I'm a computer enjoyer but I don't know a fucking thing about cooling. - Please help me before Intel burns my house down.

[Balder Knight]

Preface: I've been building my own computer(s) since high school, but cooling is pretty much the only thing I don't really get. I also seem to mainly get the Intel CPUs that can fry an egg at idle. I know that none of my connections or anything is fucked up, I applied (and re-applied) the thermal paste correctly, and my AIO is nice and tight to there aren't any mechanical issues that I am aware of that could be causing so much heat. I've got dust filters on my case, and I clean them out I'd say about once every few months (and there usually isn't that much dust on them) so I don't think that's the issue either.

My actual question: What do I need to change at a software/config level to have a more comfortable temperature whilst gaming? Currently, just by playing Stellaris (which I didn't think was that demanding) I get around 80-88 degrees C just by having the game open paused. Even right now typing this with just my normal background processes open I'm getting ~66C. I understand that that temperature isn't the worst it could be, but it still kind of freaks me out and I don't want to have to buy a new CPU just because I'm retarded and don't know how to configure this shit.

Current CPU: i9-13900KF
Current MB: Gigabyte Z790 UD AC

If you have any advice on how to fix this issue, please give it to me. I'm probably needlessly stressing about this but still, I'm worried.

Edit: I should also probably note that I do have 3 front intake fans, and one back exhaust fan. The AIO is also exhausting heat (3 fans as well).

 

[Vecr]

It's good you appear to have reasonable case airflow and positive case pressure, as especially with an AIO sometimes the motherboard components don't get cooled enough. I'd personally check the fan speeds on the radiator and the pump speed, as if the pump's not going fast enough all the case airflow in the world won't help you. Also, how good is the static pressure on your radiator fans?

 

[Balder Knight]

It's good you appear to have reasonable case airflow and positive case pressure, as especially with an AIO sometimes the motherboard components don't get cooled enough. I'd personally check the fan speeds on the radiator and the pump speed, as if the pump's not going fast enough all the case airflow in the world won't help you. Also, how good is the static pressure on your radiator fans?

I have the pump set to the maximum at all times, but with static pressure: I have no idea what that even means.

 

[Vecr]

I have the pump set to the maximum at all times, but with static pressure: I have no idea what that even means.

Essentially, how good are the fans attached to the radiator at pushing air through the resistance generated by the fins? Generic case fans might appear visually to work (spinning at the right speed, etc) but the airflow can be abysmal.

 

[TETRABAX]

I have the pump set to the maximum at all times, but with static pressure: I have no idea what that even means.

SP fans are better at pushing air through a filter (like a radiator), air flow fans are meant to move as much air freely as possible. Did you remove the plastic on the bottom of the AIO water block?

 

[Yandex Captcha Solver]

AIOs will shitout from time to time. I've had the same symptoms before, high temps all around the board, but still somewhat usable, until you tried to do something. No functional system should be hitting 64C at idle. It sounds like a bad AIO pump and you will need to replace the unit.

 

[DumbDude43]

how about your GPU situation? from my experience GPU heat is a much bigger concern than CPU heat when playing games

 

[Balder Knight]

Essentially, how good are the fans attached to the radiator at pushing air through the resistance generated by the fins? Generic case fans might appear visually to work (spinning at the right speed, etc) but the airflow can be abysmal.

I can feel airflow coming out the top of my case, so I'd say it's working, but it never pushes ALOT of air out at once I guess.

SP fans are better at pushing air through a filter (like a radiator), air flow fans are meant to move as much air freely as possible. Did you remove the plastic on the bottom of the AIO water block?

Yes, I peeled the plastic off.

how about your GPU situation? from my experience GPU heat is a much bigger concern than CPU heat when playing games

Honestly GPU temps have never really been an issue for me. Barely gets over 80 during games but I've heard that's pretty normal for them to operate at that level.

 

[Just Some Other Guy]

Model of AIO matters.

Also you bought a 13000KF. They took a 13000K, and then pushed it even further outside of anything resembling efficiency for negligible performance gains.

Only people I know who run them have very good custom loops.

 

[MrTroll]

This is what you get for buying a Kiwi Farms edition of a computer part.

 

[Xibakan]

Intel 13th/14th gen i9 CPUs are notoriously hot under load (100c) but should be 30c-40c idle. I'd suspect an issue with the cooler and would check to see if the thermal paste spread you applied was good (even coat and it should be on both the CPU and cooler after mounting).

Also, check the motherboard version because there have been some BIOS updates regarding power management for 13/14th gen i9s. For your board it's version F10.
If you know what you're doing you can manually set a power limit in BIOS for short and long duration starting with something like 225w and going up depending on how your PC can handle it. Power limiting it to a small amount doesn't really affect gaming performance but can reduce temperatures.

 

[Balder Knight]

Okay, I've set up a -0.075 voltage offset under my "vcore" (or something) setting and it seems to have fixed my heating issue. I would not have thought voltage makes such a large difference with that small of a change. That's incredible. Thank you guys for the help. That was an extremely fast response lol. Kiwi-autists will now be my main go to for tech questions now.

 

[TheDarknessGrows]

I should also probably note that I do have 3 front intake fans, and one back exhaust fan. The AIO is also exhausting heat (3 fans as well).

Three fans in, one fan out and three fans strapped to the radiator that also push air out.

Am I getting that right?

