A lot of times, your computer might run into a problem, and you will see the blue screen of death in the Windows system. That blue screen can have multiple reasons, but one of the most prominent ones is overheating of the CPU, which leads to the abrupt shutdown or crash of your system. The CPU is the heart of your computer. It does all the heavy lifting of processing and makes it possible for you to enjoy the game that you are playing or work you are doing. In addition to this, a CPU not only helps you play video games, but a good CPU will also help you boost your loading speeds of frames in professional editing software.
From i3 to i9, each CPU needs a cooling fan to keep its temperature down and make it function normally under load. But sometimes, even these CPU coolers are of no help, and your system will have to suffer a crash. In order to keep a check on your CPU’s temperature and other information, you need CPU monitor software. With these software programs, you can identify the problem of overheating in its very early stages and fix it before it causes your CPU to suffer irreparable damage.
Why do we need to Check our CPU Temperature?
For people who are not into the technical aspects of building a PC, CPU temperature is something they might not think to worry about. But hear us out for a second. Checking your CPU’s temperature is just like your car’s oil. You don’t have to check it daily, but every once in a while, you should know how much the temps are when you are straining your system with a constant heavy load.
Finding out your CPU temperature is pretty easy, and you can do it in a number of ways. Also, don’t think about opening up your CPU cabinet to check the temperature. You don’t need that at all. Every PC comes with a built-in sensor to track the CPU temperature. So all you need is software in order to read the information from the instrument.
Apart from this, if you are someone who loves to crank up the CPU performance and overclock it, then you should definitely keep an eye on the CPU temps as they are the ones that can quickly shoot up to 95 and then cause thermal throttling. The ideal stress test to find out how much performance your system can output is about 1 hour long. But keep in mind that during this stress test, your CPU temperature will settle down after 10 to 15 minutes, and then it won’t fluctuate that much.
What Should be the Ideal CPU Temperature?
Well, this is a tricky question to ask in the first place; this depends on person to person and system to system if we are honest. When a CPU is running in an idle workload, and there is no programming running on it, then a healthy temperature to keep your CPU up and running for a long working period is around 50 degrees celsius. You can go below this temperature and even cool it using water cooling and get it to a sub-ambient temperature. Lowering the temperature of your CPU won’t cause any problems for you, and a number of tech enthusiasts teach people how to do it for better performance and overclocking.
Your computer’s idle temperature is about 50 degrees, which is fine, but when you start a program, it shoots up, and that is a problem that you should be concerned about. When you put your system under load, it should show CPU temps to be in the range of 80 to 85 degrees celsius. Don’t worry if you have an ultrabook and it runs a bit hotter. That’s completely fine because of its small form factor.
Anything above 95 degrees is marked as a critical temperature, and if your CPU stays at that temperature for a while, it can quickly get damaged and stop working. Also, once the CPU reaches the 95-degree mark, it will start thermal throttling. That means the clock speed at which the CPU works will go down. As a result, you will see that the system will begin to show hang-ups and other problems.
In order to get rid of this, you might have to turn off the system for a while so that the CPU temperature can go down.
What should you do if your CPU Temperature is too High?
If you are putting a lot of load on your computer and see that CPU temps are going higher than 80 degrees, then you should follow some of these tips to make your CPU cool down a bit. On the other hand, even after performing all these tasks, your CPU is still showing an increase in temperature, so you need to consult a professional and check whether your CPU cooling is working effectively or not.
- First, check if your PC is clean or not; if it isn’t clean, then get it cleaned by a blower to remove the dust from the cabinet.
- After that, check if all the fans that you have in the CPU cabinet are spinning fine under the heavy load. If they are working correctly, then it’s fine. Otherwise, change the faulty fan and see the results.
- Check the thermal paste and apply a fresh new coating.
These are some of the things you should be doing in order to see if your PC is working fine or not. You must change the thermal pasting of your CPU every three years, no matter if your computer is custom-made or pre-built. Because in three years, the thermal paste loses its efficiency of conducting heat.
Best CPU Temperature Monitoring Software
Below we have the list of some of the best CPU temperature monitoring software in 2021 that you should use in order to find if your computer is experiencing thermal throttle and other heating issues.
1. SolarWinds CPU Load Monitor
The monitoring software will set up the thresholds on all levels of performance statuses that you want to track down. Also, you can make changes to them and customize them according to your liking. Now, if your CPU manages to cross that threshold, this software will give you an alert. This alert can be shown in the software’s dashboard, and it can also send you a personal message depicting the same alert. As a result, a technician doesn’t have to sit all day in front of the system to monitor its working. Also, the warning sent by SolarWinds gives you enough breathing space to take preventative measures before your system has to deal with any performance and physical damage. Lastly, this software is free to download but comes with a 14 day trial period only.
2. Speccy
Speccy is a software which comes from the family of well known Ccleaner software. These applications are part of the Windows operating system and are designed to keep the hardware and software of the system in healthy condition. If your CPU is showing a rise in the temperature, it will quickly detect it and let you know. In addition to this, even if there are other components that are being heated up, the Speccy will find that component and give its information to you in no time.
Furthermore, Speccy makes it possible for you to save the screenshots for the system scan so you can learn more about the system when you open them later. Also, the screenshots will be saved in XML format so that they can be easily shareable via email and other methods. This software only runs in the Windows operating system, so Mac users need to find something else to use from our list.
