SpeedFan temperature readings

  • Thread starter Thread starter CarpathiaMan
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CarpathiaMan

Hello,

Anyone here familiar with the utility called SpeedFan? I installed it
because I wanted to determine the temperature of my CPU, and I need
help interpreting the information.

There's a reading labeled "CPU", and then one for each of my cores
labeled "Core 0", "Core 1", etc. I have an Intel Core 2 Quad running
at the stock speed of 2.50 GHz.

"CPU" goes as low as 31C on idle and goes up to 38C on load, whereas
the readouts for the individual cores idle in the 40s and go up to 55C
on load.

Which of these readings should I care about? The one labeled "CPU" or
the ones for the individual cores? Do you think these readings are
accurate?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

(By the way, I have a Tuniq Tower 120 heatsink.)
 
CarpathiaMan said:
Hello,

Anyone here familiar with the utility called SpeedFan? I installed it
because I wanted to determine the temperature of my CPU, and I need
help interpreting the information.

There's a reading labeled "CPU", and then one for each of my cores
labeled "Core 0", "Core 1", etc. I have an Intel Core 2 Quad running
at the stock speed of 2.50 GHz.

"CPU" goes as low as 31C on idle and goes up to 38C on load, whereas
the readouts for the individual cores idle in the 40s and go up to 55C
on load.

Which of these readings should I care about? The one labeled "CPU" or
the ones for the individual cores? Do you think these readings are
accurate?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

(By the way, I have a Tuniq Tower 120 heatsink.)
Click to expand...

You have no problems there, my cpu hits just over 80c when my laptop goes
down without warning.
It's good in one respect, it does not damage the hardware, but it will be a
problem if I am working on an important document at the time.

currently I am reading the manual so I can take this thing to bits and
properly clean the heatsink and fan.
It's a big job on a laptop though.

As regards which temperature you should be concerned about .. all of them

cheers,
code_wrong
 
code_wrong said:
You have no problems there, my cpu hits just over 80c when my laptop goes
down without warning.
It's good in one respect, it does not damage the hardware, but it will be
a problem if I am working on an important document at the time.

currently I am reading the manual so I can take this thing to bits and
properly clean the heatsink and fan.
It's a big job on a laptop though.

As regards which temperature you should be concerned about .. all of them
Click to expand...

(EDIT: you only ned to be concerned if the temperatures are a good bit
higher than you are experiencing)
 
CarpathiaMan said:
Hello,

Anyone here familiar with the utility called SpeedFan? I installed it
because I wanted to determine the temperature of my CPU, and I need
help interpreting the information.

There's a reading labeled "CPU", and then one for each of my cores
labeled "Core 0", "Core 1", etc. I have an Intel Core 2 Quad running
at the stock speed of 2.50 GHz.

"CPU" goes as low as 31C on idle and goes up to 38C on load, whereas
the readouts for the individual cores idle in the 40s and go up to 55C
on load.

Which of these readings should I care about? The one labeled "CPU" or
the ones for the individual cores? Do you think these readings are
accurate?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

(By the way, I have a Tuniq Tower 120 heatsink.)
Click to expand...

one core does more work than the other and that is the 'true' temp to keep
an eye on.
55c is perfectly normal and nothing to worry about especially if you use a
standard
heatsink as supplied with a retail CPU. If you want to overclock - then get
a decent 3rd party
cooler that'll knock 5-10 degrees off those temps but otherwise you're fine.
 
CarpathiaMan said:
Hello,

Anyone here familiar with the utility called SpeedFan? I installed it
because I wanted to determine the temperature of my CPU, and I need
help interpreting the information.

There's a reading labeled "CPU", and then one for each of my cores
labeled "Core 0", "Core 1", etc. I have an Intel Core 2 Quad running
at the stock speed of 2.50 GHz.

"CPU" goes as low as 31C on idle and goes up to 38C on load, whereas
the readouts for the individual cores idle in the 40s and go up to 55C
on load.

Which of these readings should I care about? The one labeled "CPU" or
the ones for the individual cores? Do you think these readings are
accurate?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

(By the way, I have a Tuniq Tower 120 heatsink.)
Click to expand...
You should worry about the highest readings, wherever they
are.
Each 4 degree celcius temperature raise halves the live
of any chip/transistor.
So keep them cool.
Speedfan I only use occasionally to check up on things.
 
Somewhere on teh intarweb "Sleepy" typed:
one core does more work than the other and that is the 'true' temp to
keep an eye on.
55c is perfectly normal and nothing to worry about especially if you
use a standard
heatsink as supplied with a retail CPU. If you want to overclock -
then get a decent 3rd party
cooler that'll knock 5-10 degrees off those temps but otherwise
you're fine.
Click to expand...

