cpu temp lcd display factory

Once you know how to monitor your CPU temperature, you’ll be able to perform a vital health check on a PC component that you very, very much do not want to overheat and break. Luckily this isn’t a common problem, but if you’ve just built a PC from scatch, have installed a new CPU in your existing setup, or are attempting to overclock, checking the CPU temperature is a quick step that can reassure you that all is well – just as much as it can warn you of an overly hot chip.

Excess heat is a PC’s natural enemy, and gaming systems – with CPUs tending towards higher clock speeds, plus dedicated graphics cards producing extra warmth inside the case – are especially at risk. So while overheating is usually caused by an over-ambitious overlock or improperly installed cooler, rather than being part and parcel of computer ownership, it’s worth understanding how to monitor CPU temperatures so that you can spot potential issues quickly. Left unattended, an overheating CPU can cause system shutdowns, performance throttling – less than ideal for gaming – and even permanent damage to the processor itself.

This guide will focus on a few different software tools that you can use to keep an eye on CPU heat. They’re all free and easy to use, and are distinct enough that you can pick the one that best suits your preferences. Just be sure to check in every now and then; even the best CPUs will suffer if they get to toasty.

Core Temp keeps everything nice and simple, and provides all you need if you just want to check your CPU temperature now and again to make sure it’s ticking along. It’s easily readable, updates in real time, is compatible with every CPU under the sun and shows you the temperatures of all your processor’s individual cores.

Installing it is dead easy too. Simply click the big blue “Download” on the Core Temp site, then run the executable file once it’s downloaded. While clicking through the installation wizard you will need to uncheck some boxes to avoid adding some bloatware, but otherwise you can keep hitting “Next” until Core Temp is installed.

In the app itself, the temperatures of all your CPU’s cores are listed at the bottom. Another cool aspect of Core Temp – if don’t mind painfully stretching the definition of cool – is that it also lists the lowest and highest temperatures that each core has recorded during the current session. That might be handy if, say, you want to know how high your core temperatures peak during sustained play, but you can’t be bothered with constantly alt-tabbing out to monitor it.

CPUID’s HWMonitor performs a similar role to Core Temp, providing both minimum and maximum CPU core temperatures as well as current readings, but goes into detail on a far greater variety of your PC’s trackable metrics. Want to know the speeds of every single on of your PC’s fans, while also monitoring the temperatures of your graphics card and SSD? HWMonitor tracks it all, including voltages, so it’s particularly well-suited to keen overclockers.

To install HWMonitor, head to its page on the CPUID site and click the purple ‘Setup’ button in the lower left. Simply run the installer once it’s downloaded, and then it’s just a case of finding CPU core temperatures in HWMonitor’s long list of sensors. They’ll be underneath your CPU, which is listed as its full product name, then under ‘Temperatures > Cores (Max)." If you’re only interested in CPU temperature monitoring and nothing else, you can always collapse the motherboard, graphics card and storage device sections to make the whole thing easier to read.

MSI Afterburner isn’t just for overclocking your GPU. It’s on par with HWMonitor in how many different aspects of your PC it can keep tabs on, and makes it easy to add your choice of metrics to an unobtrusive overlay that you can check while playing games. That naturally includes CPU temperature monitoring, though setting it up is a little more involved, so let’s break it down into steps:

Step 4: Open the Monitoring tab and scroll through the list of “Graphs” until you reach the CPU Temperature option. Click this, then check the “Show in On-Screen Display” box in the section below. The words “in OSD” should then appear next to “CPU temperature” in the graphs list.

Step 5: Optionally, you can enter the On-Screen Display tab and set hotkeys to toggle/display the overlay, so that you can control when it appears and when it’s hidden. Either way, click “OK” at the bottom of the properties menu to save your changes.

If you fancy your CPU temperature readout in a more graphical style, NZXT Cam is a good bet. I wasn’t initially impressed when, several years ago, it launched in support of some broadly overpriced NZXT cases (even though you don’t actually need any NZXT hardware to install it). Nowadays, though, it’s a nicely comprehensive (and readable) set of tools for monitoring temps, speeds and loads, not to mention tinkering with compatible lighting and even overclocking.

For simply checking your PC’s CPU temperature, though, you can just take a peek at the default “PC Monitoring” tab, which appears as default whenever you open CAM. To install, simply hit “Download CAM” on the NZXT CAM site and run the executable once it downloads.

