motherboard/cpu temp monitoring program?

shiro

Member
May 24, 2005
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What is a good motherboard/cpu, maybe even northbridge chipset temperature monitoring program that's compatible with AMD X2 systems?

I used to use motherboard monitor 5 but that doesn't seem to work anymore for my new system.

ECS KN1 SLI Lite
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 64
Zalman NB47J Northbridge heatsink

I'm a little paranoid about the temperature since having put together the system and turning it on for the first time, about 30-40 minutes after it was one I started smelling something burning... I don't know if that was something from outside or my computer, but as of yet nothing has blown up and the burning smell is gone.

I thought at first maybe it was the Zalman NB heatsink that wasn't doing it's job, since I had kind of a tough time putting it on (taking off the old one, cleaning off the old thermal tape as best I could with a razor blade, then wiping it down with some isopropyl alky...). One thing that concerned me was that...I could still slide the heatsink around very slightly after having pinned it down with some new thermal paste. Overall it was still pretty secure I tightened all the screws and everything and once booted up the heatsink does get hot (not scalding)....but still... Also, another thing about the NB heatsink is that it's touching the plastic cover over the heatsink of my X800GTO vid card. Actually the first row of pins from the Zalman heatsink is under the plastic cover, and saying hello to the heatsink on the vid card itself. I figure maybe that's not too bad since the exhaust from the vid card fan can cool down the NB heatsink slightly.

Second thing I'm concerned about was the heatsink for the CPU. Since the copper base for the heatsink was smaller than the ihs on the X2, I had a bit of trouble getting the copper base to sit completely in the center of the cpu. After everything was latched, the base is slightly off center, but the paste got smooshed out from underneath onto the untouched cpu area. I just hope everything is as secure as I think it is... CPU Temperatures seem good though from the mobo bios monitoring menu (holding a steady 41-42 C), so I think it should be good...

Third thing... are the fans in the PSU. On my original board there was a 3 pin fan connector specifically for the PSU. I don't know if all the fan connectors on the mobo are the same or if some are designated to spin slower or something i don't know. I'm still a noob. But I plugged in my PSU's fan into the connector where the old Northbridge heatsink fan plugged into. I hope that doesn't affect my power supply fans in any way. I feel almost nothing coming out from the back, but I hope that's just my PSU keeping power consumption low due to temperature control (I have the Antec TruePower First Generation 430watt PSU btw...)


ANYWAY...

So yea if anybody knows of a temperature monitoring program I could use to keep tabs on the temp from within windows, please let a guy know!
 

Zepper

Elite Member
May 1, 2001
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Use the one that came with your mobo - it should work best with the features of your mobo - check the mfr's site for newer versions. It may take a bit of looking around on the CD that came with it to find the program. Abit calls theirs AbitEQ, Asus calls theirs Probe, etc. But if for some strange reason you want to use a generic program, SpeedFan seems to be popular.

.bh.
 

Zepper

Elite Member
May 1, 2001
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One doesn't send noobs for an Alpha level program like Systool. Stick with either the mfr's or SpeedFan.

.bh.
 

cmdrdredd

Lifer
Dec 12, 2001
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Speedfan is very good. Pretty accurate too. I use it all the time. Especially to see fan speeds.
 

shiro

Member
May 24, 2005
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cool guys thanks for the replies

I'll try lookin for the motherboard's own app. Didn't see it at first glance maybe I just need to dig further. If not i'll check out speedfan since it seems to be the popular choice
 

shiro

Member
May 24, 2005
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Hmm well I've been gettin the BSOD while runnin speedfan with my oldest drive the Quantum Fireball LM30, but once I unhooked that and tried it again it seems to work fine now. Unfortunately my second drive attached to that IDE cable needs to be unplugged for now too. I'll try again with that second drive attached and see if I still get BSOD'd.


On another note. Now that I've got SpeedFan running. I have no idea how to tell which Temp is for which piece on the mobo.

I can probably tell that the two fans I have connected are the heatsink and the power supply fan, which the power supply is runing at 1500 rpm. I guess that explains why I feel almost nothing coming out...it almost makes me think it's blowing into the power supply...is that supposed to be how it works...?

And also...am I correct in saying that I think my PSU might be pumping out its last bits of juice:

Vcore1: 1.36V
Vcore2: 3.30V
+3.3V: 2.61V
+5V: 4.95V
+12V: 5.95V

-12V: -10.72
-5V: 0.53V
+5V: 5.00V
Vbat: 3.04V
 

Zepper

Elite Member
May 1, 2001
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That's why I say you should use the hardware monitor utility that came with your mobo - you have to configure SF to your mobo while the one that came with it has that already done. If you really want to use SF you will have to study the documentation and learn how to configure it to your mobo.

And don't take sofware voltage readings as gospel - use a DMM (digital multimeter) for really accurate measurements.

.bh.
 

shiro

Member
May 24, 2005
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I found a monitoring utility on one of the cds that came with my mobo, but it's not nearly as thorough as SpeedFan.

All the monitor shows is CPU and system temps, and cpu/mem volts.
Unless there is a way to expand the information that nvMonitor shows (which i haven't figured out yet), maybe SpeedFan is the better program to use.


 

Zepper

Elite Member
May 1, 2001
18,998
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You can select the items you want displayed. I haven't used nVMonitor - too bad you have an ECS mobo since they're too cheap to customize nVmonitor for their mobos. Anyway, you should be able to right-click on the tray icon for the program and get either a "settings", "preferences" or "properties" option that will allow you to check off the items you want to see and set various alarm levels (high/low voltages, low limit on fans, etc.). Still it should be easier to do than SF. There may be a section in the back of your mobo manual on how to set it up - or perhaps on the ECS web site.

.bh.
 

Bluefront

Golden Member
Apr 20, 2002
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Take a look at Sensors View Pro......nice loking program that works on all my computers. If you don't want to buy the pro version, there's a free version available. Try it anyway......