I recently built a PC for my little brother using an i3-14100F, which was a budget-friendly option compared to the 12400F. However, I'm noticing some strange temperature readings. When I start Windows 11, the fan gets pretty loud, and HWiNFO shows the CPU temperatures fluctuating between 40 and 85 degrees Celsius. After a few minutes, it stabilizes around 45-50 degrees, but that still feels a bit high for idle. It even hit a startling 97 degrees when I launched a game, which seems excessive. While gaming, the temperatures usually hover around 70-80 degrees.
I suspect the stock cooler might be the issue. I had a bit of trouble with it during installation; two of the push pins didn't secure fully. I re-applied thermal paste, but it didn't improve the situation. I was considering upgrading to a tower cooler, but I wanted to gather some opinions on whether it's just the cooler or if something else could be causing these high temps. Any advice would be appreciated!
1 Answer
If the push pins didn’t lock down properly, that could definitely lead to overheating issues since the cooler won’t be contacting the CPU correctly. Before investing in a new cooler, check why those pins won’t sit fully. It’s important to get that fixed first!
I tried reseating the cooler, and it seems like the pins might be down all the way now. However, I'm still seeing temps spike up to around 83 degrees during startup. After gaming, it ranges from 55 to 75 degrees. Do you think that's acceptable?