After a lengthy FC5 session my pc bluescreened, and then hard-locked during forced reboot into Linux (Fedora). The second reboot worked ok (I guess it cooled down a bit), and I ran the usual chkdsk on ntfs volumes which effected some needed repairs, and fsck on ext 4 volumes which apparently did not need repairs. Suspecting overheating, I installed "Core Temp" on Windows 7 and ran FC5. Shonuff the Athlon X4 950 was running maxed out @ 3.7G, and blowing past 95C during game play.

I guess it's been doing this right along and was pushed over the edge by some particularly demanding Arcade games played a bit too long.

Side note: our building lacks thermostatically-controlled heating, so the super just sets it to Full-Blast/Torrid, to keep our numerous South Asian co-tenants in the style to which they are accustomed (typically 28C ambient or hotter in our apartment).

Yes, we have to keep the windows open when it is literally -30C outside (which it is as I speak). That cools it down to ~26C. Suffice to say shorts and t-shirt are appropriate dress.

Anyhoo I made a few adjustments in bios (cpu performance boost disabled), and put it into power saving mode in Windows 7, dialing down cpu max to 95% in advanced settings.

Now it runs much cooler (max 77C on my most recent session), without any apparent performance penalty in game, despite the cpu remaining at 3.2G without the boost.

Here's the kicker: I DID NOT NEED TO OPEN THE CASE TO BLOW OUT DUST OR INSTALL ANOTHER FAN.  :-O~~~

Mister Lazy wins again!  LMAO

bet you could do with taking the heatsink off and redoing the thermal paste. As well as clearing the dust. What fun!

I was sooo hoping to replace the cpu with a beefier Ryzen 5 2600 (the latest version with 6-cores on 12nm), but foolishly waited for the price to come down before the pandemic demand spike + supply chain schmoz went and doubled it. There's other stuff that needs doing inside the case, putting it off as long as possible!

I want to to upgrade my CPU too. But it'll mean a new motherboard, which probably means new RAM. And then a more modern case might be nice. At which point I'm spending too much money and almost getting a whole new PC, bah.

Yeah my plan is to upgrade the cpu, and then the gpu. Really hoping the supply chain thing cools down and the crypto crowd goes and drowns itself in the lake RSN.

Oi! Crypto means Cryptography! :@

We may have lost the term hacker, we do NOT have to give in to the digital currency kids.

Hmmm.

"Matt Blaze has stated in 2018 that "I think calling cryptocurrencies ‘crypto’ is a poor choice, with bad consequences for both cryptography and cryptocurrencies". Matt Blaze has registered the domain crypto.com in 1993, which he sold in 2018 to a cryptocurrency company."

Fucking sellout. :@

I hate everything about crypyocurrencies, from the idea to the execution. 
That's it, essentially.