Question I9 9900k overheating

[Corroshi]

Hello, I'm currently facing extreme temperatures when playing heavy games on my pc. For example Cyberpunk 2077 (high settings) with CPU reaching all the way to a 100C.
First here's the part list:
RTX 2080 msi
I9-9900k
Coolermaster ml240l AIO
Corsair RM750x
Nzxt H500.

So, I wanted to ask for advice about the airflow inside the pc. Currently I have it setup so, that the air comes from the top fanslot and the fanslot next to it (basically next to the IO shield) and exits through the front of the pc where AIO radiator is mounted.

I've changed the thermal paste in the summer of this year so nothing should be wrong with that. My bet is that the AIO is not cooling the cpu effectively enough, or that the radiator gets only hot air after the GPU inside the pc. Any suggestions despite changing the case? I plan to change it, but I'll have to save up for it too. Would you suggest changing the AIO also? Maybe it's not efficient enough.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

You need to have the fans draw in air from the front courtesy of the AIO and have the air exhausted through the top and rear. Mind sharing a picture of your setup? Also, you sure you have the H500? NZXT at this point have what's now known as the H510 series but it's the same chassis internally as the H500, the only exception being the front panel designs.

What thermal paste did you use to swap the compound? In all honesty, yes the intake on the NZXT H 500 and their ilk are terrible. To add, when going with an i9, you should've gone for a 360mm AIO since that's when Intel decided to do what AMD did with their Bulldozer series of processors and made processors as hot as the core of the sun(not kidding).

 

[Corroshi]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

You need to have the fans draw in air from the front courtesy of the AIO and have the air exhausted through the top and rear. Mind sharing a picture of your setup? Also, you sure you have the H500? NZXT at this point have what's now known as the H510 series but it's the same chassis internally as the H500, the only exception being the front panel designs.

What thermal paste did you use to swap the compound? In all honesty, yes the intake on the NZXT H 500 and their ilk are terrible. To add, when going with an i9, you should've gone for a 360mm AIO since that's when Intel decided to do what AMD did with their Bulldozer series of processors and made processors as hot as the core of the sun(not kidding).

Yes, I'm sure about having NZXT H500, because my pc isn't exactly new (built it a bit over 2 years ago). and I picked the parts fairly cautiously.

i'm not able to provide picture atm. About the case and the AIO. Which models do you think to be best? I think a corsair 360mm AIO will do it. Also a case with a total of 6-7 fans. Any recommendations?

And yeah, I used the same thermal paste as the first time, it came with the AIO.

 

[Lutfij]

You might want to parse the pictures first so we can see if the parts can be u-turned and the need for spending is eliminated. Host your images on Imgur or a similar image hosting site and then parse the link here for us to see.

There are other factors with bad thermals, clogged radiator fins, the bad orientation of the fans as stated above, the orientation of the tubes and perhaps OS corruption.

And yeah, I used the same thermal paste as the first time, it came with the AIO.
The AIO came with a small tube of thermal paste, correct? If so, the compound is lackluster. Get a tube of some high quality thermal paste(Noctua, Artic, Thermal Grizzly) and remove what you currently have. Use a pea sized dot on the center of the CPU IHS or however you want to apply the paste then reapply the cooling block of the AIO.

Just because a case has mounting locations for more than 3 fans doesn't make it a case worth buying or being highly sought after. Some case designs favor positive pressure while others favor negative pressure. You will need to mention where you're located, what your preferred site for purchase is and what your budget is(we get to know what currency you're dealing with once you mention location)?

Lastly, your spec list is devoid of the make and model of your motherboard, the rams and your storage - all critical information when you're asking for suggestions on a case(and cooling).

 

[Corroshi]

You might want to parse the pictures first so we can see if the parts can be u-turned and the need for spending is eliminated. Host your images on Imgur or a similar image hosting site and then parse the link here for us to see.

There are other factors with bad thermals, clogged radiator fins, the bad orientation of the fans as stated above, the orientation of the tubes and perhaps OS corruption.

And yeah, I used the same thermal paste as the first time, it came with the AIO.
The AIO came with a small tube of thermal paste, correct? If so, the compound is lackluster. Get a tube of some high quality thermal paste(Noctua, Artic, Thermal Grizzly) and remove what you currently have. Use a pee sized dot on the center of the CPU IHS or however you want to apply the paste then reapply the cooling block of the AIO.

Just because a case has mounting locations for more than 3 fans doesn't make it a case worth buying or being highly sought after. Some case designs favor positive pressure while others favor negative pressure. You will need to mention where you're located, what your preferred site for purchase is and what your budget is(we get to know what currency you're dealing with once you mention location)?

Lastly, your spec list is devoid of the make and model of your motherboard, the rams and your storage - all critical information when you're asking for suggestions on a case(and cooling).

