no temperature sensor...

[coaiti]

I have no temperature sensor...I want to know my case temp and my cpu temp....does anyone know what I should use
what is a themosistor?

[klosters64a]

Does your mainboard have the place/s on it to plug thermisters into? A thermistor is a tiny resistor that changes the voltage that flows through it according its temperature. More voltage is let through as the thermister gets hotter. Or, vice versa. Whichever, voltage changes as the temperature changes. The voltage is read, and converted into a temperature reading.

If the mobo won't let you plug a thermistor probe into it, there are little boxes that fit into an empty 5.25" bay. These boxes have 2 to 8 thermistors wired to the back of them. The Digital Doc is a well known example.

The cheapest and simplest way to put two thermistors inside your box is to buy a digital indoor/outdoor thermometer. Getting a thermistor probe to contact your CPU correctly can be a major PITA.

It's pretty simple to estimate how hot my box's interior is, and how hot the Duron 850 is.

Ambient(room) air temp plus 10F = The case temp.
Ambient air temp plus 30F = CPU temp. This is at idle. Funny thing- under heavy load, my Duron only gets ~2C hotter.

The guesstimation for my P3E 600 box uses a very different "formula."

If the ambient temp is 75F or lower, this is how it works out.

Ambient temp plus 3F = Case interior temp.
Room temperature plus 1F = CPU temp. This is at idle, btw!

The P3 gets much hotter--compared with idle temp--under load. The Duron hardly changes.

Both boxes are close to the same size, and both have a little more than 100 cfm flowing through them.
Hope this helps.

[The Overclocker]

you could get a external handheld one but it is not ideal