- Joined
- Dec 23, 2000
- Location
- Las Vegas Nevada
Is the CPU temperature too high? Why is the CPU temperature of my ABIT motherboard higher than some other motherboard with the same chipset? (ABIT P4 mainboards)
The way CPU temperature measured in the BIOS or in the hardware monitor is through an I/O chip on the motherboard. That I/O chip probes a voltage given by the CPU thermal diode, and then BIOS / hardware monitor reads this value and uses some mathematical way to calculate the approximate temperature. According to Intel, there is another temperature sensing diode, which is responsible for the CPU overheating protection. When the CPU junction temperature reaches approximately 135 degrees Celsius (275 degrees F), the processor will turn down itself. That is, we can say the CPU is quite safe if it is less then 135 degrees Celsius (275 degrees F).
Since the temperature is “calculated”, not “measured”, the formula which the BIOS uses will make the outcome different. There is a parameter that is provided by the I/O chip vender, which we expect it to be the standard, so we use this parameter to calculate the temperature of the processor. Once this parameter in the BIOS is changed, the temperature shown in the BIOS PC health or in the hardware monitor tool will be altered. But, in the mean time, the actual temperature of the CPU is still the same. So the temperature you saw might be higher comparing to other motherboard with the same chipset, it is because we use the different parameter to calculate the temperature. We cannot say that we are more accurate, but we sure follow the standard provided by the I/O chip vender, and we believe it should be the proper one.
Based on the test in our lab with following conditions, the average CPU temperature in idle state is below 50 degrees C (122 degrees F); meanwhile; it is below 75 degrees C (167 degrees F) while heavy loading. The CPU temperature is affected by room temperature, chassis temperature, CPU fan and other heat source inside the chassis. If the reading is higher than our data, please consider doing some improvement for heat dissipation.
* Room temperature: 25 degrees C (77 degrees F)
* Chassis temperature: 35 degrees C (90 degrees F)
* A good chassis with two 12 CM system fans; one draws air into the chassis and the other exhausts hot air outside the chassis.
* A strong CPU fan
The "CPU Shutdown Temperature" in "PC Health Status" page could be enabled and set to 90 degrees C (194 degrees F). In case there are something wrong with the system like CPU fan stops or drops off from CPU retention unit, the ACPI compatible operation system could shut down itself to prevent the system crash and other damages. But, if the operation system fails to shut down, there still be a final insurance that CPU will turn itself down at 135 degrees C (275 degrees F) and the system will be powered off immediately.
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So in other words they are not going to do a thing about it and Abit boards will ALWAYS read higher temps intel they choose to stop using those certain I/O Chips. Later Abit, new motherboard time.
The way CPU temperature measured in the BIOS or in the hardware monitor is through an I/O chip on the motherboard. That I/O chip probes a voltage given by the CPU thermal diode, and then BIOS / hardware monitor reads this value and uses some mathematical way to calculate the approximate temperature. According to Intel, there is another temperature sensing diode, which is responsible for the CPU overheating protection. When the CPU junction temperature reaches approximately 135 degrees Celsius (275 degrees F), the processor will turn down itself. That is, we can say the CPU is quite safe if it is less then 135 degrees Celsius (275 degrees F).
Since the temperature is “calculated”, not “measured”, the formula which the BIOS uses will make the outcome different. There is a parameter that is provided by the I/O chip vender, which we expect it to be the standard, so we use this parameter to calculate the temperature of the processor. Once this parameter in the BIOS is changed, the temperature shown in the BIOS PC health or in the hardware monitor tool will be altered. But, in the mean time, the actual temperature of the CPU is still the same. So the temperature you saw might be higher comparing to other motherboard with the same chipset, it is because we use the different parameter to calculate the temperature. We cannot say that we are more accurate, but we sure follow the standard provided by the I/O chip vender, and we believe it should be the proper one.
Based on the test in our lab with following conditions, the average CPU temperature in idle state is below 50 degrees C (122 degrees F); meanwhile; it is below 75 degrees C (167 degrees F) while heavy loading. The CPU temperature is affected by room temperature, chassis temperature, CPU fan and other heat source inside the chassis. If the reading is higher than our data, please consider doing some improvement for heat dissipation.
* Room temperature: 25 degrees C (77 degrees F)
* Chassis temperature: 35 degrees C (90 degrees F)
* A good chassis with two 12 CM system fans; one draws air into the chassis and the other exhausts hot air outside the chassis.
* A strong CPU fan
The "CPU Shutdown Temperature" in "PC Health Status" page could be enabled and set to 90 degrees C (194 degrees F). In case there are something wrong with the system like CPU fan stops or drops off from CPU retention unit, the ACPI compatible operation system could shut down itself to prevent the system crash and other damages. But, if the operation system fails to shut down, there still be a final insurance that CPU will turn itself down at 135 degrees C (275 degrees F) and the system will be powered off immediately.
--------------------------
So in other words they are not going to do a thing about it and Abit boards will ALWAYS read higher temps intel they choose to stop using those certain I/O Chips. Later Abit, new motherboard time.