• What are the diameters of each fan?
• Please tell us more about the placement of your all-in-one cooler with the three fans. Pictures or drawings would be nice. Explain where that cooler gets its air and where it exhausts its air.
• Finally, what is the temperature of the air inside of your case when running the system at a load.

 

[Johnny Apple Sneed]

Show me your fan holes.

 

[Irregardless]

Honestly, it sounds like you know and have tried enough to where contacting the CPU manufacturer would probably be the best bet. Like unless you have a fuck ton of shit running eating up your memory I don't see a reason it should be happening

 

[Vecr]

Honestly, it sounds like you know and have tried enough to where contacting the CPU manufacturer would probably be the best bet. Like unless you have a fuck ton of shit running eating up your memory I don't see a reason it should be happening

There's no point, what's Intel going to do? Somewhat unrelated, but what thermal paste are you running? A reasonable quantity of something high quality like Arctic MX-whatever, or too much of some off-brand paste that came with something years ago?

 

[AgendaPoster]

The top of the line Intel chips like 13900K and 14900K draw a lot of power and are often overvolted by the motherboard to ensure stability (as if that worked out well). It's good you undervolted it, now you should stress test it to make sure it's stable, but who are we kidding, you cannot really run a 24hrs prime95 AVX2 load on the 13900K unless you wanna risk something just blowing up or you live in Alaska and have dry ice cooling handy.
You could also set a conservative power cap, i.e. the power limits.
A great AIO or just good water cooling (which is costly but you bought a 13900k) are essential. You could change to some proper thermal paste like Kryonaut and make sure everything is properly fitted. And add some quality fans for the case, maybe even AIO, Noctua should have new ones out, again at a high price, but you went for the 13900k, so...

 

[SCV]

I see you've already mitigated the issue with a voltage offset but you seem new to this so you should understand that that can make your computer unstable. You should run some stress tests (prime95, OCCT) to make sure it's stable. -0.075 is a fairly sizable offset. I should also mention that stellaris is very cpu intensive game. GN uses it in their cpu benchmarks so don't be surprised to see a lot of heat when playing stellaris.

However even at full voltage your cpu should not be over 60C idle which IMO means there's an underlying issue. I would check and make sure your AIO pump is actually working properly. Specifically how it's powered. If it's connected to a chassis fan header on the motherboard or something it could well be running under speed because the motherboard is asking for chassis speed of 40% or whatever. You should confirm in your UEFI/BIOS that the pump header is set to full power all the time.

Also this isn't a big deal but IMO negative pressure setup kind of... suck. You might try reversing the fans on your AIO so that you have positive pressure and so that the AIO is accessing fresh air.

 

[Wodanaz]

1) Ensure your operating system is not infected with a virus that's using excess resources through either: antivirus scan/monitoring with wireshark or, a complete reinstall
2) Ensure your motherboard bios is up to date, be careful when updating this
3) Ensure your case's design allows for sufficient airflow/buy a different case
4) Utilize PWM controls to increase fan speed in tandem with CPU temperature/buy PWM fans, recommended: Arctic P12/P14 PWM for budget, Noctua for premium
5) Ensure fan curves set in the bios are sufficient for proper cooling
6) Undervolt your CPU to massively reduce temps without losing performance (you are already doing this as suggested, recommend looking into it more, a 13900kf uses way more voltage than necessary unless you are rendering 4k, and you need to be careful when undervolting. This video covers GPU but the idea is the same)

7) Buy a cooler that isn't dogshit. The cheapest good AIO:

Or just throw money at a Noctua air cooler to eliminate mechanical considerations of liquid cooling. There is really no way to fuck up a piece of metal and some fans.
NH-D15 for overclocking, NH-U12A for everything else, and you will never have to think about it again.

 

[TheDarknessGrows]

Three fans in, one fan out and three fans strapped to the radiator that also push air out.

Am I getting that right?

• What are the diameters of each fan?
• Please tell us more about the placement of your all-in-one cooler with the three fans. Pictures or drawings would be nice. Explain where that cooler gets its air and where it exhausts its air.
• Finally, what is the temperature of the air inside of your case when running the system at a load.

@Balder Knight I realize that I never actually answered your question before asking you several questions of my own:

My actual question: What do I need to change at a software/config level to have a more comfortable temperature whilst gaming?

The only thing I have ever done on the software side to improve temperatures (assuming we aren't slashing visual settings at the knees) is to ensure you have your FPS capped. Switching FPS from an unlimited setting to a capped setting will save you two to four degrees most of the time. Not all software has this option and your mileage may vary; any savings are going to be small.

I think you are either looking at bad hardware or a airflow issue. Returning hardware is a hassle and if it were me, I'd like to rule out some other design flaw at the system level before I start pulling cards out and reapplying thermal paste; which I see you already did, so at least it is done and nothing got broken.

Based on your description, I have my own suspicions. But I would like more info. There are still simpler variables to consider before we start changing voltages and clock speeds. If the wrong air is moving the wrong way, you can shut your entire system down.

Tell us more about the all-in-one configuration. You said it is also exhausting air out of the case via three fans of undefined size while a single additional fan of undefined size acts as a dedicated exhaust. There are also three dedicated intake fans of undefined size. That was a red flag to me.

I do have 3 front intake fans, and one back exhaust fan. The AIO is also exhausting heat (3 fans as well).

How warm is the internal ambient air before it reaches the all-in-one's radiator setup? I want to know exactly how this is configured inside your case relative to the other components.