Some new Tempurature questions

[MinnisotaFreezing]

HI,

I have a AMD 1800+ VIA KT266A SUMA mainboard with 2 case fans, 1 in front blowing in, 1 in back, blowing out, like AMD specs.

I have AIDA32 to moniter CPU temp, and have tried Mother Board Moniter and 1 other to moniter CPU temp.

My questions, I kinda doubt the AIDA temps, as they are all over tha place. When I turned on my comp this morning, the temp was at 61C, and this was after the comp was just idle for a bit as I got my coffie and such. Now it is down to 47C. My temp reads fluxuate wildly like this, it can be at 59 as I'm surfing, at about 3% utilization, then if I check again a few minutes later, its down to 37C. So my first question is, do you know any other moniter programs? MBM and the other I tried gave me values of 0 for temps, AIDA is the only one that works. My MB uses VIA KT chipset. Does that refer to the sensor as well? IS that part of the chip set, or is the sensor dependant on the Mainboard manufactuerer? I'm guessing SUMA made my CPU sensor, which is why I"m having trouble getting readings on it.

My second question is, will running a high temp degrade my CPU over time, or just shorten the life of the CPU? What I mean is, if my CPU runs hot like AIDA says it is, will it get slower over time, or will it always perfore at the same leval, but be more likly to fail at some point in the future. I'm thinking like speakers, where if you clip(play them too loud so the sound distorts) them, the wires melt together, reducing performance even before you blow the speakers compleatly. By running too hot, am I mealting all these little "tranisters" on the chip together?

BTW, its pretty cool in my room, since its winter, my comp is almost sitting in the middle of the room, and now the side is off the comp.

Thanks for any help you can give me, esp some good temp sensor programs, and sorry this is a bit long winded.

 

[Stealer]

Does your bios show the CPU temp?
I would trust that reading over any 3rd party software.

Stealer

 

[MinnisotaFreezing]

Yes the bios does show temp, but I never really understood the point of that, because I can only enter the bios before the OS and all that loads, so the temp should be low, nothings really going on. I want to know them temp under load, or at least with the OS loaded.

Is there a way I can check the BIOS temp after OS load?

 

[paparazi]

As temperature seems to be an issue with you why don't you go and buy one of those front panel temperature gauges that has two or more flat tape temperature sensors, they may not be 100% accurate but close enough for general monitoring purposes.
If your CPU is run HOTTER! say in the late 60's C then it will be more prone to hanging, locking up and in theory it will have a shorter lifespan, but I read an interesting article on this somewhere (don't ask me carn't remember) but the gist of it was a sliding scale temp against lifespan and even when run constantly HOT, CPU lifespan was something like 7years and the point that was made was 99% of users have replaced there systems several times during this period.
The main reason for keeping your system cool is stability, lower the better, with an XP1800+ kept in a coolish room, I would expect idle temps in the mid 40's and absolute max's just below or touching 50C.
Martin
Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[paparazi]

Are you certain that there isn't a hardware monitor on the mainboard driver disk? hidden under utilities, probably winbound hardware monitor. Martin Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[Stealer]

I got one of those front panel digital temperature readers last month. It also has 2 USB ports, 1 Firewire port, and sound connections right with the digital temperature. It tells me my CPU temp, Hard drive and system temp.
Works great and looks major cool!

Stealer

 

[MinnisotaFreezing]

Thanks for the resonses guys, some good ideas.

Sadly, there is no monitering program on my CD, but browing it I did find a Virtual CD program, which makes me very happy.

I like the idea of a digital thermometer, but I live in Korea and something like that would be very hard for me too find, since I don't speak much Korean. Could you post a link to one online maybe?

paparazi, if I read you right, if my comp runs average 50-59C, I can expect hanging, lockups, and a life span of 7 years? So really, as long as my comp doesn't hang or freeze(It doesn't) and I plan on getting a new proccessor in a year or 1.5, then tempurature really isn't an issue? Ahh, but still the geek in me doesn't mant my new processer running hot. ^^

 

[paparazi]

Below 60C is fine! No hanging or lockups and theoretical old age for your CPU.
I said in the high 60's C if you read my post back.
Most experienced socket "A" AMD users generally agree below 60C is stable teritory but when up in the mid 60's things can get a bit flakey.
In reality though an XP1800+ isn't a particularly difficult processor to keep cool (unlike the faster Slot A thunderbirds, the Athlon 1.4 and the latest XP2.1 Palemino) which produced lots of heat and needed serious cooling considerations.
So your XP1800+ will run a good 6-10C cooler than a XP2.1+ with the same cooling setup. Martin
Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[gargouille]

almico.com
is where you can get SpeedFan.
Basically it's a function of the Winbond sensors onboard...run a few different ones to compare what each says. I compared them and found they were agreeing on the temp...so you might as well trust the sensors and pick whichever one you like the best.
Have Aida in a download folder but haven't loaded it, yet.
But I didn't get it for temp monitoring anyway.

 

[MinnisotaFreezing]

Thanks for the messages guys. I'm going now, but I'll check speedfan.

I mis-read "I would expect idle temps in the mid 40's and absolute max's just below or touching 50C" to mean max temp just below or toucing 50C.

I think I'm getting some goofy readings, cause now it says 31C, and I'm doing the same things as before, CPU utilization about 4%, and this morning I was getting 55C.

Thanks again

 

[crwpulsar]

The temperature will not melt the transistors except at REALLY high ie no fan/heat sync. Running your CPU at 60+ for prolonged periods will cause electron migration on the dye level. On newer CPUs this is a bigger issue because of the smaller CMOS technology. But as paparazi said, keeping it under 60 will ensure your CPU lasts.
David

 

[MinnisotaFreezing]

Thanks so much for the help guys.

I DL and installed speedfan, and it works great. However, it has brought up some new questions. ^^

speedfan has 3 temps, temp 1, temp 2, and temp 3, which correspond to AIDA32 as auxilary, CPU, and motherboard. speedfan posts the temp1 in my task bar, so I assure that is the tempurature that is most important, I'm guessing CPU.

Anyway, do you know what temp1, temp2, and temp3 relate to? Also, if one is CPU, one is Motherboard, and 1 is aux(I'm guessing power supply) is 1 more important than the other?

Is it at all possible that temp3 is the power supply, and that that fan is switched, to go on at certain temps, which would explain my fluxuating temps? I looked all over the speedfan and AIDA32 sites, and couldn't find any specific data. I guess I could unplug some sensores, but then I am worried the power would cut as well, and I would really overheat.


Thanks again for your help.

 

[MinnisotaFreezing]

OK, I found some info in speedfan. Here is what they have to say, in case anyone else reads this with the same question later.

" Here you will find all the temperature readings that SpeedFan could detect. These include those from the hard disk (if it supports this feature) and from ghost sensors. Ghost sensors are those that either are improperly detected by SpeedFan or disconnected (not actually used by the motherboard to monitor anything). You can go to the TEMPERATURES tab in the configuration dialog and hide those temperatures you're not interested in.
Several users ask why I didn't show more self-explanatory names for each temperature. The problem is that I don't know which temperature each motherboard manufacturer actually connected to what :-(
As a rule of thumb, the higher (realistic) temperature is the CPU and the lower (realistic) one is from your CASE. CPU temperature can be recognized even because it's the one that rises faster when CPU usage is at full load for a few minutes. "