Generally, a CPU will be perfectly happy running at temperatures anywhere up to the 70-80°c range, even under sustained load. 80-90°c is a technically safe range as well, though anything above that can cause throttling, slowing your PC down in the process. Running at 95-100°c is just asking for trouble, as CPU manufacturers build their chips with heat limits so that they’ll shut down if they spend too long around boiling point. Try to persist with such high temps, and you risk doing terminal damage to your hardware.

Take note that different games put different amounts of strain on the CPU, so it might run hotter in some compared to others. That’s fine, but ideally core temperatures should avoid exceeding 80°c for any lengthy period of time. And if you can get them down even further than that, great – a cooler PC is a quieter one.

If your CPU is registering uncomfortably high temperatures even when it’s running at stock speeds, there are a few measures you can take. One is to re-apply the thermal paste between the CPU and its cooler; sometimes, the paste may have been applied too thinly or slathered on too thick, preventing effective heat transfer to the cooler in both cases. Thermal paste can also dry out a few years after application, so a fresh coat could help lower temperatures on older builds too. Our guide on how to install a CPU shows how best to apply thermal paste, but in short, you want a very thin, even layer that completely covers the top of the CPU.

If that doesn’t work, you may need to upgrade your CPU cooler. There’s no shame in this – some modern chips, like the Intel Core i9-12900KS, can get extremely hot even at stock speeds, and thus require a powerful liquid cooler to perform at their best.

You could also try lowering the overall temperature of your PC’s interior, such as by installing new case fans. This won’t cool the CPU directly, but it could reduce the ambient heat building up inside the case, which in turn makes everything – the CPU, the CPU cooler, the graphics card – hotter as well.

All three of these might help when overclocking CPUs, as well as when running stock speeds; if anything you should only start overclocking once you already have a highly capable cooling system. But if all that fails, and your OC’d chip is still overheating, you may have to bite the bullet and simply reduce the clock speeds and/or voltages until temperatures are back under control.

For more on keeping your gaming PC in tip-top condish, check out our guides on how to clean your PC, and how to test RAM and find errors. Our liquid cooling vs air cooling guide can also help you decide which kind of CPU cooler you"ll need.

? I did not attribute any quotes to you that weren"t you. I"m here to get help, but the people here are quite rude and unhelpful. There is no shortsightedness here, only someone who wants to learn. Yes, I"d rather not spend $40, not $20, to buy a $24 kit + $15 LCD that is not even the optimal screen. For the perfect screen, that fits in 5.25 or 3.5 bay, sure I"d be willing to do that. But otherwise, on thanks, I"ll just buy the $20 kit and use the 16x2, it"s really not a big deal.

1. Can I use any arduino or trinket/adafruit or etc microcontroller, to straight attach to the LCD and to the motherboard, to display my software/hardware CPU temps (and other system values)?

No, you didn"t. You said you"d ditch the trinket. You didn"t explain that the arduino-style MC is capable of directly linking to the i2c screen, and taking input from the z87 motherboard and sending it to the LCD screen.

So could I just buy another trinket and do these 2 tasks (lcd + input)? I know you said you recommend ditching the trinket, and I very well may just buy the one you linked to do both my tasks, but I"m curious on just what exactly I"m looking for (do i need x amount of memory, or a pin count, or something here?).

But it says it will only be 4 bit (is that bad?),and doesn"t say if it can hook up to the pc. Can I use something like LCD smartie, or do I need to code something?

I don"t know what you are referring to with "oshpark", but my budget isn"t limited here. But given the fact that 16x2 RGB Negative Kit is on adafruit for $25, it"s going to be hard to justify spending much more than $25. I just want to use a screen to show my CPU temps, it"s really not that complicated. But somehow, it is.

LCDs all over ebay... I got a couple of touchscreens, one RGB 800x480 (ok, that"s bigger than a drive enclosure, throwing out a point), $50. Another one, 2.2" RGB touchscreen, 160x128 I think, cost me about $30 for 3 of them IIRC. And then there"s the freebie 122x32 VFD module I just got, for, FREE.

The only obvious way I can see getting this done is to do like I was saying (not saying it"s the only way, but it"s the way I"d go if I wanted useless information like that), let the OS do the hard work of grabbing the data, dump it out the USB (either as a HID or serial via a USB-serial converter), display it on an LCD (whether it"s a serial backpack type or a graphical LCD with it"s own micro controller).

