What temperature inside the home computer and CPU temperature is considered good?

It depends on your CPU, but in general one could say that the case temperature shouldn't be over 35°C and the CPU temperature shouldn't be over 60°C.

I think most hard drives are supposed to operate below 50C and as I understand it AMDs CPUs from the "Bulldozer" series onwards should be kept below 55C. NVIDIA's cards seem to be getting cooler but my old 9800GTX+ had a "warning temperature" (think that was what it was called) of 95C -- my current card operates at just under 60C when it's being used and nvidia-settings's temperature gauge puts the temperature in yellow and the fan's at around 20%.

The command for temperature and sensors is:
If you want to check on your computers temp. (-f is for fahrenheit)

There are several CPU Frequency Monitoring app's-
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=cpu+freque...linux&kl=us-en

I think what you are after is more 'what is safe' over 'what is good'. It really depends on what hardware you are running.

I'd agree, generally. But sometimes its impossible. I get ambient temps of 35C+ during summer, and there is no way I can ever get my case temp under ambient (not without something silly, expensive and complex, like phase change cooling the whole system).

Thats why you'll sometimes see overclockers, underclockers and other temp watchers talking about 'delta' temps.

The delta is basicly the difference between the reported temps, and the ambient temp. I have no duobt you've run across this before Tobi, but others might not.

Compare these 2 systems-

System 1-
CPU temp 57C.
GPU temp 78C.
Ambient temp 35C.
CPU delta = 22C.
GPU delta = 43C.

System 2-
CPU temp 33C.
GPU temp 50C.
Ambient temp 1C.
CPU delta = 32C
GPU delta = 49C.

While system 1 seems to have 'better' temps, its cooling system is actually worse than system 2.

I havent checked all the HDDs, but from abit of a search many of them currently have a 60C limit-

http://www.seagate.com/files/staticf...0-1-1212us.pdf

Just for fun, have a look at WDs page, it has 'Temperature (English)- Operating 32° F to 140° F' and 'Temperature (Metric)- Operating 5° C to 55° C'. Which very amusing, 140F is 60C-

http://www.wdc.com/global/products/s...343&language=1

BTW, at with the seagate temps at least, its actually 'drive case max', and as far as I know the internal sensor will not report the 'real' drive case temp, it will probably be higher than the real temp.

Most of teh older (pre 4XX) nVidia GPUs are 105C max. The 9800GTX+ is-

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desk...specifications

The 4XX series and newer tend to be 90something max.

Bulldozer temps get really messy. Heres a copied email about the 1090T (Phenom II, not bulldozer)-

http://www.overclock.net/t/931241/in...md-about-1090t

I'm pretty sure that the bulldozer CPUs use similar or the same basic construction, have similar 'real' max temps limits, and also have the 'temps can be out' and 'what bloody sensor is giving me that temp' issue.

Offically, the 1090T is 62C max, the FX-8XXX series is 61C max (though its only listed for the FX-8150. Bad AMD! Fix!).

http://products.amd.com/en-us/Deskto...f10=&f11=&f12=
http://products.amd.com/en-us/Deskto...f10=&f11=&f12=

So its best to keep them under 60C, or even under 50C, but going over wont blow your CPU. Not quickly anyway, running for extended periods over 60C could cause degredation of the CPU.

Thanks cascade9.
I admit I forgot it was 105C for the 9800GTX+ -- I'd assumed it would be below kettle temperatures. Now I think of it I do recall the old stories about NVIDIA gamers' cards catching fire due to a build up of fluff.
For HDDs I think 50C is a pretty good limit to use, though I'd rather mine stay under 40C as I've the ambient temperatures to allow it and they do.


Off topic as to my FX 8120 -- I think the fan control, the fan or the temperature sensor or all three are broken as I can easily breach 75C when I use mprime on all 8 cores. I would be very interested in knowing whether that is the case though as if I've a faulty part I'll buy another CPU in a year or two but if the system is behaving as designed I'll not touch another AMD part again -- it is that bad.

When you easily reach 75°C it seems that your cooling system either isn't working as it should or is under-dimensioned. Which CPU cooler do you use and do you have sufficient airflow through the case?

