«

Jack B. Pollack wrote:

> I have a Dell Dimension 5100 3GHZ box (XP SP3). It will be living in a
> cabinet with moderate ventilation. Before moving it to its new home I wanted
> to check component temps so that I could compare them later to verify
> adequate ventilation.
>
> The BIOS does not display any temp info.
> MotherBoard Monitor did not have any config files for this model so I used
> SpeedFan.
>
> SpeedFan reported a GPU and Core temp of 60' when the computer was idle. I
> then used CPU Damage
> (http://www.benchmarkhq.ru/gallery/sc...g2_itemId=1041) to bring
> the processor usage up to 100%. I ran this for 30 min and the CPU and Core
> temps still read 60'
>
> What is a safe temp zone for this processor (Intel P4 3.GHZ w/ HT)?
> Why wouldnt the core temp vary when CPU is maxed? it does occasionally go
> down to 59' when idle, so I know something is being read
>
> Thanks

Perhaps your BIOS or some monitoring utility is monitoring a threshold
temperature for the CPU. If the CPU exceeds or nears this threshold, the
BIOS or utility will increase the fan's speed to increase the cooling.
Unless you have deficient cooling hardware, the BIOS or utility should be
able to hold the CPU under the configured threshold. Do the fans spin
faster (and make more noise) when you full-load the CPU for awhile?

You sure that you are reading the correct value in Speedfan? It tries to
find several hardware monitors but not all of them may be functional (i.e.,
no hardware actually implemented on the motherboard). As I recall, when you
install Speedfan, YOU have to decide which hardware monitor is monitoring
what. You can rename the monitors in Speedfan but that's after you know
which one monitors what. On my host, Speedfan "detects" 5 hardware monitors
but 2 of them never change. It sees the interface hardware on the mobo but
there is no supporting logic. If you go into Speedfan's Configure dialog
and pick the Advanced tab, how many monitoring devices are listed in the
Chips drop-down listbox? Just because a, say, a Winbond chip is listed
doesn't mean every monitoring ability of it is used in how it happened to
get implemented on that motherboard. The chip exists not the additional
hardware needed for all monitor functions. Also, because you have to decide
which monitor value is for what device being monitored, it's possible you
picked the wrong one. Maybe you picked the hard disk temperature monitor as
the CPU temperature monitor.

Jack B. Pollack wrote:

> "VanguardLH" <> wrote in message
> news:hj00ap$1js$...
>> Jack B. Pollack wrote:
>>
>>> I have a Dell Dimension 5100 3GHZ box (XP SP3). It will be living in a
>>> cabinet with moderate ventilation. Before moving it to its new home I
>>> wanted
>>> to check component temps so that I could compare them later to verify
>>> adequate ventilation.
>>>
>>> The BIOS does not display any temp info.
>>> MotherBoard Monitor did not have any config files for this model so I
>>> used
>>> SpeedFan.
>>>
>>> SpeedFan reported a GPU and Core temp of 60' when the computer was idle.
>>> I
>>> then used CPU Damage
>>> (http://www.benchmarkhq.ru/gallery/sc...g2_itemId=1041) to
>>> bring
>>> the processor usage up to 100%. I ran this for 30 min and the CPU and
>>> Core
>>> temps still read 60'
>>>
>>> What is a safe temp zone for this processor (Intel P4 3.GHZ w/ HT)?
>>> Why wouldnt the core temp vary when CPU is maxed? it does occasionally go
>>> down to 59' when idle, so I know something is being read
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>
>> Perhaps your BIOS or some monitoring utility is monitoring a threshold
>> temperature for the CPU. If the CPU exceeds or nears this threshold, the
>> BIOS or utility will increase the fan's speed to increase the cooling.
>> Unless you have deficient cooling hardware, the BIOS or utility should be
>> able to hold the CPU under the configured threshold. Do the fans spin
>> faster (and make more noise) when you full-load the CPU for awhile?
>>
>> You sure that you are reading the correct value in Speedfan? It tries to
>> find several hardware monitors but not all of them may be functional
>> (i.e.,
>> no hardware actually implemented on the motherboard). As I recall, when
>> you
>> install Speedfan, YOU have to decide which hardware monitor is monitoring
>> what. You can rename the monitors in Speedfan but that's after you know
>> which one monitors what. On my host, Speedfan "detects" 5 hardware
>> monitors
>> but 2 of them never change. It sees the interface hardware on the mobo
>> but
>> there is no supporting logic. If you go into Speedfan's Configure dialog
>> and pick the Advanced tab, how many monitoring devices are listed in the
>> Chips drop-down listbox? Just because a, say, a Winbond chip is listed
>> doesn't mean every monitoring ability of it is used in how it happened to
>> get implemented on that motherboard. The chip exists not the additional
>> hardware needed for all monitor functions. Also, because you have to
>> decide
>> which monitor value is for what device being monitored, it's possible you
>> picked the wrong one. Maybe you picked the hard disk temperature monitor
>> as
>> the CPU temperature monitor.
>
> Thanks for your post. There is no entry for the "WinBoard", just 2 entries
> for the NVIDIA graphics card and one for the HD. So I guess that is my
> answer. Based on that I just googled "dell dimension 5100 temperature
> monitor" and it looks like Dells dont have the temp sensors.
>
> So since I cant read the sensors any advise on putting it in the semi
> ventilated cabinet. It really has to go in there, so should I add extra fans
> or something?

Easiest would be to ensure the exhaust fans in the cabinet meet or exceed
the total air flow rate for the exhaust fans in the computer case (along
with making sure the intake for the cabinet is unrestricted.

It is highly unlikely that you have a computer that does not monitor the
temperature of its CPU. The nVidia hardware that you mention is probably
not for a video card but instead for the chips on the motherboard. nVidia
makes controller chips, too.