Your CPU temperature is gradually increasing because of ongoing system activity or hardware strain.
Your CPU temperature is gradually increasing because of ongoing system activity or hardware strain.
Here are some rephrased versions of your notes:
The system runs the i7-14700K without a contact frame or overclocking. It uses the Corsair H150i 360 AIO STRIX Z790-E Gaming WiFi II, which is running the latest BIOS with MCE disabled. The Dominator Titanium DDR5-7200 is installed, and the GTX 1080Ti is also present without any overclocking. The cooling setup includes three front intake fans, three rear intake fans (on the AIO), and a single rear exhaust fan. All fans operate on the 'Balanced' setting, while the AIO pump runs in 'Quiet' mode.
When I power on, the idle temperature stays around 35°C. After a few minutes of inactivity, it gradually increases to about 40-45°C and then settles. This pattern repeats whether I idle or run the system, and it never goes beyond that range. Even after extended gaming sessions, the temperature remains stable within that window. Under load, it can reach 55-70°C during gaming (around 65-70°C for PUBG and 55-60°C for BF2042), but never exceeds roughly 97°C.
There have been no crashes, BSOs, or other issues. Since this is primarily a gaming rig, I’m not overly concerned about thermal throttling during stress tests. The coolant temperature typically stays near 42°C, as reported by iCUE. During the final minutes of a 30-minute Cinebench test, it stabilized for over ten minutes before that.
Your question: Is a gradual rise of about 6-10°C in idle temps within normal limits for this CPU? Could it signal a cooling issue, or is it just the AIO reaching equilibrium? I recall the coolant never spiking above around 42°C.
Your AIO starts with cool water. When your PC starts, the temperature climbs slowly as heat is released through the radiator until balance is achieved. Because water can hold a lot of heat, it takes time to reach equilibrium. Using an air cooler would speed things up since only the radiator metal needs warming. After gaming, the water should warm up more and take longer to cool down.