I'm using the stock cooler (AMD states my warranty is void if I don't) and the case has a tube from the side to the CPU so it's getting fresh air and is otherwise equipped with tow fans at the front, one at the back and a power supply with through fan at the top.
The CPU fan seems reluctant to speed up then hits its max RPM as the CPU gets to 65C. So, I think something is amiss or AMD decided to make their fans let the CPU overheat. I know the former is more likely but googling suggests I'm not the only only with an FX 8120 that easily gets to the 55C which AMD seems to insinuate you could void the warranty if you exceed. If the fan were a little faulty I'd
expect the speed regulation to just keep ramping it up until it cooled the CPU and not let it stay slow until the CPU was over warranty temperature then suddenly kick in on full to no effect.

If your using a socket sensor, its at least 7-10C over the real core temps. That would explain why the fans ramp up at 65C, its probably more like 55C (and I would guess under, it could be as low as 45C).

I wouldnt worry at all about replacing the stock cooler. I've never blown a CPU...err...OK, I'm never blown a CPU that I hadnt already written off as useless. But I know people who have, and intel or AMD have never known they werent using the stock cooler.

I think I've suggested this before, but I'd try taking the side of the case off, then pointing the biggest fan you can into the heatsink. Just to see what happens to the temps.

I'm living with it but I'm not happy with it. I may replace the cooler if/when I can afford to -- my point was more that AMD think the stock cooler ought to work than me being worried about warranty claims as it's getting towards being too old for that anyhow.
I've played with fans in all sorts of places and the behaviour is the same. As I said the problem is that the CPU cooling circuit itself doesn't seem to acknowledge that the CPU is getting hot and speed up the fan until the CPU is already, according to it's specifications, at a dangerous temperature and by then it's too late.
If AMD are saying that 55C is dangerous for the CPU I can only go by their word that this is dangerous and I can only go by the only sensors available for the CPU -- unless AMD are giving out figures for temperature that nobody has a chance of finding out? Again, this is very worrying because either the CPU is hitting a dangerous 55C or AMD are giving out nonsense figures the user has no way of using -- either way AMD are the problem.
Sorry, I've diverted this thread too much already, I only mentioned my woes because I think it's worth being clear that the safe operating temperatures for different parts and even different CPUs can be very different. I have to admit did also hope somebody might mention a known bug with the FX 8120 so I could rest assured it isn't that AMD engineer their CPUs to run hotter than their own specifications say they should. I think otherwise I'll buy Intel in future if I can afford it.

It also may be possible that the fan controller on your mainboard is set to a "silent" or similar setting, I would check your BIOS for something like that.

I have a Lian Li case with 2 front fans blowing "in", 2 rear fans blowing "out", 1 fan blowing "out" the top of the case.

MOBO= MSI 890FXA-GD70 Graphics card = EVGA GTX460 CPU = AMD Phenom II Black Edition X6 1090 T.

All fans (5) are S-FLEX 80mm.

The CPU temperature is 30.deg C/86.deg F, The GPU = 37.deg C/98.deg F. So I quess everything is OK, I didn't know and wanted to be sure

I don't have a reading for the Hard Drive, witch is a 2 TB Western Digital (green), these are suposed to run cool.

Those temperatures look OK for idle temperatures. The interesting temperatures are those under full load, though.

You should be able to get the hard drive temperatures using hddtemp if you're interested. I display mine with conky but if you just want spot readings it's as easy as installing hddtemp then running "hddtemp /dev/sda" (or whichever relevant drive). Though by the sounds of it I'd guess you'll see a temp around the 35C mark.

As a follow-up to anyone who might be interested. I bought an Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 a few weeks ago and the change in CPU temperature is significant. I can now see which is the "estimated form the socket" temperature that always tends to read high and the "true" temperature that reads far too low until it's warm. I can now run mprime torture test and use Second Life without the "true" temperature going above 60C though now I'm wondering whether what I thought was the "true" temperature may not even be it and the one which seemed to mirror it is the real one and that's down at ~55C.
Anyhow, what I mean by that is I ought to have bought a real cooler from the get-go and not relied upon AMD's frankly pathetic and useless cooler which they state is required to protect your warranty. I am now happy I can use my machine without worrying the CPU is melting and I only use conky's temperature readout to get an idea of when I might have been stressing the CPU a bit and so I know whether a fan has failed.