Best software for monitoring CPU temps

[kingfurykiller]

I have been using speedfan to give CPU temps to my Rainmeter application to monitor my core temps.

 

A few days ago, I opened up my case to clean out some dust and add some new fans. I ended up moving my fans around and removing the CPU cooler as part of this process.  After removing dust, reapplying thermal paste to the CPU, and replacing all the fans, I experiencing higher temps. Speedfan (via rainmeter) is reporting that the temps are 2-5 degrees higher on average than they have been, and this is with the fans turned up all the way.

 

The actual changes are as follows:

• Reapplied thermal paste under CPU cooler
• Removed dust
• Moved 2 original 120 mm case fans from the front to the top of the case (previously there was only 1 fan up there)
• Put 2 different 120 mm case fans on the front of the case (and turned them up to full power)
• Moved the original 120 mm fan from the top and placed it at the bottom
   

The end result: I now have 6 case fans where I previously only had 4.  Airflow is still the same: pulled in from the front and bottom, exhausted out through the top and the back. PC is on a wooden floor.

 

So first of all, why would my CPU temps be higher? And second, what is a good application that I can use to confirm that I have accurate data? Thanks in advance, and let me know if you have any questions.

 

 

[Mister_Cro_Noob]

4 minutes ago, kingfurykiller said:

I have been using speedfan to give CPU temps to my Rainmeter application to monitor my core temps.

 

A few days ago, I opened up my case to clean out some dust and add some new fans. I ended up moving my fans around and removing the CPU cooler as part of this process.  After removing dust, reapplying thermal paste to the CPU, and replacing all the fans, I experiencing higher temps. Speedfan (via rainmeter) is reporting that the temps are 2-5 degrees higher on average than they have been, and this is with the fans turned up all the way.

 

The actual changes are as follows:

• Reapplied thermal paste under CPU cooler
• Removed dust
• Moved 2 original 120 mm case fans from the front to the top of the case (previously there was only 1 fan up there)
• Put 2 different 120 mm case fans on the front of the case (and turned them up to full power)
• Moved the original 120 mm fan from the top and placed it at the bottom
   

The end result: I now have 6 case fans where I previously only had 4.  Airflow is still the same: pulled in from the front and bottom, exhausted out through the top and the back. PC is on a wooden floor.

 

So first of all, why would my CPU temps be higher? And second, what is a good application that I can use to confirm that I have accurate data? Thanks in advance, and let me know if you have any questions.

 

 

AIDA64

[reniat]

I would double check that the heatsink is on correctly, and that the paste is well spread. I can't think of anything else off the top of my head, other than make sure to account for any change in ambient temperature. It is summer, after all. 

[kingfurykiller]

Just now, reniat said:

I would double check that the heatsink is on correctly, and that the paste is well spread. I can't think of anything else off the top of my head, other than make sure to account for any change in ambient temperature. It is summer, after all. 

Heatsink is the first thing that I checked, and it's on nice and tight. It is just the stock intel one, so maybe I could buy a new one.

I'm pretty sure I put enough thermal paste without putting too much (line in the middle method).

 

Ambient temperature hasn't changed in the house where the PC is located.  Same room temp before and after the changes that I made.

Unfortunately, yes it is summer. It's so hot the turbo on my car stopped performing as well

[Leonard]

CoreTemp is good, loads in system icons and you can monitor RAM usage and CPU load too

[James09]

With regards to thermal paste, most people would recommend the pea in the middle method, especially with the newer Kaby Lake and Skylake chips that are quite small. With the stock heatsink, less is always more as the contact area is so small. Would recommend redoing the thermal paste, applying a little less than you did last time, and see how the temps go.

 

As for an application, I've always used something called HWinfo64. It shows you pretty much everything you need to know in your system and has always been pretty accurate for me, at least with Intel chips. I have used CoreTemp and RealTemp in the past before but i like the amount of data that HWINFO64 shows. All of the above are good.

[James09]

One more suggestion, check the specs of your fans, more specifically the airflow rating, and adjust them such that you experience an overall positive air pressue inside your case. What that basically means is that the air coming into your case should be greater than the air being exhausted out. This will help with dust accumulation. If you dont know, then simply have 1 more fan going in than out. 

 

Depending on your motherboard, you might also be able to adjust your stock CPU fan speed profile such that it will spin faster than what it usually does. If you dont mind a little added noise then that might also be a solution.

 

You also neglected to mention what your specific temps were before and after. Anything <70C should be ok for most if not all the Intel chips. If the temps went up from 62 to 66 or 67, I wouldn't be too worried. Unless you're running your computer hard many hours a day, the increase in fan noise would not be worth it in my opinion.

 

 

[kingfurykiller]

On 7/10/2017 at 9:29 PM, James09 said:

One more suggestion, check the specs of your fans, more specifically the airflow rating, and adjust them such that you experience an overall positive air pressue inside your case. What that basically means is that the air coming into your case should be greater than the air being exhausted out. This will help with dust accumulation. If you dont know, then simply have 1 more fan going in than out. 

 

Depending on your motherboard, you might also be able to adjust your stock CPU fan speed profile such that it will spin faster than what it usually does. If you dont mind a little added noise then that might also be a solution.

 

You also neglected to mention what your specific temps were before and after. Anything <70C should be ok for most if not all the Intel chips. If the temps went up from 62 to 66 or 67, I wouldn't be too worried. Unless you're running your computer hard many hours a day, the increase in fan noise would not be worth it in my opinion.

 

 

I might have to do the "1 more fan going in" method, since 4 of the 6 case fans were originally included with the case, and I don't have specs on their airflow rating.

 

I have been looking for ways to adjust the fan speeds with the motherboard, but I haven't found that yet.

The reason why I did not mention the temps is that I'm not sure if speedfan is giving me accurate information.  Idle temps of 11-9 degrees cel. across all 4 cores can't be right, since that's way below current room temperature.  However, I did notice that all cores jumped to idling around 12-15 after the changes I made, and under load, they would be reporting in the 23-25 range. Obviously all of this is way below the limit for an intel 6500, so I'm not exactly worried. I do occasionally run it pretty hard for long periods of time, so now that I have my fan controllers working, I can just speed up the front fans if I need a little extra cooling.

 

Interestingly enough, I have noticed that my average GPU temps under load (usually around 50) have dropped to around 40 after all of this work.

[James09]

49 minutes ago, kingfurykiller said:

I might have to do the "1 more fan going in" method, since 4 of the 6 case fans were originally included with the case, and I don't have specs on their airflow rating.

 

I have been looking for ways to adjust the fan speeds with the motherboard, but I haven't found that yet.

The reason why I did not mention the temps is that I'm not sure if speedfan is giving me accurate information.  Idle temps of 11-9 degrees cel. across all 4 cores can't be right, since that's way below current room temperature.  However, I did notice that all cores jumped to idling around 12-15 after the changes I made, and under load, they would be reporting in the 23-25 range. Obviously all of this is way below the limit for an intel 6500, so I'm not exactly worried. I do occasionally run it pretty hard for long periods of time, so now that I have my fan controllers working, I can just speed up the front fans if I need a little extra cooling.

 

Interestingly enough, I have noticed that my average GPU temps under load (usually around 50) have dropped to around 40 after all of this work.

As stated previously, HWInfo64 should feed you ALL the info you could ever want. GPU temps included. It has a Min, Max and an Avg. Max is especially useful for obvious reasons.