Burning smell from computer, computer also slowed down.

[Mike63312]

I've been using my computer for 2 years now, no problems relating to a burning smell. Untill now. I noticed a burning smell, it was quite severe. I tried to track it down, and it led to my CPU
My CPU is a I7-4790k,
I can feel the burning smell even when it's idle.

 

[Xibyth]

There is likely a short going on producing heat and hitting the systemboard somewhere near the CPU socket, if there is no smoke thats so far a good sign. Remove your heatsink/waterblock, if you can already smell the burning tracking down the culprit from there should not be too difficult, just look for heat marks and dark spots, once you find the area clean it thoroughly with isopropyl alcohol. I would take this time to clean the heatsink thoroughly as well and the fan, as well as a good dusting of the rest of the system, bear in mind it's pretty common to have metal fragments to fall on the back of the GPU, so I would also check there and insure that all cables are fully seated and if found nowhere else, check them for scorch marks.