best and highest temp for GPU,CPU,HDD

Just wondering what the best temperature is for my computer. I am not sure how it is monitored but I have a temperature gauge that I can switch between my HD, my graphics card, and my processor. I was wondering what a critical point is too at which damage might occur. Thanks for any info

If you're talking about one of those temperature gauges on your case, don't go by that. Use the BIOS or various software utilities to monitor the temps.

For you're processor I would try to keep it under 60C under load, although it can handle 65-70C.

For hard drives it's best to have them under 40C, but obviously not too cold such as below freezing, although that shouldn't be an issue anyways.

I can't say for certain on your video card, however I would feel comfortable if it didn't get above 80C.

Sounds good thanks.

Agreed. For the average user, the absolute (yet impossible) ideal would be ambient, or room, temperature for all components. But shiny parts convert electricity into pretty pictures on the monitor, so that won't be happening.



Just flipping open my tmep monitors now, it looks like my CPU is at 20c, my motherboard is at 24c, and my video card is at 49c. But my room is kinda cold and I just turned the thing on. It's holding steady, but if I turn on a game everything will warm right up.



Which brings me to my next point. Want to cool your computer down? First step would be lowering the temperature of the room, but most people don't do this since it's not practical or comfortable. Second would be increasing airflow: bigger fans, cable management, etc. After that, you can start messing with VGA coolers, high-end CPU coolers, and so on, until you get into the expensive and dangerous water cooling, the ridiculously-priced phase change coolers, and lastly, pouring liquid nitrogen on your CPU.



The highest you want to go is really something like a Zalman 9700 on your CPU, and an aftermarket video card cooler, preferably one of the all-copper jobs. I use a Zalman 9700 and Arctic Silver thermal paste, works fine.