Monitoring CPU temps...

[Sulaco]

Hello all,

I just built a new system (not the one in my sig, sorry), and I am looking for the best, most accurate way of assessing CPU temps.

Speedfan reports my CPU as idling at nearly 50c, which seems quite high.

Upon restarting and going into BIOS, I see that BIOS reports the CPU temp at 31c.

Should I trust BIOS (it's an ASUS P5Q Pro mobo by the way) over speedfan? Are there better windows-based CPU monitoring software?

Thanks for looking!

 

[MChim]

I'm using RealTemp 2.70. It gives you what the temp is per core and gives you the amount of headroom you have temperaturewise with your chip. I have my Core i7 920 @ 3.8ghz rock hard stable now. 100% load for 24 hours and max hit 86 degrees C on one core.

 

[theaquatic]

Originally posted by: MChim
I'm using RealTemp 2.70. It gives you what the temp is per core and gives you the amount of headroom you have temperaturewise with your chip. I have my Core i7 920 @ 3.8ghz rock hard stable now. 100% load for 24 hours and max hit 86 degrees C on one core.

I'll 2nd Realtemp. From what I've read, it's more accurate on the Penryn chips like mine so that's why I'm using it.

By the way, 86 degrees C on a core? Is that a typo? Because that seems awfully high to me, but then again I don't really know a lot about how Nehalem overclocks besides what I've read online. I have my Q9550 running at 3.8ghz as well, and after 18 hours the high point Realtemp recorded was 57C on 2 of the cores. I'm still running stock vcore though (1.168v actual in CPU-Z)

if that's normal, nevermind me, I'm still new to the latest overclocking scene, having battled with an AMD 3800x2 for years at a piddly 400mhz OC... haha.

 

[Gillbot]

I used to recommend coretemp but it's been acting flakey lately with my X3330 so I switched to real temp.

 

[scruffypup]

BOTH!!! AND NEITHER!!!

BIOS will be fairly accurate, (unless not up to date-then it may not report newer cpus as accurately), but you have nothing (not even the OS loaded) so will be the lowest "running temp" you will get.

Now speedfan, realtemp and coretemp I use at the same time,... I think I have a couple others,.... but they are only accurate if set right (just like having updated BIOS),.... if it is an older version of the temp monitoring program with a newer chip (or even others in many cases), it may not be "calibrated" correctly,... in each of these situations you should check what the TjMAx calibration that intel uses (if an intel chip of course), then see what program you are using is set as a default,.. then adjust the program to correspond,...

I had one program reading high, one low and one right on for my e7200 on default settings,... a difference of 10 degrees celsius which makes no sense of course,...

All 3 running at same time now they are calibrated run 1-2 degrees on both cores difference max, so I now know I am running the correct temps,...

EDIT: Bios should always be close even if older version,... but software monitoring temps should always be a bit higher,... you have more running at that point!