TechSpot - PC Technology News and Analysis

02/17/04

I'm running a very modest machine, 1.4g processor, 1g RAM, old ASUS 7700 video card and use it for work mostly and some games (orig H/L and mods etc.). Have had a lot of trouble with fans failing, two cpu fans and three video card fans in approx a year, the last one was a case fan (my house has a lot of dust and apparently the fan guts get clogged and wear out). I'm looking for a temperature monitor that will let me know when the temp is getting out of limits so maybe I can catch the invalid fans before they go belly-up. Does anyone have a suggestion???

Thanks, Jim

motherboard monitor, it can be found in techspot's downloads page under utilities.

If you have an AMD processor you should download a program called Vcool. It puts the CPU temp and case temp in your taskbar and when your processor is idle it drops the temp significantly. When my processor is idle it gets to within 1C of the ambient case temp.

If you're running Windows XP it has one built in - that's why you always see the System Idle Process taking up 99% of CPU, when it's not actually using it.