LOL, you really are "Sleepy" huh? ;-)

You wrote all that advice about a 3rd party HS under the bit where he says
that he's got one.
 
kony said:
Compare the temps to what your bios health or hardware
monitor page shows as CPU temp. Sitting in bios, after a
few minutes running it will tend to be a little higher temp
than if sitting in windows (or another OS with power
management) at idle, but it will give you an idea if the
Speedfan reported temps are accurate (enough).

Idle temp depends on a very factors including ambient temp,
case cooling, C1E & EIST features you might have working.
We can, as always, practically ignore idle temps since the
load temps are the important ones. 55C is cool enough and
does seem to be about what one would expect with that
processor at full load (running something like Orthos to
load all cores) after 10 minutes or so.

Since you aren't overclocking and are using a reasonably
good heatsink for this application, you don't need to care
much about any of these temps... remembering that a few
years ago most people didn't know let alone actively monitor
their temps all the time, their system once set up well
could be assumed to continue providing enough cooling unless
some variable changed like a large rise in room temp or the
fans clogging with dust.
Click to expand...

I guess I was just confused by the fact that SpeedFan shows a "CPU"
temperature, and then a separate temperature for "Core 0", "Core 1",
etc. This confusion was compounded by the fact that "CPU" is always 10
to 15 degrees *less* than the individual core temperatures. I just
wish I understood why. How can the CPU be in the 30s and the cores be
in the 40s to 50s? Are they not referring to the same thing? I'd like
to know because in the various reviews I've read on Newegg for
aftermarket heatsinks, people typically talk about their "idle" and
"load" temps, so it would be nice to know that I'm comparing what
they're talking about to the equivalent readouts that SpeedFan is
giving me.

For example, since my "CPU" reading can go as low as 30C or 31C, would
it be accurate for me to say that my CPU idles in the low 30s, and then
goes up to 55C upon load (since the readouts for Cores 0-3 go up that
high)? But even when my cores go up to 55C, the "CPU" reading always
stays in the mid to upper 30s. So, I'm not sure how to describe what
my processor idles at and loads at.

I am, however, fairly satisfied with the actual temperatures
themselves, for they seem to be within normal range.

Thanks again to everybody for their input.
 
~misfit~ said:
Somewhere on teh intarweb "Sleepy" typed:

LOL, you really are "Sleepy" huh? ;-)

You wrote all that advice about a 3rd party HS under the bit where he says
that he's got one.
Click to expand...

I said 'decent' 3rd party cooler - I've tried a couple of the tower design
coolers
(not the brand used by the OP admittedly) and I've been unimpressed by the
performance
- concerned also about the weight and the stress put upon the CPU bracket.

I've gone for a standard design heatsink - small but all copper - lapped
with silver compound and invest a little extra
in a top quality fan - as fast as I can get while still being quiet.
 
Strobe said:
SpeedFan runs on any PC, but sometimes guesses wrong about the name
or location of a sensor on a particular machine.
Your 'Core' sensors are almost certainly correct, but the 'CPU' will
be some other sensor (perhaps MB or Southbridge?).
Click to expand...

Ah, gotcha. I guess that makes sense, seeing as how the program is
reporting different numbers for each of those components/sensors.
 
Somewhere on teh intarweb "Strobe" typed:
SpeedFan runs on any PC, but sometimes guesses wrong about the name or
location of a sensor on a particular machine.
Your 'Core' sensors are almost certainly correct, but the 'CPU' will
be some other sensor (perhaps MB or Southbridge?).
Click to expand...

There's a reasonable chance that 'CPU' is in fact the CPU socket temp (or
thereabouts).
 
Somewhere on teh intarweb "Sleepy" typed:
I said 'decent' 3rd party cooler -
Click to expand...

Nice try at a save. Your statement above "especially if you use a standard
heatsink supplied with a retail CPU" lets you down a bit though.
I've tried a couple of the tower
design coolers
(not the brand used by the OP admittedly) and I've been unimpressed
by the performance
- concerned also about the weight and the stress put upon the CPU
bracket.
I've gone for a standard design heatsink - small but all copper -
lapped with silver compound and invest a little extra
in a top quality fan - as fast as I can get while still being quiet.
Click to expand...

I use a Thermaltake Mini-Typhoon. All-copper, 6 heatpipes, lapped (as is my
CPU heatspreader) and my E4500 OCed to 3.3GHz runs with the cores at 3°C
(yes *three* degrees) above ambient idling, 22°C above ambient at 100% load
for an hour.
 
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