I recently finished a new PC build and am concerned about the CPU temperatures. The system uses a Ryzen 5 9600X with a Thermalright AXP90-X36 low-profile cooler and ARCTIC MX-6 thermal paste, inside a Thermaltake View 270 Plus case. The case initially had three fans, configured as two intake and one exhaust, but I later added three more for a three-intake, three-exhaust setup. The room temperature has been around 67–68°F (19–20°C).
While playing Final Fantasy XVI, the CPU initially stayed around 90–96°C. After adding the extra case fans, reapplying thermal paste, and improving cable management, gaming temperatures dropped to roughly 80–86°C. Changing the fan curve only improved things by another 2–3 degrees.
At idle, the temperature also fluctuates considerably. After booting and leaving the PC alone for about ten minutes with MSI Center open, it bounced between 50 and 75°C. While using Firefox and MSI Center, it eventually settled around 45°C.
The Ryzen 5 9600X is the only particularly demanding new component in the build, and the case supports CPU coolers up to 180 mm tall. Are these temperatures safe, or is the AXP90-X36 simply too small for this system? Would replacing it with a taller tower cooler or an AIO make a meaningful difference?
4 Answers
It is also worth confirming that the cooler fan is plugged into the CPU_FAN header and that it is spinning in the intended direction. Incorrect fan orientation can hurt airflow, but in this situation the main limitation is still the very small heatsink. The case fan changes helping by about 10°C suggests airflow mattered, while the remaining temperatures are what you would expect from this cooler.
A larger upright air cooler should solve most of this without needing liquid cooling. You have plenty of space for a standard single- or dual-tower heatsink, and those will perform substantially better than a 36 mm low-profile cooler. An AIO is another option, but it is not necessary for a 9600X unless you specifically want one for appearance or clearance reasons.
The temperatures are safe. Ryzen 7000 and 9000 processors are designed to boost toward their thermal limit, and 80–86°C during a demanding game is not dangerous. The 50–75°C idle spikes can also happen as the CPU briefly boosts in response to background tasks. However, the cooler is still undersized for this case, so replacing it should reduce noise and provide more thermal headroom.
The AXP90-X36 is an extremely small low-profile cooler. It is mainly meant for compact builds where a normal tower cooler cannot physically fit, not for getting the lowest temperatures in a roomy ATX case. Your case has up to 180 mm of CPU-cooler clearance, so a single-tower cooler such as the Thermalright Assassin X 120 Refined SE—or a larger dual-tower model—would be a much better match.
That makes sense. I chose the low-profile cooler because I liked the appearance, but I did not realize the case had so much unused cooler clearance. I will probably switch to a tower cooler.