Just took a quick look at NewEgg to see what"s out there. $65 for the most expensive one. Ya, you might get away with a cheap $10 LCD, maybe $10 worth of mounts, cables, etc. Doubt it, but it might happen.

What? All I need is the LCD, and then I stick it inside my computer. There is no mounting needed, do you even read my posts? And I could also mount it on a spare blank bay cover, just cut a hole in it and tape/glue/etc it on behind, if I wanted to go that route. If I could find a 5.25 or 3.5" bay sized screen, I could literally just tape/glue/etc behind my 5.25 to floppy bay adaptor or remove a blank 5.25 bay cover and put it behind it (wouldnt care if it"s permanent, though I can even do it non-permanently).

As for the software, as I understand, I can just use LCD Smartie program (I know I can do it with that 16x2 RGB negative usb kit that adafruit sells for $25, for example).

You’ve got two options at this stage: check your CPU temp with a dedicated monitoring program — the simpler option — or figure it out on your own in your computer’s UEFI/BIOS settings. We’ll show you both ways.

Intel and AMD, two popular CPU manufacturers, both offer CPU monitoring software for their products. For an all-purpose solution, you can try Core Temp, a popular and free third-party option. Many people use it while stress-testing their CPU — a process in which you run your computer at full speed for a prolonged period of time to evaluate its performance and check its reliability under high load and temperature. Here’s how to use Core Temp on your computer:

Download Core Temp and install it. Note that unless you uncheck the corresponding box during installation, the program will also install a desktop shortcut for a browser game called Goodgame Empire.

Open Core Temp and focus on the bottom of the window, where it says “Core #0”. Depending on how many CPU cores your computer has, your window may look slightly different than ours.

On newer computers, you can reach your UEFI by opening the Windows menu in the lower-left corner of your screen, clicking Power, holding the Shift key, and selecting Restart. Your computer will reset and display a series of menus: choose Troubleshoot > Advanced options > UEFI Firmware Settings, then click Restart.

Checking your temps in the UEFI/BIOS is inconvenient for a couple of reasons. For one, your computer needs to restart, which means that you’ll need to stop whatever else you’re doing. Also, you can’t monitor your temps over time in the UEFI/BIOS — you’ll see only a one-time snapshot. That’s why we recommend using a software option while Windows is up and running.

Checking your temps once is nice, but it’s not going to provide you with much useful information. To get a fuller picture of your computer’s health, you’ll want to monitor your CPU temperature over time.

This is especially important when performing long intensive tasks, such as video rendering or playing resource-hungry video games. Direct sunlight can also heat things up quickly, so be sure to use a laptop temperature monitor when computing outdoors.

Since UEFI/BIOS can’t function as a long-term PC temperature monitor, you’ll need a software solution. Again, we’ll use Core Temp here as our Windows 10 temperature monitor. Here’s how to set that up:

The multicolored numbers at the top represent the current temperatures of your CPU cores. You can check them here anytime you like, or click and drag them to the taskbar to display them permanently.

To conserve space in your taskbar, you can elect to view only the highest temperature at any given time. In Core Temp, head to Options > Settings > Notification Area, then select Highest temperature per processor.

You can’t view your taskbar while fullscreening a game or movie, so we’ll need another solution if you’d like to keep an eye on your CPU temps during those activities. Bundled with the GPU overclocking utility MSI Afterburner is a nifty little tool called RivaTuner, which will let you display your CPU temps even while in fullscreen mode.

You can also download RivaTuner on its own, but its developer recommends that you run it together with MSI Afterburner for optimal performance. Here’s how to get it set up for fullscreen temperature monitoring:

Switch to the On-Screen Display tab and choose a hotkey configuration that you’ll use to bring up your monitoring data. Anytime you’re in a fullscreen app, you can input your hotkeys to view your CPU temps.

Under typical circumstances, your CPU temp should remain between 40 and 65 degrees Celsius (or 104°F and 149°F). Your PC temperature may vary depending on your computer, CPU, and level of activity, but anything within that window is normal and fine.

The normal CPU temp for your PC may vary depending on what you have. For example, in a high-end, custom-built gaming PC with loads of expensive cooling equipment, temps of around 50 degrees Celsius (122°F) are not unusual. A powerful laptop, on the other hand, might run at around 75 degrees Celsius (167°F), due to the limited space and cooling options.