Here's a few pictures of my pc.

https://imgur.com/a/peFocJm

View: https://imgur.com/a/peFocJm


My budget is around 300€, and I'm located in Finland. Any site in germany also works. I've actually picked out a few candidates as replacement parts, and they're:
AIO: MSI MAG CoreLiquid 360R
Case: Corsair iCUE 4000 X midtower
Thermal paste: Arctic Cooling MX-4

Also, the other parts I did not mention are: G skil 3000mhz ddr4 2x8gb
MOBO is MSI tomahawk Z390
For storage: 2x1tb WD green HDD, 1x 250GB ssd (mostly for OS only) and 1x 500GB WD blue HDD(this one got for free).
Ssd is the next on my upgrade list, gonna buy an m.2 1tb ssd, but that can wait.

 

[Lutfij]

Try this out, first in order to see if the temps improve and saves you the funds.

1| Disassemble the AIO and all fans from the system and clean out any dust/debris/crud in the radiator fin stack, the fans and the front panel area. You can use water to wash the finstack on the radiator but please be careful not to get water near the tubes and pump housing/wires. If you're skeptical about that procedure, use a fine bristle brush and airblower/duster. If you use water on the finstack, blow it dry.

2| You're going to be fine with the MX-4. So long as it's made by one of the manufacturer's I've listed above.

3| When reassembling the AIO and fans to the case, have the rear and top fans set to exhaust. While the fans at the front are set to intake. Edit: I also forgot to mention, the mounting is off, you should have the block's text reading parallel to the GPU as opposed to it running parallel to the ram sticks. Looks like you also replaced the fans that came with the AIO with NZXT fans, while the AIO fans were used as case fans. Please revert to how they're meant to be, i.e, the CM fans as AIO fans and the case fans as case fans.

FYI, hot air is less dense and will naturally rise to the top. Cooler air is denser and can be found at the bottom. In essence your setup was drawing in hot air exhausted by your PSU and partially by your GPU and recycling it into your chassis. The reason I asked you to clean the front panel is to prevent reclogging the radiator finstack with debris.

The physical sizes of your drives would help us in understanding how much space you need in a possible new chassis purchase.

Once you've done the above, turn your attention to the BIOS version on your motherboard and then the OS version(if you're on Windows 10). Please mention them here.

 

[Corroshi]

Try this out, first in order to see if the temps improve and saves you the funds.

1| Disassemble the AIO and all fans from the system and clean out any dust/debris/crud in the radiator fin stack, the fans and the front panel area. You can use water to wash the finstack on the radiator but please be careful not to get water near the tubes and pump housing/wires. If you're skeptical about that procedure, use a fine bristle brush and airblower/duster. If you use water on the finstack, blow it dry.

2| You're going to be fine with the MX-4. So long as it's made by one of the manufacturer's I've listed above.

3| When reassembling the AIO and fans to the case, have the rear and top fans set to exhaust. While the fans at the front are set to intake. Edit: I also forgot to mention, the mounting is off, you should have the block's text reading parallel to the GPU as opposed to it running parallel to the ram sticks. Looks like you also replaced the fans that came with the AIO with NZXT fans, while the AIO fans were used as case fans. Please revert to how they're meant to be, i.e, the CM fans as AIO fans and the case fans as case fans.

FYI, hot air is less dense and will naturally rise to the top. Cooler air is denser and can be found at the bottom. In essence your setup was drawing in hot air exhausted by your PSU and partially by your GPU and recycling it into your chassis. The reason I asked you to clean the front panel is to prevent reclogging the radiator finstack with debris.

The physical sizes of your drives would help us in understanding how much space you need in a possible new chassis purchase.

Once you've done the above, turn your attention to the BIOS version on your motherboard and then the OS version(if you're on Windows 10). Please mention them here.

I'll be trying your suggestions shortly, and will get back to you. I did list my drives, and all of them are 3.5" and then there's the sata ssd which is 2.5". Other than that, I'll order the thermal paste online and change the current one for a proper one. I also did not mention the fact that I cleaned the whole pc from dust including the radiator in the summer. And that's why I think that the airflow is too bad in this chassi and AIO radiator is too small for I9 9900k. But, I'll be first trying the suggestions above. But still, I kinda doubt that the temps are gonna go down significantly.

 

[Lutfij]

The radiator isn't too small, I'd have used some high rpm high static fans to negate the loss in surface area when compared to a 360mm radiator.

That's what troubleshooting is about, sometimes you can have one person come in and suggest X and that ends up being a magic bullet for you but not to the other person. That's exactly why we're going through checklists. The fact that all the fans are in the wrong orientation and the right fans with the right static pressure(the rating necessary for radiators and heatsinks) are on the wrong part of the build is what made me suggest the above.

Throwing money at a problem doesn't always solve it

To add, I mentioned going through the OS and BIOS after you've rectified the fan orientation and placements. That's because they can also contribute to high temps.

I said physical size since I actually have about 4.5TB's of storage spread across 4x 2.5" drives. There are some who have ditched 3.5" drives in favor of 2.5" for space savings + SSD's come in 2.5" and M.2 flavors.

Since you're located in Europe(the continent), you might have easier access to a modded front panel that would allow for more air to come through the front panel. I need to dig that up...can't remember where I saw it. I think it's this one. Perhaps reach out to this fella and let them know what case you have. Found this and this on my read through the www.