HWMonitor – The All In One Temperature Monitor
We are long past the days when Air Conditioning was considered to be an essential requirement for Computers, but paying a little attention to your computer’s temperature levels can save you some headaches and prevent disasters.
HWMonitor reads all the main health sensors present in your PC. Its a complete solution that displays your voltage levels, fan speeds, CPU temperature, hard disk temperature and graphics card temperature.
I compared the temperature readings provided by HWMonitor with other software available in the market. One thing that caught my attention was the difference between CPU temperatures reported by HWMonitor and Real Temp. This is in all likelihood due to difference in TJMax values assumed by the two softwares. Processor’s don’t directly report their temperatures. Instead the processor’s sensors return a value known as distance to TJMax. TJMax is the temperature at which your CPU would be throttled or your computer you be shutdown. The TJMax values are different for different processors, and Intel no longer supplies the TJMax values for its processors. Thus temperature monitoring utilities are forced to take an educated guess for every model. This is why I would have actually preferred it if my CPU temperature was displayed as a distance to TJMax value. The temperature displayed by HWMonitor agrees with temperature displayed by Coretemp, but based on how hot my laptop actually feel I think that Real Temp is more likely to be correct.
HWMonitor also has a pro version which offers some additional features such as graph generation, system tray icons, fan pwm control and ability to remotely monitor your machines.
All in all HWMonitor from CPUID is another excellent product. It keeps up the CPUID tradition and is a light-weight simplistic software that just works. Although I found it’s selection of TJMax values to be a bit dubious, its biggest strength is its ability to display reports from all the main health sensors.
Download HWMonitor (963KB)
Official Website
Platforms Supported : Windows Xp/Vista/7
Version Reviewed : 1.14
License : Freeware
This is one app I use a lot.
I really like it for its portability. You can run it off a pen drive. No installation needed!
Shaunak De’s last blog post..Building a new AMD Phenom based system
Yeah. I also love no-fuss, no-install utilities like these.
I’m looking for the cheapest way to monitor the temperature. I would like to have readings every 5 minutes, if not more often. This project is of little real importance so I don’t wish to spend any more money than I have to on materials. I can handle the VB6 code as long as I have some way to poll the sensor, either straight from the sensor or from an Access database or text file that the sensor can log the data into.
I have used this software before. Its very good software…
Nihar’s last blog post..NiharsWorld Blog now on Imagination Theme !
a very useful tool.
last week my processor was making some noise and when I checked it, heat sink paste was dry dute to over heating.. Quite useful tool for me alteast
Gagan’s last blog post..Windows 7 Latest High Quality Wallpapers : Inspired From The Latest 7
will give this tool a try
Atul’s last blog post..Sachin Tendulkar-GOD of Cricket
Speed fan also is a nice one..
sham’s last blog post..Ultimate Mobile Prank-Make Your Friends Get Call From Their Own Mobile Number!
yeah..speed fan is a lot more functional that hwmonitor.
Heart rate rises about 10 beats for every degree rise of body temperature. That does’nt mean that you can monitor body temperature by measuring the heart rate. This is because there are many other causes for a change in heart rate. Simple anxiety can cause a rise in pulse rate without any significant rise in body temperature.
What about for dogs? Can you monitor their body temperature by monitoring their pulse/heart rate?