Quote Originally Posted by mottamort View Post
Yeah I'd say confirm that cpu is overheating, then take it from there. Sparks also feels more PSU/power related than CPU heat. Your power requirements might have gone up with new mobo/cpu depending on what was swapped with what. Either that or you have a borked IDE/SATA adapter...I've seen those things short out (causing /switch off/restart) and once even catch fire...not fun times for our client. So maybe just have a look there if you happen to have a little IDE to Sata (or vice versa) power adapter (they look something like below)
Exactly this! I've had some molex connectors actually melt around the HDD connector and become fused with it.