Discussion I should have done this before buying a Noctua CPU cooler

[Heat_Fan89]

I totally forgot about down clocking a CPU. I have an HP Omen 30L Desktop PC that has an i9-10850K and the stock AIO was letting the temps rise to 102c and average was around 68c. Those weren't sustained but spikes cause I was monitoring it while playing a MSFS 2024 and X-Plane 12. Those are two flight sims that push the CPU and GPU real hard. I play in 4K so the CPU was feeling the heat, no pun intended.

So I bought from Amazon a Noctua NF-U9S air cooler and additional Noctua 92mm fan (push-pull). I swapped it out and it no longer got 102c but got damn close, 99c, still redline. I tried increasing the fan speed and that helped but I was still spiking to 92c. Then I decided to underclock the CPU and viola, eureka. Now I lower the temps by 20c. The stock multiplier for the 10850K is 49 and the cache ratio is 43. I lowered the multiplier to 41 and the cache ratio to 35. I left the core voltage offset alone.

Now the CPU peaks at 72c and i'm still getting 30FPS in 4K with X-Plane in NYC (HIGH settings) which is very demanding. I might consider putting back the stock AIO. I should have remembered this trick.

 

[Syntaximus]

Were you limited to that cooler due to size constraints?
If not there are much better (and cheaper) options with 120mm even 140mm HSFs.

The U9S isn't really sufficient for your CPU, that's the problem.
Also sounds like the stock AIO isn't either if your temps were always that high.

 

[Lutfij]

The argument could conversely be made towards the prebuilt...if their prebuilt wasn't designed poorly, you wouldn't have needed to drop more money onto said prebuilt. Just an FYI, the case was designed by Coolermaster which doesn't make sense as this saw a departure of their knowledge of optimal case airflow.

The Omen's of that era were also known to fail more often then not, whether or not it came shipped with an i9.

 

[uWebb429]

@Heat_Fan89

The best way to tame a hot running 10850K is to reduce the voltage. The Intel default voltage can be up to 100 mV more than what the CPU needs to run stable. Less voltage equals less heat.

Here is what I get during a full load Cinebench R23 test. All cores are running at full speed. Core temperatures are in the mid 60°C range. The 240mm Corsair H100i RGB Pro XT works great.

https://www.corsair.com/ca/en/p/cpu...0i-rgb-pro-xt-liquid-cpu-cooler-cw-9060043-ww

 

[Heat_Fan89]

Were you limited to that cooler due to size constraints?
If not there are much better (and cheaper) options with 120mm even 140mm HSFs.

The U9S isn't really sufficient for your CPU, that's the problem.
Also sounds like the stock AIO isn't either if your temps were always that high.

Yes, it it were just a smidge taller I would not be able to get the side panel on.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

The argument could conversely be made towards the prebuilt...if their prebuilt wasn't designed poorly, you wouldn't have needed to drop more money onto said prebuilt. Just an FYI, the case was designed by Coolermaster which doesn't make sense as this saw a departure of their knowledge of optimal case airflow.

The Omen's of that era were also known to fail more often then not, whether or not it came shipped with an i9.

No argument and I recently built my own. This was purchased at the height of the Covid and crypto craze when parts especially GPU's were nearly impossible to get. The situation was as I recall was even worse than today.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

@Heat_Fan89

The best way to tame a hot running 10850K is to reduce the voltage. The Intel default voltage can be up to 100 mV more than what the CPU needs to run stable. Less voltage equals less heat.

Here is what I get during a full load Cinebench R23 test. All cores are running at full speed. Core temperatures are in the mid 60°C range. The 240mm Corsair H100i RGB Pro XT works great.

https://www.corsair.com/ca/en/p/cpu...0i-rgb-pro-xt-liquid-cpu-cooler-cw-9060043-ww

I'll try reducing the core voltage offset in the HP Omen app as that's the only setting HP gives me to adjust the power.

Edit: Just to add that you are running a 240mm AIO where my stock AIO is 120mm. I dropped the core offset voltage to -0.150v and that did seem to help but I hit 82c, still better than before. I then dropped the multiplier from 49 to 47 and cache ratio from 43 to 41. Now I momentarily spike to 71c and it stabilizes in the 56c to 62c range.

 

[LOGAN54321]

Obviously you do however you feel comfortable, but I think if possible you should return that NOCTUA cooler. And for the same amount of money you can get this:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU Cooler: ID-COOLING FROZN A620 PRO SE 58 CFM CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $69.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-05-16 07:26 EDT-0400

Move the parts from the Omen into the Cooler Master case, and so to speak "be done with it". If the picture i saw is correct that AiO seems like 120 mm, which is probably worse than most good dual Tower air coolers. I think lowering the core voltage is a good idea, but it can only get you so far... that CPU needs a good cooling solution!

