[ad_1]
Temperature is a huge obsession for PC enthusiasts, which is why we hear a lot about CPU and graphics card cooling. But what about the rest of the PC? And what is the ideal temperature range? Let’s dive into this hot topic.
It’s easier to talk about CPU and graphics card temperatures as they have well-known and defined ranges. Everything else generally doesn’t get too hot in most cases, as evidenced by the fact that they don’t have elaborate cooling systems. However, modern RAM usually comes with heat sinks that cover the PCB (printed circuit board), and most motherboards include a heat sink for M.2 NVMe SSDs.
As for the temperature of the air inside the case, as long as your components are cool, it shouldn’t be a problem. That said, there are times when monitoring your PC’s case temperature can predict performance issues, though it’s one of the last things you should monitor.
Why are PC temperatures so important?
Temperature is everything when you want to squeeze every possible ounce of performance out of your PC. A computer’s CPU and graphics card produce heat when in use and therefore needs some component cooling to keep things in check. When a PC component gets too hot, it causes a system shutdown or, in extreme cases, a component ends up damaged.
When things stay cool, the CPU and graphics card can maintain their current performance for longer or increase their performance even more. However, the higher the performance of the component, the more heat it will produce, requiring even more cooling.
If you look at an extreme overclocking event, you’ll see enthusiasts using intense cooling methods like pouring liquid nitrogen into a cooling pot over the CPU. Keeping components super cool allows for further performance improvements to achieve world record speeds or incredible frame rates in games.
For the rest of us, though, a liquid cooler or solid-state fan will work just fine to keep the CPU cool, and the graphics card’s built-in cooling system is usually fine. Even when overclocking regularly, most of us don’t need anything more than off-the-shelf parts, since we’re just trying to hit the moderate goal of going over 60 frames per second.
What are good temperatures for your components?
The maximum temperatures of its components may vary. Intel CPUs, for example, can typically reach temperatures of up to 100 degrees Celsius at the level of the processor die (the actual silicon wafer). Meanwhile, AMD’s CPUs are generally a bit lower, around 90 degrees Celsius.
Going all the way to the max is not advisable, as performance degrades significantly the closer you get to the upper limit. Ideally, a CPU would stay below 75 degrees Celsius under load. Meanwhile, the GPUs can get a bit hot if kept below 85 degrees under load.
That doesn’t mean that you can’t go higher than these benchmarks, but if you’re not overclocking and your PC exceeds any of those points on a regular basis, you probably need a better cooling solution for your components.
Meanwhile, it is generally understood that motherboards are fine if kept below 80 degrees Celsius. However, it’s not common to worry about motherboard temperatures, as they rarely get too hot. If they get hot, you probably have a problem somewhere else. Storage drives have even lower safety ranges, with an upper limit for SATA and NVMe SSDs at 70 degrees Celsius, and hard drives (HDDs) are best below 45 degrees Celsius.
Controlling its components is quite easy. Most of its components report their temperatures, allowing various programs to display them. The ever-popular CPUID HWMonitor is a good choice for detailed information on motherboard, storage, CPU, and graphics card temperatures. Other alternatives include Core Temp for the CPU, as well as AMD’s Radeon software overlay for AMD graphics cards or MSI Afterburner for AMD and Nvidia cards.
When Cooling Isn’t Enough
Sometimes, you may find that even with intensive cooling, something is wrong and the computer gets too hot. When that happens, the first question to ask yourself is whether your PC has enough airflow.
Although it may not seem like it, dust has a great impact on the performance of your PC. If any of your fans are covered in dust, or your components are, that’s the first thing to fix. It can get a little dirty, but nothing a little compressed air can’t take care of.
If there is no dust and you are sure the cooling components are doing their job, your case fans may not be configured correctly or you may not have enough fans. It could also be that your case simply lacks sufficient airflow, because it’s not appropriate for your uses.
A good way to test this is to remove the side of your case, run the PC under load, and see if your CPU and graphics card temperatures improve. If they do, you may have an airflow problem. If they don’t improve, it’s likely your cooling equipment isn’t up to the task.
But wait, what about case temperatures?
This is the thing about case temperatures: they can vary based on so many different variables. What is the ambient temperature in your room? Is there air conditioning or an open window? Where is the PC placed in relation to that? How is the humidity? How many people are in your room? What season is it? We could go on and on looking for variables to consider. The point is that there is no magic “case temperature”, as there will be a ton of variability. Also, the temperature of the case is not as important as the temperature of the CPU and graphics card.
That said, if you keep track of your own case temperature, you can get an idea of ​​an appropriate range for your case. If your PC goes out of that range in the direction of too much heat, that can be an early indicator that problems are starting to set in.
What you can learn from temperature monitoring
Here is an example of a test we ran on a PC to see what kind of temperatures we would find inside the PC. The tests were carried out during the spring, when the outside temperature changes a lot, although the inside temperature remained fairly constant during the week.
The case used for these tests was the NZXT H500, which has fairly good airflow but isn’t considered outstanding. The case has two exhaust fans, one just above the CPU and one to the left. The CPU is an AMD Ryzen 5 2600 with Evga’s CLC 280 liquid cooler, and the graphics card was an AMD Radeon RX 580 with no additional cooling added. Air temperature was taken with a simple Xiaomi Mi Temperature and Humidity Monitor 2. We monitored CPU temperatures with Core Temp and graphics card with Radeon Software.
For this test we kept things relatively simple. We measure the ambient air temperature in the room, then take the temperature of the CPU and GPU at startup. We then set the PC to run under normal use for two hours. “Normal use” in this case meant typing up a few documents, working with a spreadsheet, streaming video, and surfing the web. We avoid running benchmarks to get a more “real” idea of ​​computer usage.
After those two hours of regular use, we went back to taking the temperature of the CPU and GPU, as well as the temperature of the ambient air inside the case.
During this test, we found that the air temperature inside the case was generally within 30 degrees of the CPU and GPU temperatures, with the exception of one day when it was closer to 31 degrees. There are some days where it can stay a bit cooler, or situations where the air temperature is actually a bit warmer.
Then for the second test, we did some gaming for 30 minutes and checked all three temperatures again.
When looking at the temperatures after playing, we had more variability. For the most part, the case air temperature was within 40 degrees of the GPU, while the CPU temperature bounced around quite a bit, but never approached the upper limit of the graphics card.
So what do we do with this information in practice? If you find similar conditions for your PC (a difference of 30 degrees for normal use and 40 degrees for gaming), you can use that as an early indicator of problems. When the temperature goes out of these ranges in the hottest direction, it could be an indication that you need to clean the dust off your PC. If you recently changed something in your PC settings, it could also mean that you have a problem with airflow or cooling.
Still, if your case is getting hot, but component temperatures stay within the appropriate temperature ranges, then you probably don’t have much to worry about. In the summer, for example, the air temperature in the enclosure may be much higher. Or, if your PC is in a basement, things might get warmer indoors in the winter thanks to the heater continuously blowing warm air throughout the house. However, if the ambient air temperature rises, it is wise to keep an eye on it and keep an eye on component temperatures just in case cooling problems arise.
[ad_2]
