How to lower CPU temperature in 2024 – 9 ways to cool down your CPU

One extremely simple way to ensure acceptable CPU temperatures is to have the correct airflow configuration within your PC. Of course, open airflow cases are excluded because they’re an entirely different beast, but for your ‘normal’ PC cases there are a few configurations you need to understand.

First, we have ‘Positive pressure’: this configuration puts more air into your PC than is being exhausted, so there’s hot air almost stagnating within the PC. The opposite of this is the ‘negative pressure’ configuration that consists of more air being exhausted from the PC case than is entering. This creates a pocket of void space that ideally we’d like a nice stream of air to fill.

These two configurations are less than ideal. The only way it would work efficiently is if you had access to and full control of every single fan to compensate for either the positive or negative difference.

The ideal configuration is ‘neutral pressure’ meaning you have just as much air entering as you have exhausting, creating a flow of air that doesn’t get caught up or stagnate inside your PC case.

Cable management is a factor in not just CPU temperature control but overall temperature control. Messy cables can disrupt a clean flow of air and create object resistances we don’t need when trying to create a free-flowing efficient cooling environment. Keep those cables in check.

Another common reason for CPU temperatures to skyrocket is by situating your system in a poorly ventilated area. Regardless of how efficient your airflow configuration is, or how well-rated for airflow your case is, your CPU will get hot if you don’t have any cool fresh air getting to it in the first place.

Fans are solely responsible for the intake and exhaustion of air to and from your PC, so it’s imperative that you keep them well maintained. Fans experience much higher air exposure than most PC components as they’re the only hardware responsible for pushing air through your PC. All this air exposure brings with it dust and debris.

Like everything else in your house fans get dusty and require regular cleaning. Don’t be ashamed, PCs in the cleanest of houses still get dusty, it really is inevitable. All this dust can cause more than a few problems, from electrical issues to fan failures, and you don’t want any of these things happening. To clean your fans (and the rest of your PC) simply take it outside and clean it out with a can of compressed air. If you’re an avid gamer and feel you’re going to be doing this a lot, it’s perfectly acceptable to buy a compressor of some sort to save you buying a can of air every few weeks.

There’s been a long-standing debate in the PC space that open-air cases are advantageous in terms of airflow. This is, however surprisingly, counterintuitive as open-air cases cause a few more issues than they fix. However, they do look amazing when done right. Without a closed directional system the cooling capabilities become more inefficient. The open case also invites in much more dust due to the absence of various filters. Because of these simple facts, open-air cases are out. Unless you’re fine with cleaning your PC every week or so.

There’s been a long-standing debate in the PC space that open-air cases are advantageous in terms of airflow, they are however surprisingly counterintuitive as open-air cases cause a few more issues than they fix, they do however look amazing when done right.

Without a closed directional system the cooling capabilities become more inefficient, the open case also invites in much more dust due to the absence of various filters.

Due to these few simple facts, open-air cases are out. Unless you’re fine with cleaning your PC every week or so.

Stock coolers are great for the bare minimum cooling capacity, the coolers that work just well enough to be functional. You shouldn’t expect to get respectable CPU temperatures with mediocre cooling solutions at best, though. Installing aftermarket cooling solutions can get a little pricy at the high end, but the difference in temperature can be night and day. Of course, there are budget options available but as with anything, budget options have limitations. Better to go with a CPU cooler with no compromises like the ASUS Ryujin II for example, especially if you plan on overclocking your CPU. AIO or (all in one) coolers work magic in terms of reducing CPU temperatures and keeping them at bay. AIO coolers offer an excellent mid-way between the sometimes disappointing performance of air coolers in comparison to liquid-based coolers, and the scarily daunting custom water cooling solutions. AIO installations follow the same basic models and you can find a tutorial in the article outlined above, just in case you run into any issues.

Reapplying the thermal paste can work wonders when attempting to lower your CPU temperatures, thermal paste becomes dry and cracks when left unchanged for long periods of time. As it’s a thermally conductive compound it’s also subject to thermal decomposition so the more you use it the lower its longevity.

You can increase the thermal pastes life span and the efficiency of said paste by purchasing higher quality paste. but generally, thermal paste can already withstand a number of years of use but this number is subjective and situational so we won’t outline how long thermal paste is supposed to last.

We will however, advise that you change your thermal paste once every one to one and a half years, to ensure proper performance. Or if you remove your cooler for any reason it’s always best to reapply.

If you’re unsure about the logistics of applying thermal paste, check out this article on how to properly apply thermal paste.

How many fans do you have in your PC? if the answer is three or less, you could probably benefit from an additional fan or two (providing your case supports extra fans). We outlined the importance of airflow configurations earlier but if you can, you should add more fans to your airflow setup. You’ll be adding a stronger airflow aiding your PC in achieving a lower operating temperature.

Manually adjusting the CPU fan or fan curve in your motherboard’s BIOS (basic input-output system) can work well when attempting to keep high CPU temperatures at bay. By default, CPU fan control is set to ‘Auto’ – this curve profile is designed to be a hybrid between noise and effectiveness. In general, allowing the motherboard to control the CPU fan speed based on a temperature variable is smart and effective, but there’s some cooling performance to be had by simply adjusting the curve. If you’re a headset gamer and aren’t phased by a little extra noise erupting from your PC then you can achieve better temperatures by creating a more airflow heavy curve. But of course, having your CPU fan spinning at 100% speed for the foreseeable future will do nothing for its longevity. Contrarily, if you’re a gamer more conscious of noise, you can try adjusting the curve more steadily. The next few steps may look scary, especially if you’re not accustomed to navigating a motherboard BIOS. You do have the potential to break your PC in here, but if you follow the steps closely you’ll be just fine. Your motherboard layout will look slightly different, but most have access to fan controls in the ‘Easy mode’ section. If you’re unsure just look up your motherboard manual or check out: How to check what motherboard you have.