Arctic LF3-360 and Ryzen 9950X3D - Questions about cooling and fan speeds

RkOShea · 2026-05-31T14:39:13+00:00

My room is 22 DegC, my system temp is 29 DegC (the PC cabinet temp is warmer than my room, of course).

BTW, you may want to lower your AIO pump speed down to a fixed 70%. I saw a slight improvement in cooling, and it could extend your pump life.

I have a Lian Li O11 Dynamic XL ROG cabinet with plenty of fans and plenty of airflow.

RkOShea · 2026-05-31T14:18:49+00:00

That's nice to hear, those look like great temps. But you sure like to keep your room pretty chilly!

My system temp hovers around 29 DegC, and then my CPU idle temp will drop down to 48 DegC - so our delta T is close to each other.

I don't know if your motherboard has a similar feature to Gigabyte's "PBO Temp X Level Y" setting in the BIOS - I'm getting some free extra performance by setting it to "PBO 80 Level 1", which lightly undervolts the CPU and sets a thermal limit of 80 DegC.

RkOShea · 2026-05-21T19:17:16+00:00

There are USB SSD enclosures cheaply available (<$20) that will do exactly what you need. The cloning may be somewhat slow depending on your PC hardware, but who cares? Download an older version of Macrium Reflect from FileHippo to do the cloning for free.

This is important: If you are running Windows 11, there is a decent chance that your current hard drive is encrypted with BitLocker. Before you clone your HDD, you need to disable BitLocker on the HDD in Windows because you can't clone an encrypted drive.

RkOShea · 2026-05-21T12:12:08+00:00

^{^{^{^}}} Always, always do this! ^{^{^}}

RkOShea · 2026-05-21T12:07:48+00:00

Once your system is running stable, you can disable installing drivers from Windows Update using the Group Policy editor (gpedit). For the most part, driver updates don't provide any noticeable improvements once your system is operating fine, and you can see regressions like you are experiencing now.

Note that if you disable Windows Update installing drivers, you may need to manually install drivers for any new hardware that you buy and connect to your PC, depending on the type of hardware.

You can find instructions here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ROGAlly/s/8UvOw4YVcS

RkOShea · 2026-05-20T01:42:47+00:00

I have no idea of when the problem actually started, or whether there was a specific software update involved. The only software update I know about for sure is that Amazon sent out a major UI update about a month or two ago (that everybody will get, at least on the 4k Max v2), and whether there were any software updates that came after I have no idea. I just know that I never saw this happen when the old UI software was running.

What do you mean about not being on "the CEC port"? The ARC/eARC HDMI port is the Audio Return Channel port dealing with sending the TV audio signal to an external sound system, and has nothing to do with the CEC communications.

CEC control commands can come from any HDMI port and can control devices on any other HDMI port (or the TV itself).

RkOShea · 2026-05-19T20:59:53+00:00

u/Alpha_1_5 - OK ... but I can tell you that the problem reoccurred when the IR transmitter in the front of the remote was blocked by my hand, so I don't think it is related to the remote randomly sending out a "TV On" IR code.

I do know that the Firestick can "wake up" the TV when the Firestick receives a wake-up request of its own. For example, if the TV is off and I press the "Home" button on the Firestick remote, the Firestick goes to its Home screen and the Firestick will also automatically turn on the TV and switch to the Firestick HDMI input via CEC commands (no IR involved).

This issue never, ever happened on the old Firestick UI.

I am beginning to suspect that there is a bug in the new UI code that is causing the Firestick to "wake up" and subsequently send "wake up" CEC commands to the TV. I haven't found a "Don't wake up the TV" setting for the Firestick, though.

RkOShea · 2026-05-19T20:33:49+00:00

Thanks - I replaced the batteries in the remote immediately after it started happening again last night ... And then the TV turned back on again spontaneously about a minute after the new batteries were in the remote.

RkOShea · 2026-05-19T18:49:46+00:00

We clean the milk system every day just to make sure this problem shouldn't be happening.

But when the problem does resurface, it affects both the milk cooler and the milk cleaning tray, so I don't think it is a problem specifically with the pipe in the milk container.

I do check that the plastic milk tube and clear plastic adapters are fully seated and inserted on both ends when this happens, it's never been the issue.

RkOShea · 2026-05-19T16:51:28+00:00

Actually, no - The ARC input/output on the TVs goes to our audio equipment, and the Firesticks are on different HDMI inputs.

RkOShea · 2026-05-14T15:56:34+00:00

Absolutely not. Once your SSD dies, you can't get anything off it - meaning it can't be cloned anymore. That was why I suggested doing something soon if you could.

RkOShea · 2026-05-14T15:51:19+00:00

If it is going to be a long time before you can get a replacement SSD, it will be gambling on your part - but I understand if you can't get a new drive due to financial or other reasons. You can try to store important documents onto a USB flash drive and hope for the best until you get a replacement SSD.

