Please be kind. I used to be really good at this stuff. Now I'm recovering from PTSD and I'm only recently remembering what I used to know and catching up with having fallen behind.
I bought my PC about two years ago while still in a state where I had to trust a computer store to construct one for me to my needs. It's got an ASUS MSA97 R2.0 motherboard, with an AMD FX 6300 6-core, 3.5 GHz, cpu, and 16 GB of ram. I recently updated the GPU to a GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Ventus XS 6GB, OC from a GeForce 960 (I think).
From the first month I got it, it ran Photoshop, etc. and ProTools (the essentials for work) with no problems at all. However, when I attempted to play Civ VI on it, I got a warning, after I'd quit, that the CPU had reached temperatures over 65 C! Any time I attempted to play a near modern game, the same thing would happen.
Eventually I installed Afterburner and used it to set all the fan speeds to 100% and while a bit noisy, it seemed to work. I'd still get the warning, far too often for my comfort.
Recently, I replaced my GPU with the 1660, and for a bit, the warnings went away. Then I got The Sims 3 (don't judge), and while it seemed to be working fine at first, I began getting the warnings of higher than 65 C temperatures in the CPU again. Looking at Afterburner's Logs, I found it was spiking up to 75 C. This has gone on, more or less for two years, yet, my PC has shown no signs of becoming damaged.
Very recently, I remembered my physics courses from college and how convection works and realized the jerk that built my computer only added one fan on the front of the case. Other than that there's the CPU's fan and the GPU's fans, and one fan on the bottom for the power supply. The way it's set up, there's very little airflow. I've ordered four fans (why not?), so I can add one to the top, two to the back and one more on the front. There are easy spots in all those places for a basic fan. I got four for $17.99.
Now, I think I know what's been causing the problems this whole time and I'll soon be fixing it. What I need from the groupmind here is if, my guess about the problem is correct. If not, what might it be? Have I likely damaged my PC? How can I tell for sure? Should I just get a new CPU? How can I get my system to break into whatever program is running to inform me that the CPU is overheating? Can I use a fan (blowing away from the computer) safely in back of it to create more airflow until the fans arrive? Should I just thank my lucky stars it hasn't bricked yet and not turn it on again until I've installed the new fans? Is it possible that I've been getting false readings all this time? It has happened way too often, such that I figured something would have melted aready if it was going to. Is that reasonable?
I'm feeling lost and frustrated with the whole thing and the last thing I want to do is wreck my work (freelance) computer playing games. Please help!
I bought my PC about two years ago while still in a state where I had to trust a computer store to construct one for me to my needs. It's got an ASUS MSA97 R2.0 motherboard, with an AMD FX 6300 6-core, 3.5 GHz, cpu, and 16 GB of ram. I recently updated the GPU to a GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Ventus XS 6GB, OC from a GeForce 960 (I think).
From the first month I got it, it ran Photoshop, etc. and ProTools (the essentials for work) with no problems at all. However, when I attempted to play Civ VI on it, I got a warning, after I'd quit, that the CPU had reached temperatures over 65 C! Any time I attempted to play a near modern game, the same thing would happen.
Eventually I installed Afterburner and used it to set all the fan speeds to 100% and while a bit noisy, it seemed to work. I'd still get the warning, far too often for my comfort.
Recently, I replaced my GPU with the 1660, and for a bit, the warnings went away. Then I got The Sims 3 (don't judge), and while it seemed to be working fine at first, I began getting the warnings of higher than 65 C temperatures in the CPU again. Looking at Afterburner's Logs, I found it was spiking up to 75 C. This has gone on, more or less for two years, yet, my PC has shown no signs of becoming damaged.
Very recently, I remembered my physics courses from college and how convection works and realized the jerk that built my computer only added one fan on the front of the case. Other than that there's the CPU's fan and the GPU's fans, and one fan on the bottom for the power supply. The way it's set up, there's very little airflow. I've ordered four fans (why not?), so I can add one to the top, two to the back and one more on the front. There are easy spots in all those places for a basic fan. I got four for $17.99.
Now, I think I know what's been causing the problems this whole time and I'll soon be fixing it. What I need from the groupmind here is if, my guess about the problem is correct. If not, what might it be? Have I likely damaged my PC? How can I tell for sure? Should I just get a new CPU? How can I get my system to break into whatever program is running to inform me that the CPU is overheating? Can I use a fan (blowing away from the computer) safely in back of it to create more airflow until the fans arrive? Should I just thank my lucky stars it hasn't bricked yet and not turn it on again until I've installed the new fans? Is it possible that I've been getting false readings all this time? It has happened way too often, such that I figured something would have melted aready if it was going to. Is that reasonable?
I'm feeling lost and frustrated with the whole thing and the last thing I want to do is wreck my work (freelance) computer playing games. Please help!