ID-Cooling Frozn A620 Pro SE Review​

 

[Heat_Fan89]

Obviously you do however you feel comfortable, but I think if possible you should return that NOCTUA cooler. And for the same amount of money you can get this:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU Cooler: ID-COOLING FROZN A620 PRO SE 58 CFM CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $69.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-05-16 07:26 EDT-0400

Move the parts from the Omen into the Cooler Master case, and so to speak "be done with it". If the picture i saw is correct that AiO seems like 120 mm, which is probably worse than most good dual Tower air coolers. I think lowering the core voltage is a good idea, but it can only get you so far... that CPU needs a good cooling solution!

ID-Cooling Frozn A620 Pro SE Review​

Thanks for the suggestions. I had considered the Frozn A620 prior to my Noctua purchase but it has a height of 157mm so it won't fit in the Omen chassis. Secondly I want to stay with the current Omen 30L case. However I am contemplating returning the Noctua setup and reverting back to the stock AIO. The two things holding me from reverting back to stock is that I actually like the look of the Noctua cooler in the case and it does lower the temps slightly better than the stock AIO.

 

[VizzieTheViz]

The argument could conversely be made towards the prebuilt...if their prebuilt wasn't designed poorly, you wouldn't have needed to drop more money onto said prebuilt. Just an FYI, the case was designed by Coolermaster which doesn't make sense as this saw a departure of their knowledge of optimal case airflow.

The Omen's of that era were also known to fail more often then not, whether or not it came shipped with an i9.

Well that’s a bit unfair, if you’re going to be putting power hungry components in your pc and you want a really small case and a certain price-point you’re either going to have high temps or loads of noise.

That isn’t poor design, it’s just economics and physics and a design choice.

It’s not like the pc was failing or throttling (as far as I understand the OP) it was just getting hot.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

Well that’s a bit unfair, if you’re going to be putting power hungry components in your pc and you want a really small case and a certain price-point you’re either going to have high temps or loads of noise.

That isn’t poor design, it’s just economics and physics and a design choice.

It’s not like the pc was failing or throttling (as far as I understand the OP) it was just getting hot.

Yeah HP rectified their design choices with the HP Omen 40L followed by the HP Omen 45L. The 45L uses a 360mm AIO when paired with high end CPU's and has three front fans.

No, the PC was failing but it was throttling because of the heat. When playing MSFS 2020/2024, I could see momentary pauses and when I looked, the temps had peaked to 100-102c. That said, the HP Omen 30L has been very reliable.

 

[geofelt]

What is your problem?
Intel chips are designed to run at 100c. without damage.
Past that temperature, the chip will throttle or even shut off to protect itself.
It is high voltage that is damaging.
Fiddling with voltages without knowing exactly what you are doing can be dangerous.
To reduce heat in general, safely, set windows to a balanced power plan and perhaps 99% max cpu usage.

With age, a aio can fail. either the mechanical pump fails or gets clogged. Air can intrude through the tubes and the unit must be replaced. Think of one as a 5 year rental.
Your NH-U9S is a nice quiet cooler that is doing the job; keep it.

 

[uWebb429]

99% max cpu usage

This advice disables Intel Turbo Boost. That will reduce the full load speed of a 10850K from 4.9 GHz down to a maximum of only 3.6 GHz. This setting also eliminates the default 5.2 GHz speed these CPUs can run at when 1 or 2 cores are active.

You end up losing a lot more performance than the 99% number would lead you to believe.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

What is your problem?
Intel chips are designed to run at 100c. without damage.
Past that temperature, the chip will throttle or even shut off to protect itself.
It is high voltage that is damaging.
Fiddling with voltages without knowing exactly what you are doing can be dangerous.
To reduce heat in general, safely, set windows to a balanced power plan and perhaps 99% max cpu usage.

With age, a aio can fail. either the mechanical pump fails or gets clogged. Air can intrude through the tubes and the unit must be replaced. Think of one as a 5 year rental.
Your NH-U9S is a nice quiet cooler that is doing the job; keep it.

Umm, decreasing voltages is not dangerous, however increasing them is. I got the desired results I was looking for with lower temps and good performance by making my adjustments.

And no, you should not push heat limits or exceed them on a CPU or GPU. That's a good way to shorten its life.