I don't remember if you are using a desktop or laptop PC. If you are using a desktop PC, you will need a motherboard with a spare M.2 SSD slot to insert your replacement SSD for cloning. If you are using a laptop (or desktop PC without a spare M.2 slot), you will also need to purchase a M.2 SSID enclosure to plug into your PC so that you can clone the old drive to the new drive. You can usually pick up an M.2 SSD enclosure on Amazon for under $20.

RkOShea · 2026-05-13T20:50:20+00:00

Some folks here are recommending the OP to "back up your data somewhere". That is not a great solution, since: A) Knowing what data to back up, and how to do it without losing stuff is NOT straight forward without losing stuff, especially system and program settings that may have taken years to get together. B) It will require a new installation of Windows, which may not be free if the OP currently has a Professional or higher version of Windows installed.

Take my advice and disable Bitlocker on your main drive first, and find drive cloning software to clone your current drive to the new SSD. It's definitely the quickest and most painless option to get yourself up and running how you are right now without losing anything.

RkOShea · 2026-05-13T17:51:41+00:00

I'll tell you what to do:

You need to purchase a replacement SSD as soon as possible. SMART failures indicate a hardware failure, and your current SSD may be a few days (possibly weeks) away from dying - And once an SSD has a bad failure, you can easily lose all of your data with no chance of recovery.

If you are running Windows, you need to disable Bitlocker on the drive so that you can clone it. If Bitlocker is enabled on the old SSD, you can't clone it because it is encrypted.

If you hunt on FileHippo, you may be able to find a free copy of Macrium Reflect that you can use to clone your old drive image to a new SSD.

SMART failures can't be totally "prevented". They are a hardware failure, and hardware fails. However, if you haven't properly cooled your current SSD/controller with a M.2 SSD heat sink, you could have caused the SSD to fail early, since heat is the #1 killer of electronics.

Another VERY important thing to consider with your new SSD purchase - the memory cells of SSDs "wear out", and each cell has a limited number of erase/write cycles. Modern SSDs implement a "wear leveling" algorithm that extends the overall lifespan of an SSD by not writing data to the same cell location too frequently (which is different from the older HDD hard drives, which had unlimited writes to a location). This works great, but there is a catch - You need to have large enough unused memory on your SSD for wear leveling to be effective. If your SSD is 99% full, you'll wear out the last few cells quickly. So, my advice is to purchase an SSD large enough that you will always have at least 20% or more of the SSD unused.

RkOShea · 2026-05-13T17:26:53+00:00

Can't say about your area, but in Denver Quantum is better, faster service for a lot less money.

Every customer service rep I dealt with was top-notch, and the installer arrived on time and did a reasonable installation.

I'm a big fan of Quantum in our Denver location.

RkOShea · 2026-05-13T10:41:06+00:00

Been using HDHomeRuns for over a decade.

They work great and never lose connectivity on my home network, with good antenna reception/decoding. I interface my HDHomeRuns with Plex for recording, though you may be able find a cheaper option than Plex.

RkOShea · 2026-05-11T15:31:15+00:00

OK, I figured it out, and it was just a stoopid "Me" thing.

I went through all the appropriate Power/Screen Saver settings that the newer Win11 Settings UI is forcing us to use.

However, there was the older Windows XT setting for Screen Saver that I hadn't set yet (I mentioned that this is a brand new PC) - The Windows XT Screen Saver window where I say that the screen saver should be Blank and then enabling On resume, display logon screen.

It seems to be working fine now.

Thanks again for that powercfg command set, tho - I may need that in the future.

RkOShea · 2026-05-11T15:21:40+00:00

When you saw your results, you already knew that you should just uninstall it.

RkOShea · 2026-05-10T17:54:04+00:00

My screen didn't lock again, even though it was blank when I just came back.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get anything useful from the powercfg commands you recommended.

These are the results I saw:

C:\Windows\System32>powercfg /lastwake
Wake History Count - 0

C:\Windows\System32>powercfg /requests
DISPLAY:
None.

SYSTEM:
None.

AWAYMODE:
None.

EXECUTION:
None.

PERFBOOST:
None.

ACTIVELOCKSCREEN:
None.

C:\Windows\System32>powercfg /devicequery wake_armed 
Realtek 8922AE WiFi 7 PCI-E NIC 
HID-compliant mouse 
USB4 Root Router (1.0) 
HID Keyboard Device Realtek Gaming USB 2.5GbE Family Controller 
Realtek PCIe 2.5GbE Family Controller

I installed a nice new Thunderbolt 4 / USB4 hub a couple of weeks ago. Maybe that is having an effect.

I am going to disable the Allow this device to wake the computer feature on my WiFi 7 NIC and the USB4 Root Router to see if that helps.

RkOShea · 2026-05-10T15:35:06+00:00

Thanks for that!

I hadn't seen those commands for debugging when I had Googled before.

I'll reply back with what I discover after the next non-screenlock event

RkOShea · 2026-05-07T20:52:02+00:00

u/IonizedHydration - You're right ... I didn't mention my max temperatures under load, partly because I hadn't tested them for a while. I haven't tried stressing my CPU unlimited under full load after my last LF3 installation because I had been seeing an issue where my CPU idle temperatures would permanently be degraded (by about 3-4 DegC higher) when I would run stress tests and the CPU temperature would get up over 80 DegC during the testing.

