Upgrade CPU Cooler

[Chrismk]

A friend's 15 year old son has a PC with the spec below.
All was well until he started playing games such as Star Wars, Avowed, Delta Force, Minecraft.
After anywhere between 90 minutes and 2 hours it will suddenly crash and reboot.
I have run Prime95 and the CPU gets into the 90's rather quickly though I haven't been brave enough to continue with the test!
I've run MemTest for 4 hours without any issues.

Being an old git, I'm unfamiliar with these games (MSFS is my weakness!) and how they are set up but the lad says he selects "let windows decide" when setting parameters.
Would I be right in thinking the stock CPU cooler is insufficient for these types of games?
And if so, could someone recommend a suitable replacement please, that would do the job.


Aerocool Dryft v2 Midi-Tower ATX Case
Corsair RMx Series RM750x 80 PLUS Gold Fully Modular ATX PSU
Asus Prime B650M-A WIFI II (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard
AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core 5.10GHz (Socket AM5) Processor – Retail
PowerColor AXRX 6600 8GBD6-3DH GPU AMD Radeon RX 6600 8 Go GDDR6
TeamGroup Delta RGB 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-49600C38 6200MHz Dual Channel Kit Ram
WD Black SN770 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS100T3X0E)
Asrock 27" PG27FF1A 1920x1080 IPS 165Hz 1ms FreeSync HDR Widescreen Gaming Monitor

 

[Philtor]

You could try applying fresh thermal paste to see if that helps but given it’s the stock cooler, I would suggest changing to something like the Thermalright peerless assassin cooler.

 

[Tetras]

I have run Prime95 and the CPU gets into the 90's rather quickly though I haven't been brave enough to continue with the test!

Would I be right in thinking the stock CPU cooler is insufficient for these types of games?

It is normal that Prime 95 hits those kind of temps, especially on the stock cooler. AMD claim that these CPUs are good to run up to 95 degrees.

That said, the case temp (and the temp of other components) might be the problem after several hours of running, but that's hard to say.

And if so, could someone recommend a suitable replacement please, that would do the job.

Freezer 36 is one of the cheaper ones, OCUK have it @ £23.

 

[tamzzy]

And if so, could someone recommend a suitable replacement please, that would do the job
AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core 5.10GHz (Socket AM5) Processor – Retail

the 7600 isn't hard to cool. as an ex-owner of the 7600, and also having used the thermalright assassin king 120SE, this cooler would be my go-to
the AK120SE has 5 heatpipes and RGB lighting, and it's also available for less than £17 delivered (£16.19 to be exact)
you won't find a more capable cooler for the price

 

[Chrismk]

Thank you everyone!

 

[MissChief]

Check the airflow too. Have the fans been set to always run at minimum speeds? Is the case in A location with restricted airflow?

 

[Chrismk]

Check the airflow too. Have the fans been set to always run at minimum speeds? Is the case in A location with restricted airflow?

Yes location is good thanks and the CPU fan does vary in speed. However, the six case fans don't seem to vary though they look to be running fast.
I would have thought they should be controllable, but there are no options for them in the BIOS or Asus Crate.

 

[MissChief]

Yes location is good thanks and the CPU fan does vary in speed. However, the six case fans don't seem to vary though they look to be running fast.
I would have thought they should be controllable, but there are no options for them in the BIOS or Asus Crate.

They might be connected via SATA power or similar.

 

[Chrismk]

It's a 7 fan hub which came with the case. Power via SATA and cables to an Addressable Gen 2 header and a fan header.

 

[MissChief]

It's a 7 fan hub which came with the case. Power via SATA and cables to an Addressable Gen 2 header and a fan header.

So then the fans should be controllable from the BIOS or using software.

 

[Chrismk]

That's what I thought but only the CPU fan seems to be controllable from the BIOS
And also from Asus Fan Xpert 2+

 

[doyll]

Sounds like not enough CPU cooler and not enough case airflow. Not enough case airflow is allowing air inside of case to keep heating up hotter and hotter. As air temp inside of case goes up both CPU and GPU are using hotter air, and every degree higher air temp is becomes same degrees hotter CPU and GPU are at same high load and fan speed.
So as already stated, better case airflow and a better CPU cooler.

Probably has stock 3 case fans; 2x 140mm (probably in side) and 1x 120mm (probably in back).

I would put 3 120mm bottom intake fans (3x Arctic P120)`fans for £5.99 each:

Arctic P12 Black Case Fan - 120mm

Order Arctic P12 Black Case Fan - 120mm now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Remove all back PCIe slot covers to increase rear vent area for better rear exhaust airflow. Setup bottom intakes so they speed up as GPU temp rises.
Even without a better CPU cooler this will likely keep it from crashing.

Change stock CPU cooler to something like this £17.99:

Thermalright Assassin King 120 SE CPU Air Cooler - 120mm

Order Thermalright Assassin King 120 SE CPU Air Cooler - 120mm now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Setup side fans to speed up as CPU temps rise.

Some like twin tower coolers like Peerless Assassin 120 SE at £29.99:

Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE CPU Cooler - 120mm

Order Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE CPU Cooler - 120mm now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

It has only 1 more 6mm heatpipe than Assassin King 120 SE and more fin area, so cools a little better with little less noise. But don't think it needed here.
Let us know how it works out.

 

[Chrismk]

Sorry for the delay in getting back! Went for the Peerless Assasin and temps have come down markedly.
So thank you everyone for the advice!
However, while the high temps probably didn't help, it didn't solve the issue.
I think I have run into the Ryzen 7600 and non 6000Mhz memory problem, so I'm off to that forum now!

 

[doyll]

Thanks for letting us know