what is your average CPU temperature?

[JakeS]

What is your average CPU temperature?

I was just wondering, Mine normally stays around a healthy 59C when idle and 60-63C when in use

[Floris]

The cpu headsink's are 30 oC right now, and the last 14 days average shows 26 oC average.
The temps are between 30 and 40 for the cpu's. And average shows 32 C average over last 18 days

[JakeS]

The cpu's are 30 oC right now, and the last 14 days average shows 26 oC average.

How do you keep your cpu so cold? My cpu instantly bumps to 30C by the time I get to my bio's but my PC is turned on almost 24-7 I've got 8 fans in pc and my cpu is still hotter than yours, that's strange do you turn your PC on once a month or something? or do you just have a freezing cold room? or in the freezer? My room that the PC is in is on average 20C.

[Floris]

Intel Xeon's, and a good fan. It's a mac pro case, good airflow and proper configuration.

[JakeS]

Intel Xeon's, and a good fan. It's a mac pro case, good airflow and proper configuration.

A single fan?

Well to decrease the cpu tempature I was thinking of giving the case a bit more airflow recently, where my machine is loaded with so much their isn't much room, I was thinking of getting 2 HDD out of it and leaving 2 760GB ones in, changing the IDE cables to these thin ones I see on ebay, but I wont be buying from ebay, so that would increase airflow a bit more, and also remove some ram and move the 3 routers a bit more away.

Wont make much of a difference might take it down to at least 55C when in use.

[Floris]

60 degrees is normal for PC, as long as it doesn't go above 65 and 70 while doing games for 2 hours .. you should be fine.

My p4 2,4ghz system used to run about 25 degrees idle, in the winter, and 30 in the summer. and when doing games it went up to 40 in the winter and 50 in the summer.

Once the artic silver didn't do its job anymore after 5 years, and the fan was wearing down and all that, it run for 2 years at 60 degrees constant.

[JakeS]

60 degrees is normal for PC, as long as it doesn't go above 65 and 70 while doing games for 2 hours .. you should be fine.

My p4 2,4ghz system used to run about 25 degrees idle, in the winter, and 30 in the summer. and when doing games it went up to 40 in the winter and 50 in the summer.

Once the artic silver didn't do its job anymore after 5 years, and the fan was wearing down and all that, it run for 2 years at 60 degrees constant.

I don't play games on my PC that's what I use my ps2 for.

So you think I should just leave my cpu as is?

My CPU is not an Intel, its an Advanced Micro Devices Athlon(tm) x64 4000+

[Wayne Luke]

I don't really track the temperature of my CPU. It isn't really relevant to working every day and just another thing to stress over. If I was running full time servers, then I would. If I start experiencing performance issues, I might check it as well. Both other than that it isn't a concern.

Those 8 fans in your PC don't do much to keep your CPU cold. They could even create issues with cooling if you don't have the air flows adjusted correctly. If care isn't taken, you can actually create vortexes of dead air within your case that just lets heat accumulate. It really isn't the number of fans but the efficiency of them. My coolest PC has a single fan/heat sink unit in it. Of course it is 4 X 4 inch monstrosity that takes up most of the open space within the case.

The key would be the heat sink and fan/cooler on your CPU itself. When it is under 3 inches of copper/aluminum, the air moving in the case isn't touching it. If the fins on your heat sink don't allow air from the outside fans to blow through them efficiently (e.g. they are perpendicular to airflow currents) or are clogged with dust, then you will also lose cooling efficiency.

Newer CPU coolers are more complex as well with closed liquid radiators, that move heat away through convection processes. Combine this with better heat conducting alloys for heat sink fins, better alignment and spacing of these fins and more efficient fans, leads to lower temperatures. Of course, you can go to a fanless liquid cooling system using either a water-based coolant mixture or compressed gas like nitrogen or argon. Though those are more costly.

My CPU is not an Intel, its an Advanced Micro Devices Athlon(tm) x64 4000+

AMD processors generally run hotter than Intel processors. This is why most servers are still built with Intel processors.

If it's any consolation, I have a PC which has an AMD Athlon 2800+ (Not 64-bit) and it is running at 50° celsius right now.. That is considered normal.

[Floris]

Oh, AMD
Yes, they are always horribly hot.
Ignore the temp, that's normal.

[Dean C]

Get a zalman silent fan, and you won't see it spike about 35. Mine is at 32 atm With the right investment of fans you can get a pretty damn quiet system with a low temperature. It's mainly the VGA fans that "grind my gears" (*ahem*) as they're so damn noisy, and the default ones aren't that efficient on cooling anyway.

[JakeS]

I don't really track the temperature of my CPU. It isn't really relevant to working every day and just another thing to stress over. If I was running full time servers, then I would. If I start experiencing performance issues, I might check it as well. Both other than that it isn't a concern.

