CPU overheating - helping troubleshooting

[pillowsk3]

Hi, I recently built a new pc. Here is my parts list:
http://pcpartpicker.com/b/YThqqs

My cpu keeps on overheating. Originally I thought it was because of the foam pads on my case, so I took off one of the sides and also opened the front panel door and took some panels off.

But it still seems to overheat; when I was playing Aion: Ascension it overheated and shut itself off. My fans all seem to work so I can't figure out what's wrong with it.

Please help - what is it? Not enough fans? Not enough power?

 

[NarbiusTheGreat]

It shouldn't be overheating. You have a great CPU cooler. You may have put on the thermal paste incorrectly or you put the CPU cooler on incorrectly. Check those first.

 

[geofelt]

One common mistake is to use too much paste.
It will act as an insulator.
A small drop will spread under heat and pressure.
Is the cooler fan spinning?

Have you overclocked the FX-8350?

 

[pillowsk3]

Thanks, I think maybe the issue is that we removed and remounted the cooler several times while trying to put together the motherboard, but didn't clean up/reapply thermal paste each time. It was spread as thin as possible so I don't think the issue is that there is too much paste.

I ordered "Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound, 3.5 Grams" and am waiting for it to arrive. I'll post my results soon, wish me luck.

 

[geofelt]

You absolutely do need to clean old paste off before applying new.
Use alcohol and a lint free paper coffee filter to do the cleaning.
Pay particular attention to tightening the cooler. Rotate tightening in a pattern so that it goes down evenly.