Temps, Volts and monitoring them...

Multiple part question, answer any or all…

Anyone have any opinions on the best PC temperature monitors? Is SiSoft Sandra's monitor more accurate than Motherboard Monitor ( "MBM 5 ")? What is the most accurate monitor available?

Also, I understand that there are boards available (maybe an AMD K7 Turbo?) that have on-board sensors (?) which display the temperatures "accurately" without the need of an interface like MBM. Can anyone provide me with input on this concept?

Lastly, can anyone tell me what the significance is of voltages "exceeding" what would to me be inferred to be a maximum? To clarify, there are the 3.3v, 5v, and 12v measurements, and usually the voltage readings are just under 3.3, 5.0 and 12.0, but what is the implication if the 5v reads 5.31v??? Is that bad? Also there is a negative -12v reading that will occasionally go slightly positive, as in +0.23 - again, this would seem to be indicative of maybe a power supply problem, but is it actually OK for some reason? Plus, anyone know what the normal voltage should be on a 110v/120v household outlet? Would a constant 124 volts cause problems?

Oh, one more thing. What are acceptable temperature ranges for the motherboard, the cpu/processor, and the power supply???

 

You'd have to refer back to the motherboard manufacturer for the voltage specifications, but as for the amd duron:

OPN Example for AMD Duron Model 7 Processor ( "Morgan ") D HD 1300 A M T 1 B
D Family/Architecture: D = AMD Duronâ„¢ Processor Model 7 Architecture
HD Generation: HD = High-Performance Desktop Processor
1300 Speed: 900MHz, 950MHz, 1000MHz, 1100MHz, 1200MHz, 1300Mz, etc.
A Package Type: A = CPGA
M Operating Voltage: M = 1.75V
T Die Temperature: T = 90ºC
1 Size of L2 Cache: 1 = 64Kbytes
B Max FSB: B = 200MHz

(directly from www.amd.com)

For temperature monitoring, I've always used motherboard monitor, with the accompanying CPUidle for it's cooling effectiveness. They are the only ones I've used, but they work quite well together.

hope this helps.

alan