I just bought my 2nd desktop computer ever, and the first I've put together myself. The goal is for the system to run as quiet as possible.
Specs are 3900X / Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2x16) 3200 MHz / Samsung 970 Pro Evo 1 TB / B450-F Gaming Asus Rog Strix. CPU cooler is Noctua NH-D15, case is Meshify C and case fans are 2x NF-A14 PWM as front intake and 1x NF-A12x25 PWM as exhaust.
At first, I just ran everything stock. Fans kept ramping up and down constantly, not to a super-high speed, but they were constantly jumping up and down between like 20 and 60% even when not doing much. Downloaded HWMonitor, and could see that CPU temperature was between about 43 and 55 degrees. Temperatures also jump up and down during seconds in a range of up to 10 degrees, which I didn't know CPUs were supposed to do. I thought they just slowly went up and down in smaller increments. Voltages on the cores were constantly at about 1.5 V.
Researched a bit, and discovered that those temps are considered a bit high for not doing much/basically idling - in general. I also discovered that people have the same issue with stock 3900X, both the slightly high idle temperatures, which was a relief so I could confirm that it wasn't an issue with my doing thermal paste wrong. I think I got it right, should be spread across the entire CPU, but don't feel 100% confident since I checked and smooched about 10 times lol. But it seemed even in the end, hope it hasn't dried out or ended up uneven or anything while I did that?
I also discovered that it's normal for the temperature to fluctuate really quickly like that? Something to do with really quick heating of the CPU. What about cooling, why does it get cool so quick again?
People were suggesting lowering voltage on CPU, but I noticed this seemed a bit too advanced for me. I started by just adjusting the fan curves so the CPU ran hotter before fans kicked in, which did help quietness, but now the CPU were averaging closer to 50, which I think is a bit high?
So I thought I'd try "EZ tuning" in BIOS, which to me seemed safer than trying manual settings when I'm a newbie. I set it to "daily computing" (not "gaming") and "tower cooler". Now the temps are looking better, with idling around 40%. If something happens in the background, it does still ramp up to 48, but the average is down by about 5 degrees. Voltages at idle are now around 1.1 V. I ran the fan calibration, which I think measures lowest effective RPM? That lowered the lowest speed quite a bit, since I guess the Noctua fans are good, and I mimicked the "quiet" fan preset, but adapted to the new lowest RPM.
Problem is, I still get the occasional fan ramps when doing very little at the computer, and I was wondering if there's more that can be done about that? It seems a standard practice is to kick in the fans quite a bit already at 45 C, but that happens frequently, so I constantly get a little fan ramp.
What should I do about that? Should I run the CPU hotter with the fans kicking in later, or is there any tuning steps a newbie can take that makes the CPU not wanna go to 48 for the slightest little background task activity? I want to keep this safe, but I'd very much want no ramping unless I'm actually using the CPUs on average more than like 20%. As it is now, it happens constantly even at just a few percent.
EDIT: Forgot to mention I've added a "fan smoothing" of 15 seconds in BIOS, but I don't know if that is really doing anything?
I've also run my computer for about 50 hours in total by now, and got my first freeze today. (I guess i've run the new settings for like 40 hours by now.) It wasn't a normal type of software freeze I've seen before. Spotify went into a 200ms loop. The mouse could still be moved, but screen was completely frozen. Never seen that before on any system. So I think it might have been the CPU tuning? But I guess I'll keep settings longer to see if it's a persistent problem or just an odd one.
EDIT2: Even though the voltages on the individual cores are around 1.1 V, the "CPU core" voltage at the top of HWMonitor, whatever that means, is now around 1.3 V. I think that used to be around 1.5 too before the EZ tune.
Specs are 3900X / Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2x16) 3200 MHz / Samsung 970 Pro Evo 1 TB / B450-F Gaming Asus Rog Strix. CPU cooler is Noctua NH-D15, case is Meshify C and case fans are 2x NF-A14 PWM as front intake and 1x NF-A12x25 PWM as exhaust.
At first, I just ran everything stock. Fans kept ramping up and down constantly, not to a super-high speed, but they were constantly jumping up and down between like 20 and 60% even when not doing much. Downloaded HWMonitor, and could see that CPU temperature was between about 43 and 55 degrees. Temperatures also jump up and down during seconds in a range of up to 10 degrees, which I didn't know CPUs were supposed to do. I thought they just slowly went up and down in smaller increments. Voltages on the cores were constantly at about 1.5 V.
Researched a bit, and discovered that those temps are considered a bit high for not doing much/basically idling - in general. I also discovered that people have the same issue with stock 3900X, both the slightly high idle temperatures, which was a relief so I could confirm that it wasn't an issue with my doing thermal paste wrong. I think I got it right, should be spread across the entire CPU, but don't feel 100% confident since I checked and smooched about 10 times lol. But it seemed even in the end, hope it hasn't dried out or ended up uneven or anything while I did that?
I also discovered that it's normal for the temperature to fluctuate really quickly like that? Something to do with really quick heating of the CPU. What about cooling, why does it get cool so quick again?
People were suggesting lowering voltage on CPU, but I noticed this seemed a bit too advanced for me. I started by just adjusting the fan curves so the CPU ran hotter before fans kicked in, which did help quietness, but now the CPU were averaging closer to 50, which I think is a bit high?
So I thought I'd try "EZ tuning" in BIOS, which to me seemed safer than trying manual settings when I'm a newbie. I set it to "daily computing" (not "gaming") and "tower cooler". Now the temps are looking better, with idling around 40%. If something happens in the background, it does still ramp up to 48, but the average is down by about 5 degrees. Voltages at idle are now around 1.1 V. I ran the fan calibration, which I think measures lowest effective RPM? That lowered the lowest speed quite a bit, since I guess the Noctua fans are good, and I mimicked the "quiet" fan preset, but adapted to the new lowest RPM.
Problem is, I still get the occasional fan ramps when doing very little at the computer, and I was wondering if there's more that can be done about that? It seems a standard practice is to kick in the fans quite a bit already at 45 C, but that happens frequently, so I constantly get a little fan ramp.
What should I do about that? Should I run the CPU hotter with the fans kicking in later, or is there any tuning steps a newbie can take that makes the CPU not wanna go to 48 for the slightest little background task activity? I want to keep this safe, but I'd very much want no ramping unless I'm actually using the CPUs on average more than like 20%. As it is now, it happens constantly even at just a few percent.
EDIT: Forgot to mention I've added a "fan smoothing" of 15 seconds in BIOS, but I don't know if that is really doing anything?
I've also run my computer for about 50 hours in total by now, and got my first freeze today. (I guess i've run the new settings for like 40 hours by now.) It wasn't a normal type of software freeze I've seen before. Spotify went into a 200ms loop. The mouse could still be moved, but screen was completely frozen. Never seen that before on any system. So I think it might have been the CPU tuning? But I guess I'll keep settings longer to see if it's a persistent problem or just an odd one.
EDIT2: Even though the voltages on the individual cores are around 1.1 V, the "CPU core" voltage at the top of HWMonitor, whatever that means, is now around 1.3 V. I think that used to be around 1.5 too before the EZ tune.
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