Temperature Sensing

KugarWeb

KugarWeb

KugarWeb

Associate
Joined
10 Jan 2011
Posts
54
Hey everyone,

Well since I'm getting a graphics card with a little more power (and also I'm a little concerned why the last one gave up!), I'm thinking more about the temperatures going on in the case in general.

I have a high-powered Gigabyte CPU cooler which I turn to max if I'm working with anything heavy (long render times mainly). However, apart from that I have no idea what temperatures my system is running at, though I've never suffered from BSODs or other system crashes *touch wood*.

The thermal paste is due a changeover soon (same paste has been on there for just under 3 years now!) and there are 3 large fans in the system including the CPU cooler - 120mm front, 120mm exhaust and the 120mm Gigabyte G-Power 2 and all seems to be running fine.

So, my question really is - is there anything I can buy (front panel temperature sensors?) or use to keep a close eye on my temperatures? How often would you check them if they were software based? :)

Obviously I'm new to all this cooling and system building as this has been my first build, so I decided to go a little overkill with the cooling fans just to be safe!

Any thoughts? :)

Cheers,

KugarWeb
 
Download RealTemp or CoreTemp to see your CPU temperature. You can set them to sit in the systemtray and just display the temp.

As for front panel temperature sensors, I think maybe some of the £30+ fan controllers will have thermal probes which you can position in your case but they will never report the actual core cpu temperature or other component core temps. The motherboard usually has all that information.

You can also download Hardware Monitor (or is it Hardware Info?) and that will show you lots of details about your temperatures and voltages but I don't think it shows in the taskbar, only when it's open.
 
Moogle is right the probes never really give a true temperature always a few degree's out.

He is also right that you can download Hardware Monitor which will tell you the temperature
for all the hardware that is in your system at that point and will also tell you the ambient
temperature within the case at the time as well.

Here is the link to HW Monitor: http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html
definately worth a download.
 
Awesome! Thanks guys, very helpful :). I was dubious of the temperature sensors and really it's only the CPU and GPU temp I'm interested in, ambient is a bonus though! :D

Oh also, are there any problems with leaving thermal paste on for that long or can it stay on there for longer? I've read other posts (different boards) who say 6 months and others who say forever :S. Mine's decent stuff from Antec so should be okay?
 
Last edited:
KugarWeb said:
Oh also, are there any problems with leaving thermal paste on for that long or can it stay on there for longer? I've read other posts (different boards) who say 6 months and others who say forever :S. Mine's decent stuff from Antec so should be okay?
Click to expand...

I don't think you have to change it at all unless your temperatures are bad or you reseat the heatsink.

Every 6 months is a headache to do. I've had my old Athlon system running fine and it's still using the same thermal paste from 2005/2006.
 
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