A player is desperate: The temperatures in his gaming PC are far too high, especially his CPU is a problem. None of the solutions work, only an upgrade for 15 euros is the decisive solution. He himself cannot believe what the upgrade does.
What was the player’s problem? The player built his gaming PC two years ago and opted for the Ryzen 5 5600X, a mid-range processor from AMD. He installed the included so-called stock cooler from AMD in his machine to cool the CPU.
However, he explained on Reddit that his computer always ran very hot, no matter which titles he played. At first, he thought it was normal until he played Oblivion Remastered and the temperatures rose to 90 degrees. Oblivion Remastered is considered particularly poorly optimized on PC and has caused weak performance for other players as well.
A new CPU cooler drastically lowers the temperatures
What was the solution to the problem? The player bought a new CPU cooler on sale on Amazon for 18 US dollars (about 15 euros), namely the Thermalright Assassin X120. In Germany, you pay about 17 euros for the cooler:
The computer always ran hot, but I thought that was normal until I played Oblivion Remastered on Ultra and the CPU temperature rose over 90 °C. I saw a Thermalright Assassin X120 on sale on Amazon for $18 and thought, why not.
After the 10-minute installation, the temperatures immediately dropped by more than 30 degrees: from about 90 degrees to 59 degrees. He added that the other fans in the PC now run significantly quieter because the entire gaming PC has become cooler:
After a 10-minute installation, I restarted Oblivion and saw how my CPU temperatures dropped from over 90 degrees to about 59 degrees. The rest of my case fans are now running so quietly because they are not trying to compensate for the awful Wraith cooler.
He himself concludes at the end: “I cannot believe how much an 18-dollar CPU cooler has improved my build.”
Stock cooler as a stopgap solution
When you buy a processor, you usually get a free processor cooler included. At least when you choose boxed instead of tray when purchasing a CPU. This applies to both AMD and Intel products. Often, these so-called stock coolers are regarded as a stopgap solution and not as a real alternative for cooling a processor.
This is especially true for high-performance processors, starting from the i7 or Ryzen 7 performance class, which require significantly more cooling power. Intel has indeed upgraded its stock coolers, but the temperatures have only improved slightly.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of coolers? A stock cooler costs nothing extra and is usually easy to install. Problems are primarily the low cooling performance and sometimes high noise levels.
So-called aftermarket coolers, i.e., coolers from third-party providers like Noctua or BeQuiet, almost always offer better cooling performance and are also significantly quieter in operation. However, the models are often significantly more expensive and bulkier. This becomes a problem when you want to build a very compact PC. Many third-party providers also offer very slim low-profile coolers.
Another user wanted to put together a gaming PC and bought a used motherboard. But when he opened the package, he found that a processor was already mounted on the motherboard. The seller must have forgotten the CPU there: Player buys used motherboard, but the seller seems to have forgotten to remove his CPU worth 500 euros