Those 8 fans in your PC don't do much to keep your CPU cold. They could even create issues with cooling if you don't have the air flows adjusted correctly. If care isn't taken, you can actually create vortexes of dead air within your case that just lets heat accumulate. It really isn't the number of fans but the efficiency of them. My coolest PC has a single fan/heat sink unit in it. Of course it is 4 X 4 inch monstrosity that takes up most of the open space within the case.

The key would be the heat sink and fan/cooler on your CPU itself. When it is under 3 inches of copper/aluminum, the air moving in the case isn't touching it. If the fins on your heat sink don't allow air from the outside fans to blow through them efficiently (e.g. they are perpendicular to airflow currents) or are clogged with dust, then you will also lose cooling efficiency.

Newer CPU coolers are more complex as well with closed liquid radiators, that move heat away through convection processes. Combine this with better heat conducting alloys for heat sink fins, better alignment and spacing of these fins and more efficient fans, leads to lower temperatures. Of course, you can go to a fanless liquid cooling system using either a water-based coolant mixture or compressed gas like nitrogen or argon. Though those are more costly.


AMD processors generally run hotter than Intel processors. This is why most servers are still built with Intel processors.

My Server is AMD and it runs cooler than my PC even tho it has an identical CPU

Oh, AMD
Yes, they are always horribly hot.
Ignore the temp, that's normal.

I don't want to ignore the temp to much in case I wake up one morning and my computer has cached fire, laughed at me for leaving it on, gone to the funeral, and died. lol.

I just remembered, I got 3 on the side all pulling in air, 4 at the front all pulling in air and 1 big one at the back pulling the air out, could this be causing it?

Get a zalman silent fan, and you won't see it spike about 35. Mine is at 32 atm With the right investment of fans you can get a pretty damn quiet system with a low temperature. It's mainly the VGA fans that "grind my gears" (*ahem*) as they're so damn noisy, and the default ones aren't that efficient on cooling anyway.

I'm not to worried about noise, I'd rather a system that's loud and cool, than a system that's quiet and when a fan stops working you don't notice until its to late, But I'll take a few looks around.

[Dean C]

I'm not to worried about noise, I'd rather a system that's loud and cool, than a system that's quiet and when a fan stops working you don't notice until its to late, But I'll take a few looks around.

You get the best of both worlds if you look into buying custom fans

[Wayne Luke]

My Server is AMD and it runs cooler than my PC even tho it has an identical CPU

Better heatsink and fan. If it is in a data center then probably has better ambient temperature unless you keep your room between 50 and 60 degrees.

[JakeS]

Better heatsink and fan. If it is in a data center then probably has better ambient temperature unless you keep your room between 50 and 60 degrees.

Well, This PC's fans run at:

Main CPU Fan: 2766RPM
The rest: 1786RPM

[Wayne Luke]

That doesn't really mean anything. If they are moving hot air, they are moving hot air. A fan doesn't really cool anything. It moves air from one point to another. In most cases, it can draw air from a cool spot and move hot air away. If the air it is drawing is already hot, then it simply moves hot air from one location to another. At the very most, you get a few degrees differential when that happens.

Look at this CPU cooler here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118019

The fan on it draws air from front of the case and pushes it through the back of the case. Pulling in cooler air from outside and out the back. The "heatsink" works like your car radiator does. It has liquid (sometimes gas) that draws the heat from the CPU and up into the radiator. As the air moves, it picks up heat from the radiator and sends it off. This allows the liquid to cool and go pick up more heat.

A "standard" heatsink that comes with your CPU uses a series of aluminum fins and a fan on top that pulls air from the bottom and pushes it up (usually towards the hot power supply). These fins can radiate heat away but do not do it as well as using a liquid/gas filled radiator. Furthermore, the fan is pulling air off the motherboard that is already heated by transistors and capacitors that are nearby. It then forces this air into the hot power supply, which probably has a fan of its own. On a good power supply, this fan is pulling air up and out of your case to cool it. On a bad power supply, it is forcing hot air into your case.

Specifically in your case though, you have three fans forcing air in from the side but the CPU fan forces air towards them, most likely creating a vortex around your CPU where the air doesn't move as efficiently. More fans does not equal less heat. Better distribution of the generated heat means more cooling.

Install a cooler similar to the one above, and turn off half your existing fans and you will probably have a better cooled system.

If you don't believe me, look at the compressor unit for a refrigerator. The fan on it is tiny in comparison to the entire unit and yet it manages to keep two or three cubic feet of space at sub-zero temperatures. Same for your Home's HVAC unit, the fan is relatively small compared to the entire system. When the same cooling principles are applied to your PC, you can do a lot more with less.