I built my very first PC a week ago and I still haven't found out why my CPU (FX 6300) fan keeps spinning at 100% all the time, even when CPU load is at 1% in Windows. I even bought a new cooler for it, a Cooler Master Hyper TX3 Evo, but it didn't solve the problem. Both Speedfan and CPUID HWmonitor display the CPU temp at 41C at idle. I have not done any CPU overclocking and all the motherboard BIOS settings are on default.
I'm starting to think that either my CPU or Mobo is broken because everything else runs cool and quiet in my PC. Here's the complete list of my specs:
AMD FX 6300 at stock, Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO
MSI 970A-G43
8BG 1600MHz G Skill ripjaws memory
XFX R9 280 OC'd to 1085MHz
Fractal Design Tesla R2 650W 80 plus gold
Zalman Z3 Plus case
Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD
Windows 8.1 64Bit
So, help would be much appreciated because I'm also getting low GPU usage in some games and I want to OC my CPU but I'm afraid I'll fry it. Speedfan shows my CPU temps going way above 60C while in BF3. I'm running out of ideas on how to fix the issue.
You should be able to adjust your cpu fan header in the bios, and/or just grab a 92mm noctua fan for it. That stock cm fan is best left for the spare parts bin imho.
I can't speak for your cooler as I personally use a Dark Night II but when I was running my FX-6300 on the stock cooler on stock settings in Texas in Summer in my study (which is warmer than the rest of my house) in a crappy Rosewill case with bad airflow .... I was idling at sub 20C usually in the mid teens and around 60C when using prime95 .... Point being that's defiantly not normal at IDLE especially if your fan is running full speed.
You sure you don't have any background services that may be running on your pc from a recent program install?
Just recently I downloaded some drivers for an old device from a shady website and it downloaded all sorts of bloatware with it .... I knew something was wrong because Windows showed my CPU usage as non-existant and yet things like CPUZ showed my processor running at a full 4.3GHZ and my temps looking like I was running PRIME95, AIDA64, Furmark, Kobustor, and anything else that would dump heat so it may be possible that you have something running in the background.
Fiddle around in your motherboard's UEFI until you find some hardware monitor or CPU fan control. My MSI board used to also run my CPU fan at 100%, but I found the option to set a target temperature and minimum fan speed.