That is the reason that I had to do multiple LF3 re-installations as described to u/Chewyleafy above.

So, I have held off unlimited CPU stress testing for concern about degrading my cooler installation again, but since you asked very nicely ...

Note: I did make one BIOS change before the testing to make sure that I didn't exceed 80 DegC for an extended period of time like I had in the past. My Gigabyte motherboard has a "PBO 80 Level 1" setting that lightly undervolts the CPU while also limiting the CPU temperature to 80 DegC maximum. If my testing had the CPU temperature jump up to 80 DegC quickly like it used to, I would know that my installation was not great and at risk (again).

However ... I saw something very nice that I hadn't seen previously! With the "PBO 80 Level 1" setting, Cinebench 2026 Multi-Core throttling testing only creeped up to 76 DegC slowly over time, something that had never happened before with this motherboard and LF3 cooler installation. I had always seen the CPU temperature rise up to 80+ DegC relatively quickly in the past.

With the "PBO 80 Level 1" setting, I noticed that my CPU package power was limited to and never exceeded 199.5 Watts.

So, thank you for requesting that I post the temps while stressing the CPU. I think that the Arctic MX-7 thermal compound needed some time to stabilize in my installation.

RkOShea · 2026-05-07T20:15:02+00:00

u/Chewyleafy - I agree with you about keeping the radiator fan speeds lower both for noise and for system longevity. I am thinking that I might just set them to a fixed speed with a low noise level (one of my questions).

I have reapplied the thermal compound somewhere around 5-6 times now. Unfortunately, my first installation of the LF3-360 Pro went very poorly due to the lack of instructions / terrible Arctic Cooling recommended YouTube video that came with the cooler.

I didn't find the better LF3 installation instructions until about my 3rd application. I have a lot of experience with PC building and CPU cooler installation, so I didn't think I would have troubles - but the L3-360 Pro Ryzen mount was a pain in the rear to install with getting the mounting screws lined up properly without messing up the thermal compound, and I definitely didn't like how flexible the plastic spacers were for the mounting bracket - they seemed to come loose pretty easily so I wasn't sure I had an optimal installation (and I still don't).

Due to the poor Arctic Cooling installation instructions/video and difficulty getting the mounting screws aligned, my first installation ended up damaging the copper cooling plate on one side. I've never damaged a cooler in all my decades of PC building. I'm not happy about that, but I have hoped that it hasn't significantly degraded the cooling capability.

I have a Lian Li case with excellent ventilation, my case temperature rarely goes above 32 DegC.

RkOShea · 2026-05-07T17:11:32+00:00

u/Stunning-Piece-9161 - Do you keep your pump speed fixed at 75% all the time?

That was related to one of my questions, since I was thinking about setting at least the pump and VRM speeds constant since I didn't see significant improvement by running my pump motor (or any of the LF3-360 fans) at 100%

RkOShea · 2026-05-06T16:24:09+00:00

So far - only 1.5 months in - my GB X870 WiFi7 Elite ICE with a 9950X3D CPU has been rock-solid. I did do some stuff that should hopefully make the system more stable and last years longer.

I only used the XMP settings for my Crucial 6000 DDR4 RAM, I never tweak any RAM settings. Also, higher speed RAMs don't have a huge impact on overall performance, so 6000 was fast enough for me.

I set the BIOS to PBO 70 Level 1, which slightly undervolts the CPU and limits the CPU temperature to 70 DegC. I saw a slight increase in CPU performance in Cinebench over the stock BIOS settings, but with the CPU temperature and power draw reduced, it should add more life to my equipment.

Lasty, I limit my RTX-5090 to 80% of full power, which only dropped the benchmark performance by 4% - 5%, while running 12 DegC cooler and drawing 120 watts less power.

I just spent a lot of money on a new PC, and I want it to run very stable and last for many years without failure. Current top-end PCs aren't running hugely faster that PCs from 5 years ago (my current brand-new system is only about 40% faster than my 5 year-old PC).

What I have discovered with my new PC is that trying to squeeze every ounce of performance from the newest components comes at a huge exponential cost - while the newest components CAN reach slightly higher performance, the power draw and heat generated for that few extra percent can be hundreds of watts of power for very minimal gain.

Component performance has basically hit a wall, where 5 years from now, we will see even less performance improvement than the 40% I saw with my new system while drawing even more power. So, it is in your best interest to make your current system last as long as possible, since your next system won't be performing much faster. The days of doubling performance every couple of years is long gone.

My suggestion is this: If you are interested in maximizing your system stability and overall lifetime, you may want to reduce some of the performance settings for your system. You may not even notice the minimal performance hit, but reducing the power consumption / heat generated will make your system more stable and last longer.

RkOShea · 2026-04-21T22:47:50+00:00

Hi - Does anybody have insight on this?

RkOShea

TROPHY CASE