The stock AMD Wraith cooler on my linux box was getting loud. Since I recently migrated the complete system from a (too) tight mini-ATX case to a larger Corsair 4000D Airflow, I decided to splurge on some new cooling.
Thermalright has a nice and affordable offering of CPU coolers and case fans.
So when my Peerless Assassin 120 arrived I immediately set out to install it. You know where this is going…
Upon booting up I ran stress-ng to put some load on my CPU and see what amazingly cool my Ryzen 3700X would stay. Well, it hit 94C within 10 seconds. Not good. Idling at about 50-60C.
So yeah. It turns out plastic “Peel before use” are not great thermal conductors.
With the plastic now removed and the perfect amount of thermal paste the CPU runs at 35-40C at idle and < 70C when at full load for 5 minutes. Noice!