Gaming PC running hot?

[LeadFarmer]

My son says his gaming PC sometimes seems to run a bit hot when left on for a while, even if not gaming. He says it gets to around 77 degrees. Is this high, and if so are there any components he could upgrade?

His specs are as follows..

Case - KoLink Horizon RGB
Motherboard - Asus Prime B450 PLUS
CPU - AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.9GHz Six Core
Graphics Card - Asus RX VEGA 56 ROG Strix OC 8GB
RAM - Corsair 16GB Vengeance 3000Mhz DDR4

[devnull]

Obvious question first. Is it clean? Amazing how many people have a Dysons worth of crud in it and wonder why it runs hot.

[stevesingo]

More info required:

1. 77degC CPU temp or GPU Temp
2. What CPU cooler is fitted?
3. What are the fan curves for CPU/GPU?
4. Is the case filters full of dust?

[LeadFarmer]

I shall find those answers out and get back, thanks.

[Steven_RW]

All good questions so far.

It might also be interesting to check task manager and see if the CPU is actually working hard on a task when you think it is idle this can often be the case if the photo app is indexing pics and creating thumbnails and so on for videos for one example.

Over a long time the heatsinks that cool the processor can pick up so much dust that they no longer allow air to pass through the cooling fins and they get very hot. It was a long time back since then but I had an arctic freezer 7 pro cooler on my old pc. It started acting funny and when I opened it up the heatsink fins were blocked with so much dust there was no way any air was passing through them. One hoover later and we were back in action. Same issue can happy with the fine mesh dust filters that usually cover air inlets on the pc case. They clog entirely up if you leave them long enough. Quick hoover can have you quickly fixed up.

[LeadFarmer]

It has dawned on me that, knowing my son as I do, he's probably making the whole thing up just so he can get a nice new case for his PC to match the recent change to his bedroom colour scheme!!!!

He's gone from a black desk & keyboard to a white desk and keyboard, and a white Xbox Series S. So I wonder if he now wants a white PC case to match, but is pulling my leg about overheating to make me get my wallet out?

[sparkyhx]

I agree with other posts, check filters/fins and Task Manager to see if anything is hogging resource.

[mmm-five]

Whether that temp is the GPU or CPU, then I'd not be overly worried until it gets over 80ºC...as the limits are around 85ºC for both...however short spikes in temp won't be a problem.

If the temps are consistently high, then check the resource monitor to see what's using CPU/GPU cycles - even downloading a game through one of the storefronts tends to make the CPU use a couple of cores.

Everything can be upgraded:

• latest Zen 3 CPUs will probably still run on that MB - might need a bios update
• Vega 56 is probably equal to an RTX2060 - so anything up from that would be an upgrade (2060Super/Ti, 2070, 2080, 3060, 3070, etc.)
• if you're going to add new past to the cooler, you might consider an AIO liquid cooler with a rad & fans (I like the Corsair Capellix range)

...but this year has not been a good year to find parts on a budget...so try the simple/cheapest things first...if it's a couple of years old, has it ever been cleaned (fans, filters, airways)? Has the cooler every been removed/repasted? Has the OS ever been rebuilt?

Edited by mmm-five on Friday 22 October 12:08

[mmm-five]

Steven_RW said:

Quick hoover can have you quickly fixed up.

But not with hoover though, surely a can of compressed air (not really air) or high-pressure air tool for PCs - unless you want to risk damaging something.

[mmm-five]

LeadFarmer said:

It has dawned on me that, knowing my son as I do, he's probably making the whole thing up just so he can get a nice new case for his PC to match the recent change to his bedroom colour scheme!!!!

He's gone from a black desk & keyboard to a white desk and keyboard, and a white Xbox Series S. So I wonder if he now wants a white PC case to match, but is pulling my leg about overheating to make me get my wallet out?

A new case will be a cheap-ish change (£60-£120) - but someone will have to swap everything over and wire everything back up.

[xeny]

May also be worth checking if he's turned all the power management off it it is getting that hot at idle - your electricity bill will thank you.

[Griffith4ever]

Quick look at my PC (i7 with 2060 RTX) at idle:

CPU 35c
Case 25c-28c

77c he must be talking about processor temp. 75-80c for his processor is typical and nothing to be alarmed by. However, sounds like he has stuff running in teh background if it's achieving those temps when not gaming.

https://www.bestcpus.com/ryzen-5-2600-max-temp/

[Brainpox]

Lots of glass on that case means not much air is going to get in. The three fans at the front in particular are wasted, looks like they can’t draw air in from outside? You may want to look at adding additional fans to encourage better air flow (thinking about where air is drawn in and where it’s exhausted) but a different case with a mesh front panel would help more.

[thatsprettyshady]

xeny said:

May also be worth checking if he's turned all the power management off it it is getting that hot at idle - your electricity bill will thank you.

This.

If “high performance” has been selected for the GPU or CPU then it’ll be cooking all of the time

[Griffith4ever]

Brainpox said:

Lots of glass on that case means not much air is going to get in. The three fans at the front in particular are wasted, looks like they can’t draw air in from outside? You may want to look at adding additional fans to encourage better air flow (thinking about where air is drawn in and where it’s exhausted) but a different case with a mesh front panel would help more.

For reference. I run

120cm front case fan, 120cm side case fan (blowing on CPU/GPU) both near silent, and the PSU fan is the only exhaust. Runs lovely and cool and quiet (almost silent). I unplugged the case-top 120cm fan as it's simply not needed.

[Steven_RW]

mmm-five said:

Steven_RW said:

Quick hoover can have you quickly fixed up.

But not with hoover though, surely a can of compressed air (not really air) or high-pressure air tool for PCs - unless you want to risk damaging something.

I hoover the dust filters on my 4 pcs all the time. If the cpu heatsink was clogged full I would hoover it too, taking some care but I think your suggestion appears more sensible and safer and matches the general concencus :-)

[LeadFarmer]

mmm-five said:

A new case will be a cheap-ish change (£60-£120) - but someone will have to swap everything over and wire everything back up.

He's now got a new case and yesterday he had a go at swapping everything over himself, everything went well apart from he not getting any output from the graphics card. There is power to the graphics card and it lights up, but nothing coming through to the monitor. Not sure if he has done something wrong? I started a separate thread on it, but thought id mention it here too.

[mmm-five]

LeadFarmer said:

He's now got a new case and yesterday he had a go at swapping everything over himself, everything went well apart from he not getting any output from the graphics card. There is power to the graphics card and it lights up, but nothing coming through to the monitor. Not sure if he has done something wrong? I started a separate thread on it, but thought id mention it here too.

Couple of things to check (assuming he's not damaged anything during the move):

1. Ensure sure the GPU is seated fully and all power cables to it are fully pressed home
2. Ensure the cable is plugged into the correct port (i.e. the GPU outputs, not the motherboard outputs)
3. Ensure the monitor input signal is set to the same as the output he's trying to use (some monitors will go back to default settings if they don't initially detect a signal, so try cycling through the input options)