Monitoring computer temperature

April 15, 2007 4:00 PM

Looking for GNU or similar idea temperature monitoring software.

So on a search I found many different question points for people with crash problems, etc that recommend temperature monitoring software. However, I think it would be valuable to have a thread dedicated to the task of finding some great programs for managing those massive computers that are out these days. So, who knows of good temperature monitoring programs and what are some of the +s and -s on said program? Does it work with most motherboards? This would be a great thread to eventually add to the wikipedia thread on it.

posted by occidental to computers & internet (6 comments total)

This looks like it works on Windows (I'm guessing that's your OS); is free and works on a number of different motherboards.
posted by southof40 at 4:12 PM on April 15, 2007

Whoops, yes for windows. Typical of a windows user to assume everyone uses it, haha.
posted by occidental at 4:17 PM on April 15, 2007

I assume you're talking here about processor-temperature monitoring software.

The first thing to understand is that such software (usually) isn't monlithic. There are a lot of temperature monitors; here's one for GNOME and one for KDE. But to get the processor temperature, both of those rely on the LM-Sensors package to do the dirty low-level work.

LM-Sensors works with most modern motherboards, but if you want to check, they have a list on their webpage. As described there, you need to verify compatibility both of the "bus master" (the chip that controls the entire sensor bus) and the sensor chip itself, for the parameter you want to monitor. The busses used for monitoring in computers can have a wide variety of sensors on them (IIRC I think they were designed for automobiles?) but usually it's just temperature and fan speed.

Disk temperature readings are a little different, I think that's handled (on supported drives) via the SMART status which is transmitted alongside the data on the IDE/ATA bus. Many of the same frontends that display processor temperature will also display disk temperature, but only if you have drives that support it. (In my experience it's about 50/50 on whether the drives report temperature; probably it depends on how much you pay for the drives and what brand they are.)
posted by Kadin2048 at 4:22 PM on April 15, 2007

For some reason when you asked for GNU stuff I thought you were talking about Linux and other free OSes. Anyway, the same stuff still applies at the hardware level, although I have no idea how Windows software interfaces with the I2C bus.
posted by Kadin2048 at 4:23 PM on April 15, 2007

Seconding MBM (which was in the first post). It'll also provide voltage monitoring and is frequently recommended.
posted by artifarce at 4:44 PM on April 15, 2007

If all you want is free temperature monitoring for windows, try SpeedFan.
posted by pants tent at 1:32 AM on April 16, 2007