VIA Hardware Monitor Questions

[JoeCrappa]

Hey. i was just wondering if the VIA hardware monitor was reliable. The hardware monitor that comes with the KT7/A/R. these are the only boards that i know that have this program. also, i was wondering if my system temp was good or what. look belowin my sig. thanks guys.

[SteenkyBastage]

i've found VHM to give identical results as MBM, as well as (impossible to run them at the same time, but as far as i can tell) the bios readings. i have a thermal probe under my waterblock which is actually touching the side of the core and it gives me about 3C cooler readings under load, but the same temp at idle.

i believe that since there is no direct airflow on/around my waterblock, that the VHM reports higher temps. (i tested by blowing an 80mm fan over the waterblock and got reduced temps under load in VHM, but not by much) so, from my experience, yes it is pretty accurate...my guess is it's more accurate when using a HSF or have some type of airflow around the cpu area.

[Owenator]

I have used the Via HW monitor and Mother Board Monitor on both an ABit and an Iwill board. I even put a Radio Shack in/outdoor thermometer into my case for internal case temps. I would say that the absolute values may be off but not by much. To test this I set the cpu register 52 set to EC, so at idle no activity at all, and therefore a cpu temp that should be ambient also. My VHM gaves the same number as MBM and the RS thermo, all at ambient. So I guessed that they all worked.

There really shouldn't be a diff between the MBM and VHM because they both use the same thermistors on the mobo as input. It is possible to 'adjust' the values of MBM so if that is done the numbers can be different between MBM and VHM.

I think the best/easiest/cheapest way to get temp is to do as Rabid Bob Dole did and put a temp sensor on the chip's side (diigital doc?). To be really accurate you could always buy a thermocouple and a meter to read it like Joe does when he tests HSF's.

My $0.02

O

[Treker]

I've found I can get accurate readings with-in 1c or so with the hardware monitor, however I have some heatsink grease on my temp probe and it is bend up tightly against the back of the cpu.

As you can see by my specs I have a vp6, so I'm using a slightly differnt version of via's HWM, but thats negligable :)

-Trek