Yea, last time I had a CPU spike that high, I had some throttling. I didn't notice it this time. I'm not at home so I can't tell you which program I'm using.
I'll try Speedfan.
The build is 2 years old. But like I said, I can feel the heat on the CPU cooler radiator. That should mean that there's a solid connection between CPU and cooler. Perhaps I'll buy some new thermal paste and re-seat the 212 EVO.
Hmmm I would think your paste is fine then (unless there's not enough).. yea I'd try reseating, maybe even try cleaning it?
I have 2 dogs w/ carpet - with the way my case/board is designed I pretty much leave the side of it off when gaming (part of it is that my sound card has about an inch or less in space from one of the cards), and I hit my GPU and CPU fans every day or every other day a little bit. That dust/dog hair adds up quick
some people think I'm crazy for doing this but when I want a real good thorough clean, which i try to do every 6 months or so, I go to a buddy's or find an air compressor
that has a water separator and hit it with that...does wonders, but don't do it without a separator (and be somewhat gentle of the smaller/weaker parts)..
You'd be surprised how much dust gets caught in the PSU - by far the most of all the pieces in the machine