HOT smell advice req'd plz

ok so after some consultation from you very knowledgable people here I have build my new pc with the following stats.

x4 phenom II 955be ( with stock cooling)
gigabyte MA790XT-UD4P mobo
powercolor radeon 4890 HD 1 gig GDDR5 gpu
thermaltake v9 gaming case
600w seasonic M12
4 gig kingston 1333 DDR3 ram
1 terrabyte sata WD HDD
sata dvd burner
vista 64 bit premium

Its been running with a 19 inch monitor atm as i havnt had it hooked to the net yet.


I have a quick question for you knowledgable people as i tend to panic when i spend a fair bit of cash

There is a hot smell when its running (is this normal?)
I opened the side of the case and put my hand in and the only place generating any heat is the GPU on the side closest to the case back.
now its not hot so you cant touch it but it is fairly warm. I dont have anything on the comp using the gpu at the moment except vista.

Is this normal (am i pannicking for no reason?) and if it isnt any tips?

thanks in advance.

Hello I recommend you post us the temperature readings in your computer. You can check this by downloading a small program called SpeedFan.

Link: http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

It's not uncommon to smell an "electrical" scent when you power up a brand new system for the first time. (Not saying you shouldn't be cautious, but it is a possibility). It's usually good to give a new system some "burn-in" time... that is, let it sit and run for a while. The system I'm using ran overnight before I shut it off and installed the hard drive and began installing the O/S. I also always buy a motherboard with built-in temperature sensors that can be checked from the BIOS... very handy when you want to keep an eye on things during "burn-in".

Definitely check your temps as posted above though, just in case.

ok I havnt got my comp hooked up to the net as yet as i didnt want to leave it on for extended periods. but I d/l speed fan on thisone and put it onto the new one. this one shows the gpu temp but once installed on the new comp there isnt a gpu showing up. but all the temps that are showing for example the cpu is running at 0-0.5% peak and the 4 temps core is 30 degrees and the other 3 range from 26-30 degrees

That smell is Plasma is it not? Plasma is generated when electricity travels through air, and it also heats it up?!

Anyways, download one of the 3 major temp reading proggies out there and see what your GPU is cooking at.

ok thanks for the heads up after running the heat tests on the cpu the smelll seems to have gone away it may have been as simple as the new smell as suspected. I couldnt find a gpu temp test that actually worked any links by any chance? I tried ati tool on my older comp and it worked fine but did nt work on the new comp.

i use Everest Ultimate - they have a free trial version too which would give you all the temp info that you need. Every computer I have ever built has that "hot electric mixed with new plastic" smell, although some smell that way much more than others.... it's most likely just the normal breaking in period that you smelled.