The CPU temperature can be measured through a sensor located on the motherboard, below the CPU, or inside the CPU itself, feature available on the latest processors, like Core 2 Duo. Practically all motherboards come with a program that allows you to read this sensor. On the Internet you can find several programs for this task, like Motherboard Monitor and Hardware Sensors Monitor (both can be downloaded at http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/page/download_overclock).

Motherboard Monitor is very efficient not only because it can be accessed through the taskbar (see Figure 1), but because it allows you to configure an alarm that will let you know if the CPU reaches a certain temperature level. This program also monitors the system fans and the power supply voltages. This program is highly recommended if you are overclocking your system, since the CPU temperature tends to increase when it is overclocked.

Figure 1: Motherboard Monitor reading the CPU temperature.

Another way to check the CPU temperature is through the motherboard setup (pressing Del right after turning your PC on), on an option called “PC Health Status,” “System Health,” “Sensors” or something similar. The CPU temperature can be easily checked there, as you see in Figure 2.

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Figure 2: Monitoring CPU temperature through setup.

The motherboard setup isn’t the best way to check the CPU temperature because while it is running the CPU isn’t being pushed to its maximum processing power and thus won’t achieve its maximum temperature. Because of this we recommend a software-based solution like the one shown in Figure 1.