When pushed near its limits, CPU temps can exceed 80 degrees Celsius (176°F). This isn’t necessarily a cause for alarm, but don’t let your computer remain at this heat level for long if you can avoid it, or you may experience performance slowdowns.

Extended gaming sessions can also stress your graphics processing unit (GPU), so be aware that you’ll want to check and monitor your GPU temperature as well. This is especially important if you’ve installed a high-end GPU designed for optimal gaming performance, since you’ll likely be playing for hours at a time.

Sustained heat of over 90 degrees Celsius (194°F) can cause physical damage to your CPU, so if you’re seeing numbers like that for several consecutive days, take steps to reduce the strain you’re putting on your CPU. Numbers like this mean your CPU temp is too high.

As mentioned above, your computer can and will likely slow down if you run it at high temperatures for sustained periods of time. At temperatures of 90 degrees Celsius (194°F) and above, your CPU may self-throttle, or regulate its own activity, in order to reduce the generation of additional heat. In some cases, this can cause your 3 GHz processor to throttle down to 800 MHz, for example, significantly reducing your performance. Some CPUs may shut down entirely to avoid permanent damage from the high temperatures.

That’s why it’s crucial to monitor your CPU temps on a daily basis. It’s especially useful if you’re planning to boost your computer’s performance via a CPU overclock. Overclocking is a popular technique to coax more power out of a gaming computer, but it comes at the cost of increased temperatures. We’d all love to run GTA V at optimal graphical fidelity and frame rates, but hardware has its limits.

Without sufficient cooling measures, you might run into trouble if you push things too far. That’s why so many custom-built gaming PCs use water cooling to increase performance. Since temperatures can directly impact performance, you’ll need to control your computer’s heat output in order to speed up your computer.

Also, many types of malware place a heavy strain on your CPU, leading to an increase in temperature. Always use a reliable antivirus tool like AVG AntiVirus FREE to detect, block, and remove malware from your computer.

As a first step to lowering your CPU temp, improve the airflow to your computer. Place your laptop on a smooth, firm surface like a table or desk (not your bed!). The same goes for your desktop PC: keep it off the carpet. Also consider using a laptop cooling stand to supply your laptop with a steady stream of air. Most important, air cooling relies on the air outside your computer being cooler than the air inside it, sominimize your computer use if your environment is too hot.

With a bit of elbow grease and a careful hand, you can perform some simple computer surgery to bring your old PC back into tip-top shape and keep its temperatures down. Use a can of compressed air to clear any dust from the fans and vents, and replace your CPU’s thermal paste. Thermal paste makes your CPU’s heatsink more efficient, which results in lower temperatures.

An efficient computer is always going to run smoother, faster, and cooler than one that’s overflowing with junk files and useless software. AVG TuneUp eliminates excess baggage to free your CPU up for the tasks that really matter — keeping temperatures down and performance up, all without any changes to your hardware.

Usually notebook users, the independent display is usually on standby, and only the core display is used to save energy, while the secondary screen monitors the more important independent display, so of course the graphics card monitoring data does not move.

With SolarWinds® Engineer’s Toolset™, you can stop monitoring your device CPUs manually. If a switch, server, or router provides CPU temperature via SNMP, the SNMP real-time graph tool in ETS can help monitor CPU temperature in addition to load and other metrics.

However, many network devices don’t include native methods to monitor CPU temperature, so a CPU monitor relying on capturing these existing temperature metrics won’t work.

By monitoring the usage of elements in network devices prone to overheating, SolarWinds ETS is built to provide an alternative way for you to monitor potential CPU temperature spikes, even when the router, switch, or server doesn’t natively provide temperature metrics.

Since heat is usually generated by overworked or overloaded electronic elements, ETS includes a CPU Monitor tool you can use to track interface statistics and memory utilization on multiple Cisco routers concurrently to more easily identify when an increase in traffic and CPU load on routers may be a warning sign of cybersecurity threats. With Advanced CPU Load, you can also record when peak load levels occur.

ETS also comes with intelligent alerting, which allows you to set warning and critical thresholds for each of your devices independently, since different processors have different maximum temperatures. Whenever your predetermined alert thresholds are breached in terms of load, temperature, or another metric, you’ll receive an alert. This alert can be an audible alarm, an SMS message, or an email.

