AMD FX 8120 running at 3.4 Ghz?

Which MB? Some of them have automated overclocking functions that you may have activated by mistake.

ASUS M5A78L LE

Hope that's it, 4.4 is WAY to high for my cooler.

It's probably AMD TurboCore kicking in.

Keep CPU-Z open and run something CPU intensive (preferably Prime95). Run tests with all 8 threads and see if your CPU is at 3.4Ghz, then run the test with only 1 thread and see if it's frequency jumps up to 4Ghz+.

If this isn't the case, I would agree with the previous poster about the Auto-OC button.

I'll give that a go, replying back posting results as soon as possible.

Now i'm just confused...

Edit: It does not go over 3.1 when testing it, sometimes a single core jumps to 3.4 though.

But is it normal to reach 60 degrees celcius with a non-stock cooler on the cpu, and when it's not even overclockd.

Are you using the stock AMD cooler? Your temperatures aren't that bad so I can't see throttling to be an issue here. I've noticed BD chips can run under high temps such as 70C+

Now this is confusing, try clearing your CMOS and see if that helps.

So sometimes your CPU Frequency is at 3.1Ghz?

Also, your CPU is a little on the warm side. Generally speaking, with my X4 955 (different chip, I know) the HIGHEST temperature I had on all 4 cores were 55C with the stock cooler. Since your CPU is an '8' core, it may yield higher temperatures, so I'm assuming it's safe.

AMD says that the maximum safe temperature is 61C, but they tend to underrate that a little bit. If you can go in your BIOS, can you see if there's a thermal throttling option? I remember seeing that in my ASUS board's BIOS.

But before any of this, I would clear CMOS as I've stated in my previous post.

Right now Prime95 is running, and CPU-Z is showing 1-4 to 3.1, sometimes a small jump in a core to 3.4

I will try your suggestion, when i get the time tommorow, it's a little late for that much now.

Also a little off-topic, i have some huge issues with extremely slow boot/loading explorer (and i'm using an ssd), can that have something to do with the BIOS as well?

Good luck with the BIOS tomorrow  

Also, is your SATA controller set to AHCI mode in BIOS? If not, it can cause some serious performance issues with an SSD.

Yes sadly it is.. That's why i can't seem to find the issue of the loading/freeze times, as most of the time the applications stop responding.

May I ask what model your SSD is? I know some particular models have this issue.

Also, how did the clear CMOS go with your CPU?

Sorry for the late reply.

The model is Verbatim 128 GB SSD, it's a rather "cheap" one compared to many others.

And yeah the CMOS didn't seem to have any effect, starting to wonder if it might be some issue with the sensor?

No need to apologise   I've been busy all day, so I couldn't reply as well.

Looking at the reviews of your SSD, it seems to be pretty solid, so I'm starting to doubt it's the SSD itself. However, it may also mean your SSD is on its last legs. Some more input/verification from other forum members may be necessary here since I've only had one SSD die on me so far.

Also I know that some earlier FX chips had some funky sensor 'glitch' with temperatures, but non about core speed. Can you go into BIOS and see if your CPU has it's stock settings? If I'm correct, your CPU should be at 200 Reference/Base clock TIMES 15.5 Multiplier.

It's on stock settings yeah, i tried to actually tap a little on the processor just to see if that changed something, and it actually made it change into 3.1 GHz for a while, then it went back to the 3.4