If it reaches 451 degrees Fahrenheit, that is bad.

But I think it depends on what your running. I would guess a good general temp. to shoot for would be no higher than around 75 degrees Celcius, maximum load. I have heard of others that can run upwards of 90, which sounds crazy to me.

Your motherboard, cpu etc should have a min/max spec somewhere.

Modern motherboards have a built in thermal cut out/regulator that either closes down the cpu or drastically throttles it until the temperature reaches manageable levels in the event temperatures reach dangerous levels.

It should not be relied upon as a routine measure as long term issues can still occur (shortening Board life), but it is an effective "measure of last resort". Its enough to keep you on the good side of life until you track down the specific setting for your motherboard.

Best place for the latter is the motherboard manufacturers WebSite, as it does vary hugely between manufacturers.

Regards
Zy

Thanks for the help guys.



Mine generally runs around 50-60 Celsius.. so hopefully that's not bad.

Yeah, I'd say that would be bad for my entire office... as it would probably burst into flames...

any idea at all where this information could be found?

Looking for mb specs won't help all that much.

You need to find the temp specs for each major component, like the specific CPU and video card.


And I agree with Piznit, CPU temps should be in the 60-75C range at max load. Although 75C is really getting a bit toasty, as far as I'm concerned.
When I first started playing GalCiv2 my CPU temps were reaching ~72C, which had me a bit worried.
After installing a Zalman CPU fan the temps don't usually get above 62C.

Video cards are another matter. Hitting 90C when pushing a video card is no big deal. They can usually go to 110C or a bit more before they start to fry.

As always, when in doubt, add more fans or upgrade the current ones.

Motherboard/cpu vendor website?

For example:
My CPU:  http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SL6WJ#

thanks again everyone. You've all been very helpful!