My CPU and its temperature

[Telion]

I really wish my computer were as cold as all of yours. Mine is 40°C by the time it boots to desktop and it idles at 60. Even some low-end games get it up to 98°C, at which point it throttles back until it hits 90, and the cycle continues. It never actually shuts off or crashes unless I play a higher end game for hours with my maximum processor state set at 100%.

Also, I really hate the Catalyst Control Center. I recently tried it, and it claimed I needed to update my video drivers to use almost all of the features (including the driver update) even though my drivers are up to date. Even worse, when it is installed it somehow stops my computer from turning off properly; the screen stays on and the fan keeps running. It does this if I install it without even running it once, and the problem persists until I uninstall it.

[incremental]

Well you get what you pay for. I spent 1100$ on my laptop and then another 1300$ on this desktop. They've gotten better at lowering cpu and gpu temps these days.

[NGen]

Telion: Hardware degrades as it's used. In addition to hearing it from somewhere (if it's anonymous, then it must be trustworthy, right?), I've also seen it in my brother's 6-year-old laptop. The fans were running full speed, I cleaned the dust out of the laptop, and the thermal paste between the CPU and heatsink had been replaced, but the laptop idled at 75C. I'm not saying that it's just age, but the laptop has been heavily used since we originally got it.

[chrisname]

@Telion,
Firstly, how is the airflow inside the case? I mean, when you open it up, are there lots of large objects? Cables all over the place? I moved a largish cable inside mine out of the way and it improved the temperature by 1-2 °C. Invest in some cable management.

Second, what fans and heatsinks do you have? You could get larger or faster fans, or more efficient heatsinks. You could even try overvolting your fans (as a last resort).

Finally, what graphics card do you have? Fermi..?