Semiconductors, which are the main material from which modern microcircuits are created, are extremely sensitive to high temperatures. And if we take into account the heat emission level of the currently relevant central and graphic processors, which sometimes exceeds 100 watts, the program installed in the system for monitoring the temperature of computer components seems no longer superfluous.
In the segment of such utilities, there are currently both highly specialized programs "tailored" for products of certain manufacturers, and peculiar "combines" that allow monitoring the readings of a huge range of temperature sensors of almost all devices that support this feature.
A separate software module that works as a program for monitoring the temperature of the processor, video card, motherboard and hard drive, as a rule, is part of most utilities for reviewing and diagnosing a computer. The most famous utilities of this class are AIDA 64, HWInfo, ASTRA32. Of course, to keep such a “Swiss knife” in mind constantly is rather expensive for computer resources, therefore such products are not very suitable for permanent use.
A proprietary program for monitoring the temperature of the processor is already an integral part of the drives that manufacturers of first-tier motherboards put in boxes with their products. As a rule, these products are “ground” for working with “native” boards. Also, from experience, I can argue that such utilities do not shine with the convenience of the interface. The only plus of such products is an almost 100% guarantee of the correct decoding of the temperature sensors.
The next temperature monitoring program worth considering is called CoreTemp. This is a fairly old project, present on the market since 2006. The main advantages of this product are its free, versatility and rich functionality. All current processors are supported, while the utility is constantly updated and receives support for new CPUs.
The manufacturer’s website has such nice bonuses as a gadget for Windows Vista / Windows 7, add-ons for remote temperature monitoring, including and from mobile devices, etc. The program works correctly with multi-core processors and is able to show the temperature of each core separately, as well as average data. At the same time, the utility is not resource-intensive, which makes it suitable even for owners of not the latest computers.
Of course, this is not the only program for monitoring temperature. Among the well-known utilities of this class should be noted HWMonitor, SpeedFan, Real Temp, Hmonitor. Some of them support only processors of certain manufacturers (for example, Real Temp only works with Intel processors), some utilities are paid.
If the user needs to track the temperature of the GPU, then the most famous program for monitoring the temperature of a video card is already somewhat outdated by modern standards, but still an up-to-date RivaTuner utility. At one time, this application was created for fine-tuning and overclocking video cards based on chips from NVIDIA (at the same time, with some caveats, the program also worked perfectly with ATI video processors). For several years this project has not been developed. But based on its code, there are now several other programs, the most famous of which are EVGA Precision and MSI Afterburner. If the first utility is designed to work with video cards from EVGA, the second retained the spirit of universality and freedom inherent in RivaTuner. However, she is also freeware.
Both major manufacturers of graphics processors, as part of their drivers, also supply special utilities to “monitor” the state of the video card, including and GPU temperature. But at the same time, strangely enough, the same MSI Afterburner utility does not “load” the system so much, plus it has richer functionality.