The intuitive interface and graphic features in ETS can help make visualizing your CPU function and health easier. Once you receive an alert, you can immediately turn to the interface and see a graph of the current CPU load in relation to the maximum load. If the temperature has reached a user-defined threshold for a warning, the load bar turns yellow. If a critical level is reached, the bar turns red. These visual indicators can help you immediately pinpoint exactly where a problem is so you can begin taking steps to address it.

The easiest way to check your CPU temp is to install a free CPU heat monitoring tool — such as Core Temp — and monitor the CPU temperature for spikes. You can also check your CPU Monitor using Windows’ built-in BIOS/UEFI tool.

Under Temperature Readings, monitor the temps for each CPU core. The example below shows the average CPU temp around 50°C for a Quad-Core Skylake laptop.

In the Max column you can monitor the highest processor temperatures recorded by Core Temp. And in the Loadcolumn, you can see the current CPU load of each core.

While the easiest and most straightforward computer temperature monitor is Core Temp, there is other good CPU monitoring software on the market. Here are a few to check out:

HWInfo provides an in-depth look at all technical aspects of your hardware — including an overall PC temperature monitor and an individual CPU heat monitor.

If you’re running Windows 11, Windows 10, or an earlier version, it includes its own temperature check built into the BIOS/UEFI. To access it, turn on your PC and press a specific key during startup — usually F12, ESC, F2, or DEL. Once BIOS/UEFI is open, it shows you the CPU temperature right on the main screen.

This thermometer feature is part of the core software of your motherboard. Unfortunately, it only allows you to check the currenttemperature of the PC. It does nothing to monitor the temperature over time as you use Windows, particularly when your PC or laptop is busy with heavy loads.

When you work with demanding applications — such as video editing or rendering software — or when you use your computer in direct heat or sunlight, you should keep a close eye on your CPU temperature. That’s when heat goes far beyond a good CPU temp.

Thankfully, Core Temp offers an easy way to monitor your CPU temperature at all times, across multiple cores. By default, the information stays hidden, but you can make the CPU temperature monitor visible. It’s easy to set it up like a mini thermometer that sits in your taskbar.

If the four numbers are too crowded, you can display only the highest temperature of any of the cores. Within the Core Temp app, click Options > Settings and navigate to the Notification Area. Switch the view to Highest temperature per processor.

When you play a game in full-screen mode, you can’t see your taskbar. Realistically, ALT+TAB is more trouble than it’s worth just to check a computer temp. Thankfully, gamers use a good CPU temperature monitor for gaming — RivaTuner. The RivaTuner CPU temp monitor comes bundled with the CPU overclocking utility MSI Afterburner.

You can also monitor other stats while you’re gaming. Open the Monitoring tab in MSI Afterburner and select GPU temps, RAM memory, or usage stats. These numbers will also sit near the CPU thermometer in the top-left corner of your screen while gaming.

Your computing processing unit (CPU) performs millions of operations per second, which can cause the processor to become very hot. If it gets toohot without you realizing it, you might experience system stability issues, crashes, and computing slowdowns, or even create long-term damage.

If you are pushing your GPU beyond its limits by overclocking, its temperature will definitely increase. As an overclocker or a gaming PC builder, monitoring your temperatures should be at the top of your to-do list.

Ultrabooks are very thin, giving your laptop little space for proper cooling. If you overwork your computer — with gaming or graphics rendering — or if you live in a hotter climate, keep a close eye on processor temperatures.

Over time, dust can gather inside the computer chassis, which can slow down or even block its fans. It’s smart to check for high PC temperatures, as high CPU temps are an indicator that it’s time to clean out dust bunnies or replace fans. Cleaning the physical components of your PC is the first step in fixing your overheating PC and can even stop a Mac from overheating.

Perhaps you already use a PC optimization tool to fend off performance hogs. Maybe you’ve followed guides to speed up your PC and clean up your computer. If things still slow down to a crawl, the CPU might be forced to throttle itself when it reaches critical temperatures.

A normal CPU temperature depends on which CPU you use. Generally, anything between 40–65°C (or 104–149°F) is considered a safe heat range for a normal workload. While running more intensive apps or games, the normal CPU temp range can increase to between 70–80°C (158–176°F).

On a desktop gaming PC with plenty of cooling and a high-end CPU, it’s normal to see CPU temperatures around 50°C without running anything too demanding. On an Ultrabook — a very tight space for a powerful CPU — it’s normal for core temps to hover around 75°C during a normal workday.

