Help please! When should I worry about Temperature on old desktop?

OnAndUp

As someone advised me on here a while I ago I have Speccy on my pc - can't actually remember what it was for at the time!

I'm using an approx 6 yr old desktop in a room that has a lot of sun on it, bit worried about it getting too hot? As far as I know......? Speccy is the only way I have of telling the temperature at this moment it is CPU 49°C seems to change frequently from between 42°C & 52°C and Hard Drive is 41°C.

Are they ok, how do I know when it's too hot etc. Want to prolong the life of it for a little while longer at the mo so happy to leave it off for a while if it would protect it?

Thanks!

bengalknights

They will be ok its when your 60+ that when to switch off.

In mean time you could always add a cheap fan on to it to keep it cooler

Figment

Mine is currently running:

CPU: 31°C
HD0: 42°C
HD1: 49°C
HD2: 40°C
Graphics: 46°C

OnAndUp

Thanks for your reply!

Would that be 60+ for both HD & CPU?

Figment

It depends on the CPU. Some have a max temperature of between 60°C and 70°C, others as high as 105°C

S0litaire

My laptop drifts between 45c and 65c and hits 100c when the cpu is running flat out!

In this heat it's never been below 50c for the past few days!

If you hit +70c and it stays there for longer than 20 mins then power down and gave the case a clean out! (dust and fluff make an excellent insulator!!)

Kernel_Sanders

Is it possible, in extreme circumstances, for fluff to ignite inside a machine?

fwor

I guess it depends how extreme your circumstances are, but 100 degrees C is not very hot in terms of self-ignition of anything.

A while back I was running an old AMD-based motherboard with no heatsink installed, and the CPU got hot enough to cause the thermal paste to start smoking, but IIRC it was the last generation of CPUs which did not incorporate automatic over-temp shutdown (I'm fairly sure they all do now). It survived and worked fine afterwards.

Kernel_Sanders

fwor wrote: »

A while back I was running an old AMD-based motherboard with no heatsink installed, and the CPU got hot enough to cause the thermal paste to start smoking, but IIRC it was the last generation of CPUs which did not incorporate automatic over-temp shutdown (I'm fairly sure they all do now).

Hmm... I'm currently running an AMD Duron from 2002 (1.27 GHz single core) in a tower. Mind you it's been running fine all day this weather, and I'm sure I would be able to smell any burning.

mattduk

This temperature is fine. They are designed to run pretty hot and 10-15 degrees above ambient is nothing!

As noted - it varies but if its hitting 70 or more, consider turning it off or de-dusting it. One machine I had that was sitting on carpet had its heatsink entirely clogged up with fluff and dust!

OnAndUp

Thank you all for your replies!

Will just keep my eye on the temps regularlythan - now I know what I'm looking for!