Strange whirring noise leads to lower FPS

[wootwoot]

Hey guys,

Specs:
AMD Phenom X4 955 Black Edition
Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 Motherboard
8GB RAM Kingston
WD 320GB hard drive 8MB cache 5400 RPM (bought used)
Powercolor HD 6850 1GB
Coolermaster eXtreme Power Plus 600W
Antec 300 case

For the past week or so, all of my start ups have been accompanied by this loud, clicking/whirring sound that I have not heard in the 10 months that I have been using this computer. The first couple of days I wasn't too bothered to check what was wrong because it did not hinder my performance and only lasted about 15 minutes. The last two days, however, have been met with much lower FPS in my games (down from ~70 to 30 in LoL) and a persistent, lower-sounding clicking whirring noise that never goes away.

I have never overclocked before. I'm not sure how I should go about troubleshooting this. I opened up the side panel and turned on my computer once to try and pinpoint where the sound was coming from and it seemed like it was my CPU. Not entirely sure though.

Help?

 

[PP Mguire]

CPU wont make such a noise, but power caps on the board and GPU will.

Stress test your CPU with Intelburntest using all threads and standard RAM (10 loops should be enough). While doing this use Coretemp to test temps on the CPU. Need the load temps and if the sound happens while doing this.

After doing this, stress test your GPU using Furmark and use either MSI Afterburner or eVGA Precision to monitor GPU temps. Again same thing, monitor load temps and see if the noise comes.

 

[wootwoot]

Thanks for the reply!

I did the stress tests that you suggested and came up with these results.

CPU: Load temps reached 64 degrees Celsius after 10 runs. No whirring sound.
GPU: Load temps reached 75 degrees Celsius after 5 minutes. No whirring sound.

As of right now, the whirring is consistent but very quiet.