AMD 8350 FX overheating/sluggish, suggestions?

[Nick Dragon]

Hi guys, sorry to be a bother but I have seen the help you give to us more non-technical people and I am very hopeful you can give me a hand with this.

I have an AMD 8350 FX and it has never really got me the best performance, I play ArmA 3 and ArmA 2 most of the time which are two very intensive games, I have been freezing and lagging every now and again and sometimes the game will just be at 1 frame for about 5 seconds at a time. The fan is also very loud especially on power up. I am unsure if I have enough space for a CPU cooler, I checked for a fan spot but there is no ports on the motherboard for adding another fan. I do not know if it will help replacing one of the stock fans would help. Is there a way I can monitor my hardware usage while playing if possible? One friend said it may not all be due to the CPU and possibly my graphics card.

Here are my specs and a picture of my PC internally.

http://puu.sh/ktHvY/2d07c6bdae.jpg

GeForce GTX 770
AMD 8350 FX
8GB of DDR3 RAM

Once again thanks for reading, I hope you can help me

 

[popatim]

If you have the stock cooler its time to replace it, which case do you have?

 

[Nick Dragon]

If you have the stock cooler its time to replace it, which case do you have?

Zalman Z11 Plus, sorry should of probably mentioned this. Thanks for answering.

 

[madmatt30]

That's an m5a97 board ?? Plenty of fan headers on that board mate.
As above aftermarket cooler.

Fair bit of dust in there mate - not an embarrassing amount or anything but dust all the same , will always stifle fan performance a little.

 

[madmatt30]

You already have a 120mm front intake & a rear 120mm exhaust in there - are they both running OK?

Those 2 fans generally are enough for a single GPU system - I'd turn your PSU the other way round though personally unless your PC is sitting on carpet.

 

[Nick Dragon]

You already have a 120mm front intake & a rear 120mm exhaust in there - are they both running OK?

Those 2 fans generally are enough for a single GPU system - I'd turn your PSU the other way round though personally unless your PC is sitting on carpet.

My PC is held above the ground to prevent dust gain, I did move house recently and this probably caused a lot of dust intake. M5A97 is correct, as far as know the fans are running correctly and do not fail, I have monitored them for 20 seconds after startup and nothing bad has happened. My friend also runs a 8350 and says he also has noise issues so perhaps it is not just me?

More pictures from inside if it helps to see more http://puu.sh/ku1p3/961a965a45.jpg and http://puu.sh/ku1tQ/b9e17c3801.jpg

I have ordered a air canister to clear the dust from the inside but I was thinking with the poor performance on some games I should perhaps invest in a better heatsink and overclock?

Its the overheating that is confusing as its only happened since I have moved house and it happens with no processes apart from start up ones running (nothing too intensive, anti-virus and hardware software) after it overheats it will shut down and I just give it a minute and it will work again. Really has confused me. Also would a recording (video or audio) of the volume of the 8350 help?

Thanks again.

 

[Lawrence Taylor]

do you have any ventilation holes on the bottom of your PC? If so, turn your PSU over and let it intake air from the bottom. That way it would stop trying to suck in the air your GPU is trying to take.

 

[madmatt30]

The stock amd cooler has always been 'barely' capable of keeping an 8350 under control.I can't believe you had no noise issues prior - I can't bring myself to use the stock coolers on any amd build personally.

Could be dust ,something could be loose or not quite seated right after moving your PC around.
I'd reset your RAM & GPU just for the sake of it.

You have ample case cooling looking at it - that's not a problem.an aftermarket cooler would honestly be a sensible purchase , any decent 120mm tower will pay dividends with an 8350.

 

[Nick Dragon]

I took a look Lawrence, not much ventilation at the bottom of the case. Madmatt30 I think you are correct in saying I should try going for a new cooler, rather than the stock one. Does this look acceptable? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cooler-Master-RR-212E-16PK-R1-Performance-Universal/dp/B0068OI7T8

I found out my neighbor has a air canister and I did have a good spray around so it has been performing better, first thing this morning it did not overheat but still is very loud and had an okay performance on my games.

 

[madmatt30]

The 212 evo is decent mate - you can't really go wrong with it , it'll do a good job.

Lawrence is right though - that case is designed to have the PSU fan at the bottom venting through the case.

 

[Nick Dragon]

Sorry for the extremely late reply, I hate to say I forgot about the thread but it just bumped up in my mind just now.

I checked around a bought the 212 Evo and I am no longer suffering any problems as well as doing a good clean of the dust.