So continuing on from the CPU overheating saga from Reddit, if anyone remembers. (for those who don’t, I had issues with my PC running a bit hotter than I’d like under load, so I tried to fix it with a reapplication of thermal paste. Thanks to not having a clue what I’m doing, I fucked it up every time and somehow made it worse)

Today I decided to fix it once and for all. It seems to be working. It’s been idling at 80-90 for the last three weeks with just Chrome, Steam, Spotify and Discord open (plus task manager and HWInfo64 to see what’s happening). Now it’s at about 50-60 while I’m writing this comment. Not ideal, of course, but I don’t really know what to do. I think the cooling system is just inadequate (stock CPU cooler on a ryzen 5 3600, 2 fans at the front and 1 at the back)

I don’t know whether it’s the new thermal paste (I was using Arctic Silver 5, now using Noctua NT-H1), the really good dusting a gave it, using an electric scredriver making it tighter or something, or a combo of everything but it seems to be running a lot happier now