Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 Hitting 93°C – Bad Mount or Airflow?

[brandt333]

I recently built my first PC. I’ve got the H5 Flow (2024) case, a Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120, only two preinstalled case fans (one front, one back), and a 5070 Ti.

 

I ran Cinebench a few times to test CPU temps. With the side panel on, I hit 85°C running at full TDP for about 20 minutes. With the panel off, it only drops to around 84°C. That kind of confirms my suspicion that airflow in the case might be the issue.

 

I’m coming from a 14" gaming laptop with a 3060, so I’m used to 99°C temps and jet engine noise. Ideally, I’d like to keep this system under 80°C, maxing out at 85°C under full load (which from what I’ve seen is about the upper limit for safe sustained temps). I know switching to an AIO would probably fix this, but for a few reasons I’d prefer to stick with air cooling and I don’t mind a little extra noise.

Besides adding a couple more fans to the front and top, is there anything else I should try or keep in mind?

 

In some additional testing with Cinebench and FurMark simultaneously, the GPU sits comfortably at ~70°C, which I’m totally fine with. But the CPU shoots up to ~93°C, which is definitely hotter than I want. Could that be from a bad cooler install on my end, or is that just expected with this current fan setup?

[porina]

CPU?

 

Does your 5070 Ti have a blow through design? I think they're common now. If so, the heat from that will be going to the intake of the CPU cooler so that wont help either.

[Hinjima]

10 minutes ago, brandt333 said:

I recently built my first PC. I’ve got the H5 Flow (2024) case, a Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120, only two preinstalled case fans (one front, one back), and a 5070 Ti.

 

I ran Cinebench a few times to test CPU temps. With the side panel on, I hit 85°C running at full TDP for about 20 minutes. With the panel off, it only drops to around 84°C. That kind of confirms my suspicion that airflow in the case might be the issue.

 

I’m coming from a 14" gaming laptop with a 3060, so I’m used to 99°C temps and jet engine noise. Ideally, I’d like to keep this system under 80°C, maxing out at 85°C under full load (which from what I’ve seen is about the upper limit for safe sustained temps). I know switching to an AIO would probably fix this, but for a few reasons I’d prefer to stick with air cooling and I don’t mind a little extra noise.

Besides adding a couple more fans to the front and top, is there anything else I should try or keep in mind?

 

In some additional testing with Cinebench and FurMark simultaneously, the GPU sits comfortably at ~70°C, which I’m totally fine with. But the CPU shoots up to ~93°C, which is definitely hotter than I want. Could that be from a bad cooler install on my end, or is that just expected with this current fan setup?

What CPU do you have? If its an AM5 CPU then your temperatures are expected.

[RONOTHAN##]

You forgot the most important piece of information: what CPU are you running? For some chips, this is considered quite good, and for others it's quite bad. 

 

Also, for a lot of chips nowadays the actual temperature is irrelevant because of how the boost algorithm works, so counterintuitively to measure cooling performance you actually need to measure straight CPU performance. 

[thrasher_565]

not big of nzxt but the case has really good air flow. 1c drop with the side off is really good means its basically an open air case.

heat can still build up in it if there not much air flow not saying thats the problem but i no the case is not the problem.

the cooler is also the best for the price so maybe not mounted right or plastic was left on the bottom of it.

 

[brandt333]

Don't know how I managed to forget my CPU  I have a Ryzen 9 9950X so certainly a hotter running chip.

More often then not It won't be under full load but I do run some basic ML operations which can stress the entire system.

 

[Hinjima]

8 minutes ago, brandt333 said:

Don't know how I managed to forget my CPU  I have a Ryzen 9 9950X so certainly a hotter running chip.

More often then not It won't be under full load but I do run some basic ML operations which can stress the entire system.

 

Check out these two videos to learn how the Ryzen 7000 and 9000 boost.

They actually have a set point at 95c so they won't limit clocks or power until they reach it and will happily sit at 95c.

 

Timed it here where he talks about it, can skip to 24:16 for a recap after the temperature talk.

 

This is a great video by JayzTwoCents explaining the temperatures even further and how they work.

Dont be alarmed by the fire in the thumbnail

 

These CPU's boost and behave completely different to any other CPU's on the market.

They can't be compared.

Hope they help explain a bit further and why you are seeing the temperatures you are.

Please watch the videos.

[podkall]

47 minutes ago, brandt333 said:

Don't know how I managed to forget my CPU  I have a Ryzen 9 9950X so certainly a hotter running chip.

More often then not It won't be under full load but I do run some basic ML operations which can stress the entire system.

 

"PBO on" or some tweaks in BIOS done?

[podkall]

Does the CPU hit 90°C+ when doing other stuff like gaming or ML or rendering or other stuff, or just when you load 2 very demanding "stress test" programs?

[Blue4130]

2 hours ago, brandt333 said:

 

With the side panel on, I hit 85°C running at full TDP for about 20 minutes. With the panel off, it only drops to around 84°C. That kind of confirms my suspicion that airflow in the case might be the issue.

This is backwards. If the temperature DOESN'T drop with the sidepanel removed, then it isn't an airflow issue.

[freeagent]

I get better temps with my side panel on, fans at max of course.