First time having a gaming rig, have a few questions.

[Griffmstr]

For years I have only ever used pre-built bargain "gaming" computers that can only run most games on low or, if I'm lucky, average. Never had a system that can push high resolution and go high or ultra settings.

About six months ago I started looking into new computers and I wanted to build a computer but had never done it before. So my friends online pointed me out to a type of computers on newegg with what they called unlocked cases that essentially allow you to replace everything inside no problem. So I bought a low end PC and decided I would just upgrade components as I went along. During this time I started learning a lot more about building computers and actually last week I picked out components for my friend to buy and then built his computer for him.

I have 8 gigs of ram, an AMD fx 6300 and a R9 380. I can play Overwatch on ultra and have a locked 70fps, I can do WoW on high, however the processor is low so I must turn view distance and environmental detail down to low or I have massive frame drops when moving around, turning, or flying in general. Basically anything that causes the environment to load. With my current settings the game looks great and I get about 90fps in the world and about a solid 70 when in raids/dungeons.

Now that my intro is out of the way... Sorry that look so long. I have never had a gaming rig before. The fans when gaming are actually kinda loud. Not an annoyingly loud and not loud enough that I hear them over my game with my headset on. It makes no grinding or whurr sound or anything unnatural. Just... Louder fans. It also is kinda hot. It was hot enough that when I touched my GPU it was almost hot enough to lightly burn me. I downloaded a program called MSI afterburner to record and tell me my heat. When gaming on WoW and Overwatch my peak is about 64c. It then lowers back to about 58-60c and stays around there. I've never seen it go above 64 (temp at "rest" is about 35). I did some research and saw that the average heat most people seem to run on is about 70-75c. So I suppose my heat is nowhere near an issue but it's so new to me it feels strange.

Back over to my friend for a moment the case he bought was the Cooler Master HAF from the Narwhal build. It's far larger than my case and has openings on the left and top panel to mount 120mm fans.

Here is my question: Is my heat honestly not really a problem or should I change cases to massively increase airflow and lower the heat even further? It's going to make me sound like a lazy person but the case and fans together are about $80 which is not bad at all. However moving everything into a new case is not really hard just tedious. I mostly don't care to do it unless the heat is actually problematic. It's only making me so paranoid because I've never heard GPU fans before cause I've never really had one. To put into perspective the computer I had before this one had a Radeon 5440. That card didn't even have a fan on it, instead having metal fins.

[Thunderball]

This is a typical Radeon problem. All the recent generations are loud and hot. What you are experiencing is annoying but nothing unusual. The only way to overcome that would be buying custom cooling solution for your videocard or buying a new one.

If you are going to overclock your hardware or concerned about the noise you should definetely look into the cases with better airflow and tower radiators, which allow big low RPM fan to effectively dissipate heat off them.

[Fascinate]

Those temps are fine, only get a case if you want new looks and quieter fans.

[Cilraaz]

64C is not at all a problem. However, think about that temperature. I don't know if your home area uses F or C, but 64C is nearly 150F. That would put your heatsink or backplate at probably 50C/122F. That's definitely going to feel warm or close to burning to a human finger. To computer hardware, though, it's not all that hot.

For reference...

Max temp on your CPU is listed as 70.5C. CPU manufacturers tend to list their max CPU as tCase temperature, which is the maximum temperature at the center of the built-in heat spreader (the metal "cap" on the CPU that covers the actual cores and gives the heatsink a good contact plate). As such, the actual maximum core temperature is probably closer to 90C.

Max temp on your GPU is able to go as high as the mid-90C range. It probably shouldn't go above 85C as a safe high temp threshold. The volume level of your fans will really be determined by a few things:

• Fan Design - Varies by manufacturer and sometimes even by model within the same kind of card, and some are just more efficient and/or quieter designs
• Case Airflow - If the case is warm or has bad airflow (or is clogged with dust), that means less heat dissipation for your video card, which means higher temps, higher fan speeds, and more noise
• Fan Speed Profiles - Using multiple different programs, you can set fan profiles to have your fans spin at certain speeds at certain temps. This is usually a good way to balance temp and noise, so long as you're sure to remain within the boundaries of safe temperatures. Note that you will essentially be trading lower noise for hotter temperatures

The one thing to keep in mind is that you'll notice several things before heat does any damage to your system. So long as you haven't disabled any safety features, a CPU or GPU will throttle its speed if it gets too hot in an attempt to lower its core temperature. If that fails, they will usually signal the system to completely power off to save your hardware. A lot of "my computer randomly turns off" threads have ended up being temperature problems. Also, for GPUs in particular, you will notice artifacts in your games long before there's physical damage being done to your hardware. As an example, I used TRIXX to handle overclocking and fan profiles on my Radeon 7870 XT. I accidentally closed the application one day and played WoW. I had massive artifacts in game and when I checked, my GPU was 91C. I re-enabled the application, my fans kicked in, and temps dropped back down to the 60s.

TL;DR - 64C is a great GPU temp. Modern hardware will always protect itself from overheating (unless manually disabled). You'll get artifacts in game before the card is hot enough to do any actual damage.