At the highest loads, your average CPU temps can go up to 80–85°C, but consider this the absolute limit. Sustained CPU temps above 80°C can do long-term damage to the CPU and its silicon. If your CPU goes higher than 90°C for several hours, it will likely reduce the lifespan of your processor.

A good CPU temp while gaming is between 65-85°C. While average temperatures above 85°C are fine for a few minutes of gameplay or other intense CPU use, it isn’t a good idea for an extended period of time — even if your system is optimized for gaming.

Vacuum your PC:Get the dust bunnies out of the CPU fans. If you have a laptop (especially an older one), open it up and clean out the fans. Alternatively, if you’re nervous about taking the cover off, you can use compressed air dusters to unclog the inner workings of your PC and the CPU fan.

Use a laptop stand:A handful of laptop stands on the market either lift the computer or place it vertically to allow for more air flow. Laptop stands have other usability benefits too, so you don’t have to keep checking your computer temp.

Replace your cooling fan: If the fans inside your PC aren’t up to their tasks, replace them with a more powerful cooler or install a water cooling solution. While you’re replacing the fan, you should also remove the CPU and refresh the thermal paste or even replace it with a better one.

Keep it malware-free:Some viruses produce constant 100% CPU usage, drastically increasing the core load and temperature. That’s why you should regularly run a malware scan, which can detect and remove malware on your PC.

Turn off background applications and close programs:Use a dedicated tune-up tool like Avast Cleanup. Its built-in Sleep Mode automatically puts resource-draining apps and programs to sleep, reducing the load on your system and lowering CPU temperatures. Avast Cleanup will also clear unnecessary junk from your PC, keeping your system running like new. Try Avast Cleanup for free today.

I’ve used 3 different apps to monitor the CPU and GPU temperatures on my Windows laptop and I notice that the CPU temperature can be 80C one second and 50C the next, or 60C one second and 90C the next. This happens regardless of which app I’m using to check it. Most of the time when I check, it’s wildly fluctuating every second. Is this normal? What could be causing it?

Features: 5.25 inch fits perfectly in pc drive bay. Light LCD displayer, makes it easier to read. Date and time display is included Three available temperature probes, enable you to sense your preferences. CPU/HD/SYS 3 channels, can control 3 fans. Adjustable alarm from 5 to 90 Deg. C Fan speed controller Temperature Measurement In the initial state of the module, press MODE, it can change the display of 3 kinds of temperature: CPU? HDD? SYS? CPU? ……, the

accuracy: ±2 Deg. C Turn On and Off the Alarm In the initial state of the module, press ALARM C/F, it can turn on or off the alarm. Change Temperature Display Mode In the initial state of the module, long press (press and hold) ALARM C/F for about 3 seconds, it can change? /? temperature display mode. Fan control a. In the initial state, pressing SPEED button once can set the fan at low-speed mode. Pressing SPEED button twice will change to medium speed mode. Pressing SPEED button three times will change to high-speed mode. b. The module also can control fan speed according to the temperature information received from the SENSOR. At higher temperature, the speed of the fan will be quicker. Over-temperature alarm The default temperature of CPU,

SYS: CPU, 70?; HDD, 50 Deg. C; SYS, 60 Deg. C. Users can set these temperatures according to your needs( 5-90 Deg. C). You can turn the buzzer by pressing any keystrokes. Time display It can display time in the 24-hour clock. It also has a display calendar. Introductions of keypad 1). Time adjustment a.

set minute: long press MODE about 3 seconds? then press MODE six times? minute character twinkles? press ALARM C/F set the minute. 3). Alarm temperature adjustment a.

Dimensions149mm x 76mm x 42mmFeaturesFeatures5.25 inch fits perfectly in pc drive bay. Light LCD displayer, makes it easily to read. Date and time display is included Three available temperature probes, enable you to sense your preferences. CPU/HD/SYS 3 channels, can control 3 fans. Adjustable alarm from 5 to 90 Deg.CPackagingPackage Contents1 x 5.25"" PC Fan Speed Controller Temperature Temp Sensor LCD PanelGroupModelSST-FPS01Additional InformationDate First AvailableFebruary 11, 2019

But how can you tell if it"s overheating or just hot? What is a good temperature for your CPU? And what are the signs you should look out for that indicate that your PC is too hot?

