems becomes incredibly loud, so will have to monitor and see how that goes.

 

Quote

2. You might wanna revisit the location of your cooler or the fan configuration intake outtake. Right now it uses hot air to cool your CPU down. 

Hmm true. I watched a number of reviews on YouTube which used the same configuration, I mainly adopted the 'hot air rises' viewpoint. I could transfer the back fans to intake perhaps, or should I intake from the top? Or do you think moving the radiator to the back and making it an intake, with exhaust fans at the top would make a difference?