How warm should the air in the case be ???

[James999]

I put a thermometer inside my case and used it for about 4 hours and the temp is reading 91 degrees farhenhit. Is this to warm, should I add more cooling ????

[SDT]

91 degrees (F) is an acceptable case temperature, although a little on the hot side.
Obviously case temperature is related to the room temperature that the case is in. I would expect to see about 10 - 12 degrees difference between the case temp and the room temp. If your room temp is less than 80 degrees when you are getting the 91 degree reading then you might consider another case fan. The $15. may save you some grief later.

If you don't have a thermal probe on the cpu or heatsink you can do a quick non scientific test of the cpu heatsink temp by carefully touching it with your fingers. If you can hold your fingers on the heatsink (BE CAREFUL it may be too hot to do so) then the cpu temp probably falls within an acceptable range. Acceptable cpu temps will vary depending on the die size & cpu type.

Steve

[KillerBug]

My case gets that warm, when the AC was broken and it was about 89 in the room. ;-)

[Axel]

I've seen some thermal sensors set to kick off at 60 degrees C which is about 140 degrees F - I find thats WAY too hot.....

Most systems run about 100 degrees with the CPU sitting at room temperature - about 75 degrees.....

I like to add several fans on top of the normal CPU fan and power supply fan. There is also a hard drive fan assembly to cool high speed hard drives and case fans that are general in nature and generally keep all your cards cool. Another alternative if you can is to simply leave the case off and run with only a CPU fan....

High end video cards can also have fans - and I've seen people mount them directly on high speed drives -

Some people go so far as to add them to their I/O chip which sometimes comes with a heat sink....

Some people have even developed liquid cooling systems for their CPU's using an old heater core radiator from a car as the external componend and anti-freeze as the liquid medium.... but I don't trust this - too heavy - too bulky - and prone to leak which can fry a board faster than heat alone ever will.

Now the why - computer components are designed to function best in a temp range from about 50 degrees F to about 110 degrees F - above that and the components materials are damaged and performance decreases as the electronics "respond" (expand) to the heat.....

Some systems like to be well below 50 degrees, but that's typically server equipment of a very special nature which you are unlikely to have and don't need to worry about.

Another thing that kills systems is constantly turning them on & off - the temperature change causes the component materials to expand and contract which eventually will cause stress fractures in the micro-components. Over time this adds resistance to the components which in turn generates more heat until the system fails altogether.

I leave my computers on all of the time running various different things. I've had to replace a few fans, but otherwise my systems have been running almost non-stop for years. My main system has 5 or 6 fans in it. It stays about 15 degrees above whatever temp the room is, and doesn't really get any hotter than that....