Best Hardware Temperature Software?

[LucasG]

I'm looking for the best software to check all my hardware temperature. I want to overclock my processor (AMD 64 3500+) and my video card (ATI Radeon x800 XL PCI-E) to get a smoother gameplay. Could anyone give me a little hand on this?

Thanks & Regards.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I use Motherboard Monitor. Unfortunately, the author has discontinued support. However, there is a huge user-base who continue to add new motherboards to the database - or if you are adventurous, you can add yours. Other folks like Speedfan. I am sure there are others.

Caution - do make sure you have addressed the additional cooling demands before attempting to overclock - at the absolute very least, I recommend pulling the stock CPU HSF and the GPU HSF and replace the thermal pads with good quality thermal compound - like AC3 or better.

And also note that if your HW is under warranty, and you crispy critter the mobo, CPU, RAM or video card, and the makers determine the damage was caused by overheating due to OCing, they will not cover the repair/replacement, nor should they.

 

[benamaster]

Most motherboards come with some kind of monitoring software that works quite well. The BIOS temp monitor/manager is also a good reliable method to shut down in case the temp gets too had.

 

[ChingChang]

I prefer SpeedFan. It displays other useful things in addition to temps, like the SMART info for hard drives.

Video card temps will have to be taken with a temperature probe, unless it is a more recent video card then it should be displayed in the video settings. I'm not sure if X800 can report temps.. I think it can though.