Intel CPU getting too hot too quick

According to Intel, this CPU has a Tcase of 67.9°C, so as you already mentioned, these temperatures could be dangerous for your chip.

Your case seems very well cooled, so the issue is not there. These are the two things that are most likely to be the cause (and your potential fix):

• Make sure you are running on stock voltages in the BIOS.

• The heatsink might have accumulated too much dust. Turn off your computer, unplug it and use a can of pressurized air to clean the heatsink as well as possible.

• If that doesn't make a significant difference, you will have to re-seat the heatsink.

  1. Purchase a small syringe of thermal grease
  2. Turn off your computer, remove the heatsink, clean the previous thermal grease off both the CPU and the heatsink using cotton and alcohol.

  3. Apply a tiny amount of the new one (the size of a grain of rice, or a tad more) and re-seat the heatsink.

     If you are not familiar with this process you can refer to videos that demonstrate it.

Ok so it was a mix of a few things that people mentioned:

• The fan was running at 1400RPM when it should have been at 2200RPM.
• The thermal grease was slightly dry and there was way too much.
• I couldn't see until I took the heatsink off but there was a very thick layer of dust just behind the fan, creating a wall that air couldn't get through.

I hastily bought a Phantek PH-TC14PE before I asked my question here and installed it instead of re-seating my current heatsink.

Temperatures are as follows:

• Idle: 37C
• 100%: 60C

It never goes above 60C although I feel this could be better by rotating the heatsink 90 degrees (goes bottom to top and I think right to left would work better)

Thank you all for your help. I will be performing regular maintenance on my heatsink in the future.