Components inside your computer easily exude heat, notably the Central Processing Unit (CPU) and Graphic Processing Unit (GPU), as electricity is carried across circuits and experiences resistance.

Overclocking generates excessive heat, for instance. This is when you operate your CPU at a higher clock speed than intended by its manufacturers. You can typically find out ideal clocking rates by visiting the site of your processor"s maker, but unless you"re well-versed in speeds, these won"t mean much to you.

The main benefit of overclocking is a more efficient and faster operating system, but it also requires a higher voltage to perform tasks. This greater need for electricity results in your CPU generating more heat.

Playing games, watching Blu-rays, and ripping, burning, and sharing files can all put a strain on your CPU, as does normal system maintenance, editing, and encoding. With several tasks being carried out at once, overheating can be a very real concern. Note that an overheating device could also be a sign of a hack: cybercriminals could have installed malware such as keyloggers or crypto mining software that may be running unnoticed in the background. These would make your PC run hotter and potentially damage your hardware too. At least run a security scan to give yourself some peace of mind.

However, if your computer is sluggish or regularly freezes, that"s a major indicator that you"re exceeding the maximum recommended CPU operating temperature.

The internal fans may also be noisier than usual, meaning they"re working faster to lower the temperature of the motherboard and processor. It does this by venting hotter air away from important components via the heatsink (a naturally heat-conductive component typically made of aluminum) and out of the case.

Don"t panic if you hear your PC"s fans working. That"s perfectly normal. Any strenuous tasks performed by the CPU, GPU, Hard Disk Drive (HDD), and, to a lesser extent, the optical drive (DVD or Blu-ray player) will raise your PC temperature. Computers typically generate heat without a detrimental effect.

Maybe it runs slower than normal, even when attempting to complete basic tasks like opening numerous tabs in your browser or running two programs simultaneously. Your PC might keep shutting itself down or restarting without any prior warning.

Performance issues don"t necessarily mean the ideal CPU temperature is being exceeded. Malicious software could also be affecting your computer, so employ good security measures to decrease this risk.

On Windows, you can check which applications are most CPU-intensive through the Resource Monitor. Just search for the app on your desktop, and you"ll see which programs are running in the background (and likely some that have recently been terminated). Don"t worry: this list will be extensive, and that"s perfectly normal.

Your computer is designed to operate at its maximum capacity at room temperature—that is, a comfortable room that feels neither too hot nor too cold. It"s simple to say, but everyone prefers a different temperature!

So what is a normal computer temperature? Scientifically speaking, ambient room temperature is between 20 degrees C (68 degrees F) and 26 degrees C (79 degrees F), averaging at about 23 degrees C (73 degrees F). A simple mercury thermometer can give you an accurate gauge of your worktop.

Your CPU will run at a higher temperature than the room, so don"t panic when you initially see it. What temperature is too hot for a CPU to operate at? You should consult your system"s documentation as it depends on what conditions your hardware is expected to function under normally.

So how hot can a CPU get? Generally, your processor shouldn"t run at anything greater than 75 degrees C (167 degrees F), but there is some wriggle room, especially if you"re running lots of apps at the same time. Edging towards 80 degrees C(176 degrees F) is typically okay for a short time.

Anything under 60 degrees C (140 degrees F) is perfect. Just above this temperature is okay, but as you creep above 70 degrees C (158 degrees F), you should look at how to cool your PC down.

It"s a good idea to keep an eye on your CPU, accessible through your Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) or Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). This system instructs the hardware to load the operating system just after the computer powers up. By necessity, this means you have a narrow window in which to access your BIOS.

They still shouldn"t be too high. Temperatures while gaming should be around 65 degrees C (149 degrees F) to 85 degrees C(185 degrees F), although the latter can affect your device if it"s for a long time. Taking a well-deserved break from games can be good for your and for your PC.

If you"re concerned your CPU is overheating, you do have options, including installing your own fan—but this is not advised for anyone unfamiliar with internal workings.

Should your fail-safe kick in, reducing the risk of damaging components, your device will crash. It"s likely you"ll need a new fan for the heatsink. It may be another fan that"s not working sufficiently, but unless you know this, don"t switch on your computer as this may permanently damage your CPU.

So what should the normal operating temperature of your CPU be? Ideally, your processor shouldn"t be hotter than 75 degrees C (167 degrees F) nor significantly colder than 20 degrees C (68 degrees F).