Hey there! I've recently built a PC featuring a Ryzen 9800X3D and I'm using the Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro 360 for water cooling. After setting everything up, I made sure to remove the protective film from the radiator and cleaned both the radiator and the CPU's IHS thoroughly with isopropyl alcohol. I applied thermal paste generously, enough so that it started to spread slightly when I tightened the screws, which I did firmly (with a quarter turn beyond snug). I think I might have messed up a bit by connecting the cooling system cable all to one point instead of separating the connections for the pump, fans, and block. Even when I max out the cooling performance in tests like Cinebench R23, the CPU temperature hits about 85 degrees, and during gaming (like FC 26 or CS2), it often goes over 70 degrees. I've seen others mention their temps stay around 62 or 63 degrees in similar games. My case is the Lian Li O11 Vision Compact with three glass panels. The cooler is mounted on the side, with three fans drawing air in from the bottom and two exhaust fans at the back (attached a photo for reference). What might be causing these high temperatures? In the BIOS, I've only enabled PBO and the EXPO profile, with no other settings like X3D Mode or High Bandwidth RAM activated.
3 Answers
Just a heads-up, it’s definitely possible to over-tighten the cooler, which might cause too much thermal paste to squeeze out. You might want to try loosening it a bit and only tightening it until you hit resistance.
What’s the RPM of your pump? It sounds like, given how you hooked it up, your PC might be mismanaging it as just a regular fan, which could lead to the pump not operating effectively. You might want to check that out!
I’m not sure about the pump's RPM since everything runs off the CPU FAN header, so if I set it to 50%, both the pump and the fans could be limited to that speed.
Have you tried looking at your temperatures with PBO turned off? The temps you’re seeing are within a safe range, and it might just be the result of overclocking and removing power limits. Remember, every chip is different—some may run hotter, even under PBO. Did those other users who reported lower temps have PBO enabled, as well?
Yeah, they mentioned having PBO on, but some were also overclocked significantly, like +200 from CO to around -15 to -30.
So just to clarify, should I loosen it and then tighten it gently until I feel some resistance?