How to fix poor fan response on Thermalright PA120 SE?
During stealth simulations, my CPU temp would suddenly rocket from 65℃ to 92℃, causing the clock speed to dive from 5.2GHz to 3.1GHz. It made the whole game feel sluggish. The stock fan curve on the PA120 SE is way too conservative, keeping the fans at 800 RPM until the CPU hits 80℃. I tried switching the Windows power plan to 'High Performance', but that just made the heat build up faster and triggered the throttle even sooner—definitely a mistake. I went into the BIOS and built a custom PWM curve, cranking the fans to 1800 RPM as soon as it hits 75℃, and flipped the fan orientation to a high-pressure exhaust setup. In AIDA64, peak temps dropped from 94℃ to 76-82℃, and the throttling stopped. The fans were deafening at first, but I dialed the sub-60℃ speed down to 600 RPM to find a balance. CPU load is around 70% and the temps are even.
