Question What'd I do wrong?

[ccswyo]

So I just built a new computer (my 2nd, but 1st was 11 years ago), components are:

AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (using stock cooler, Wraith Stealth with preapplied thermal paste)
MPG X570 Gaming Edge Wifi
EVGA GeForce GTX 1660 Super
Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3600 x 16GB
2x Samsung 860 QVO 1TB
Corsair RM650x
NZXT H510


In the case I've got the 2 stock fans, 120mm top and rear (both exhaust) and 2 140mm front fans pulling air in. I know there's a debate about having front fans in this case and I haven't tried disconnecting them yet, but regardless of some of the youtube videos and reviews I watched/read, it just makes sense to me to pull in some cool air, but maybe I'm wrong. I also live in a very dusty environment and positive air pressure in the case sounds like a good idea to me (if I'm right that that is in fact what I've set up).

Right now I've got Game Boost switched off in the BIOS and I see my cores running at anywhere from 2.85 to 4.175 Ghz (I don't understand why they bounce all over the place).

Problem right now is that the cpu is idling anywhere from 40's to 60's and jumps all over the place. Something as simple as loading a browser can jump it to the mid 70's momentarily and higher a couple times. I've briefly run prime95 on it and it spiked instantly to 92, then back to the 80's where it steadily climbed over a few minutes, I stopped the test at 88 but I'm quite sure it would have kept going up.

I've run FurMark on the gpu and it won't climb past 71. The cpu during the test climbed to 76 (much more steady though, barely moves which I don't understand) and spiked to 88 when I was doing some web browsing at the same time.

By my understanding, this case is subject to somewhat poor air flow, however , my assumption right now is that the air flow in the case must be decent or the gpu would be getting a lot hotter.

Most of my reading led me to believe that both the stock cooler and preapplied past would be sufficient. I'll overclock, but probably not to extremes.

So, anybody willing to venture a guess as to what I've done wrong? Is the stock thermal paste no good? Did I manage to mess it up when I installed the cooler? I tried to be careful about placing the cooler on the cpu and I tightened down the screws on the cooler until they bottomed out. Do I need a better cooler?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

- Chris

 

[KawaTom]

All i can tell you that from what i found searching for answer was that since the NZXT is closed front with only a small strip of mesh on the front left side wich has a filter on it the asummption of many is that front intake fans will not get enough air through the side vent so they will then suck in some air from the case and the blow it back in the case and then disturbing the air flow and pressure.
If thats whats going on i dont know but i think we both agree on that its not the airflow of the case thats the OP`s problem?

 

[Karadjgne]

Op doesn't really have an issue. He just assumed he did because of past history with the way Intels run temps. It became the basis for all temps across both OEMs. The standard 70°C or lower was better for loads and 30-40°C idle for decent, or upto 50°C fir stock coolers. And with prior versions of windows that didn't do much of anything at idle, temps stayed pretty even.

Times changed. Ryzen aren't Intel and don't behave as such, and windows 10 has enough active stuff going on in the background with security checks, win store updates, etc that a true idle has become somewhat rare. It can get confusing, this isn't the first post with similar thoughts, won't be the last until Ryzen gets a lot more time and exposure to where it's behavior is counted as normal.


Op is in good shape. Better shape will require a rethink on coolers, but that's nothing new.

 

[Schlachtwolf]

Glass fronts look great but kill airflow, I removed the glass panel on my Thermaltake 20MT and put a 360 AIO front mounted behind the front 3 Corsair fans, every 8 weeks a nice clean with a small air compressor (I have dogs, 2 children....a wife...all the messy things) and my Ryzen 2700x runs 29-38 - was 35 to 48 idle and RTX 2080 OC 27c idle was 35 on adapive setting. You cannot beat frontal airflow....

 

[Karadjgne]

Form over function. Welcome to the new fad. Minimal flow, glass front cases.