3. HWMonitor
This tool does more than take care of your CPU temps. It also monitors the voltage along with the fan speed and more. The great thing about this software is that it is capable of reading CPU on-die core thermal sensors, hard drives, and SSD temperatures. In addition to this, one of the essential components of any gaming system is the graphics card, and they have a nick of running on high temperatures.
So, with the help of HWMonitor, you can easily track the GPU temperatures as well. Some of the features that come in the pro version of the software include remote monitoring of the system. This will allow you to watch the sensors of your computer even when you are not physically around the system.
Using HWMonitor, a user can generate the logging graphs as a bitmap file. Also, the software makes it possible for a user to customize the interface and edit the labels and the system tray. Also, you can choose how the sensor’s information will be displayed. There are two different versions that you can use on your system for monitoring. The first one costs $22.48, and the other one is $39.40. To get started, you can test the software for a trial period of 30 days.
4. Open Hardware Monitor
This is the first open-source monitoring system on our list, and it supports the temperature, fan speed, load, voltage, along with the clock speed of the CPU. This tool works with all the standard computer chips and the sensors that are present in the market right now. The formatting of the sensor data is pretty neat, and when it comes to handling the system temps of a mission-critical device, this software can help you a lot.
Being an open-source monitor, you don’t have to pay anything to the developers, and there is no pro and free version of the software. You can use this application for all the different versions of Linux and Windows. Keep in mind that this software is ideal for personal use, but if you are a business or an enterprise, you might need to use something else from our list.
5. SpeedFan
If you are looking for software that monitors other aspects of your system which allow it to work optimally, then SpeedFan is the software for you. For some people, this software is one of the best Windows monitoring tools out there on the internet. Also, this tool is beginner-friendly. So it is easier to work with all the different features and tools that SpeedFan has in its arsenal.
Moreover, in order to understand the information which it provides to you, you don’t have to be a computer expert. Lastly, it is entirely free to download and doesn’t require any form of signup when you go to the official website. This software is simple and easy to use, and that’s what makes it stand out from the rest of the competitors.
6. CPU Thermometer
The CPU thermometer is a no-nonsense piece of software when it comes to showing the CPU temperature and the load. With this software, a user gets to know only about two things, and that is the temperature of individual cores and the load which is being put on each individual core that is present in the CPU. Nothing else is there for a user to see. As a result, it is one of the most lightweight software packages out there on the market even to this day. In addition to this, you can use this application on both 32-bit and 64-bit machines.
It is a very basic application, but still, it provides you the option to set the maximum CPU temperature. Once the temperature reaches that level, you can set how you want to be notified and what actions you want to take. The first option it provides is to shut down the computer, and the second is to reboot the system to stop the overheating problem.
7. HWinfo
HWinfo is more of diagnostic software that is used to perform comprehensive hardware analysis and hardware monitoring. In addition to this, this software can perform real-time health monitoring of the CPU, GPU, mainboards, drivers, and even peripherals that are attached to the system. It provides so much capability and yet is free to use on Windows operating systems.
HWinfo can easily detect overheating and show you the overload performance loss, and it can even predict the failure of the system. Once you install the software and run it, you can find a detailed hardware report in its user interface. The reporting of the hardware can then be saved in a number of formats such as XML, CSV, and HTML. Lastly, you can customize the alerts of this software for each parameter which the software is monitoring.
8. Core Temp
Core Temp is probably the most loved software by both professionals and enthusiasts. It is a tool that can monitor the temperature of Intel, AMD, and VIA processors in real-time. The data displayed by the software comes from the Digital Thermal Sensor (DTS). These sensors are present in each core, and the data collection is pretty accurate, so you get to know the reading of each individual core for each second. Even the slightest of the changes will be shown here in an instant.
Also, this application comes with multiple add-ons, which gives it extra capabilities, for example, with the use of Core Temp Grapher, which is the add-on of the base software. This will allow users to have a visual representation of the temperatures and load of each individual core on the graph. Core Temp is free to download.
9. SIW
SIW is a much more detailed program than Core Temp, which we just mentioned above. It is a great tool to keep your CPU’s health in check. In addition to monitoring the CPU, this software also monitors some of the crucial chips which are present in your motherboard and in the power supply.
One thing you need to worry about before you make any decision is to check if you have all the sensors whose information will be displayed on the screen by the software. If not, then it is better to look for an alternative. It is excellent software if you want to have great details about your hardware, and it can even manage your virtual machines, sound devices, and other peripherals.
10. Enhance Free
First, just from the name, you can tell that the software is free to use. Apart from this, it is excellent software when it comes to making small changes to your Windows. Since Windows XP, this software has been developed for each individual Windows platform. With this, you can overclock the CPU and GPU up to a specific limit. Moreover, it can also tweak security, disc cleaners, registry cleaners, and more.
Wrapping Up
Discussed above are some of the best CPU temperature monitoring software for your computer and server. Now all you have to do is download them and start getting CPU temperature reports. This software can provide you with more than just CPU temperature reporting, so we would recommend you explore the software and its tool drawer to find out all of its features.
In the end, we would like to end this blog by asking you to keep your systems clean and dust-free so that the CPU temperatures will not go higher than the expected temps. If you follow all the tips that we discussed earlier in this blog, your PC will not run into a problem efficiently, and you can perform all your daily tasks without facing any lags and issues.