Ok, not to be confused with my thread in the software section, is there such a thing as a hardware temperature monitor that is EASY to hitch up to the computer (like say usb 2.0) and is digital? im thinking something like a digital thermometer the size of a small clock or something. ive looked a bit but couldnt find anything like that.

thanks!

All modern computers have a built-in sensor for checking temperature on the CPU and on the motherboard.

On Linux you can get these values via the lm_sensors LKM (Linux Kernel Module) and/or GKrellM.
* http://members.dslextreme.com/users/billw/...lm/gkrellm.html (screenshots too)
* http://freshmeat.net/projects/gkrellm/
* http://freshmeat.net/projects/lm_sensors/
On Windows, I am not aware of any such software.

Harddisks also have a technology called S.M.A.R.T that can get some info from the hardware about the "health" of the disk.
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Monitori...ting_Technology

I think there are some LCD displays that maybe can fetch temperature information and fan rotating speed, and display it on LCD panel that is mounted on a 5½ (?) slot, a slot such as the one which the CD/DVD is installed at.

Oh, and sorry for late reply.

Yeah, some cases come with little temperature sensors. Usually there is one for the CPU that you tape to your heatsink and one for the HD that you can tape to that as well.

I have used the Aspire X-Navigator case on a pair of computers that I built, and that has temp sensors in it which display the results on a tiny LCD built-in to the case. Also, this particular case, as well as some others, has a fan knob for the 80 mm case fans to adjust the speed, in case your temperature starts to raise or lower.

Yeah, and when speaking of fans there are fans that adjust their rotating speed (rpm) according to the temperature. Pretty neat.

SpeedFan will give you temperature readings.

Yeah it's neat and it's also an easy way to learn which programs are using allot of resources hence they all of a sudden make the fan go into warp speed.

well, just reviving this thread, as i couldnt find the one i had like it in the software section.

does anyone know of any good freeware (or not freeware that is not too pricey) that will display the cpu temp in a SMALL box somewhere on the desktop? thanks all!

You might like to look at this site, the features and screenshots pages are interesting.
Open source, with a forum too.

http://www.coolmon.org/

thanks hazel. i tried that, and am using it for the cpu/ram thing, but i found it too confusing overall. i found a program called:

sensorview that is working quite well. thanks sister!

Check this one out.
Motherboard Monitor

Yeah, I was gonna suggest that one, but it didn't support my mobo, so I wasn't able to test it out.

Do you like it, Sniper? If so, I might try it out on an older desktop and see if it works.

it didnt work for mine either.