What is a good running temperature for a CPU and Motherboard? Or temperature range?

Ideally you want to keep your CPU and Mobo as cool as you can!

Ambient Room temp is around 25-26C

Mobo should be 28C to 40C  (idle to fully loaded)

CPU should be 30C to 50C (idle to fully loaded) - 40s would be preferable but some CPUs run hot!

Most mobos have a thermal safety shut down if anything gets to 72C, that will save your computer from frying,  but it will still cause you to take some life off you components if it does get that hot!

Hope this helps!  I would do a search for your exact CPU and Motherboard, most of the times you can find a more specific thermal profile to your components, which would be better than a generalized range that I listed above!

Typically the manufactures say that anything under 80c is considered safe. The cooler, the better, no doubt. Anytime I see temps under 60c (under load), it tells me that I need to overclock. And I do. I've OC'ed every chip I've had pretty much to the practical limit and I have yet to kill one. for mobo chips, it's usually the Northbridge that gets the warmest, and they have an apparent max safe temperature of 60-70c. Some motherboards can monitor it, some just list motherboard temperature as ambient inside the case.   For a good monitoring tool, check out AIDA64 (formerly Everest), or see is your mobo manufacturer has a monitor program. Speedfan is popular, but often reports incorrect numbers. I use Realtemp for CPU-only monitoring.

As always, keep your coolers clean and clear of gunk, have the fans set up properly, and keep your case off the floor.


So..what temps are you getting? Huh? Huh? *pokes*

Im running Mobo 34C and CPU 36C with only Netflix running. Typically I run around low/mid 40s while in game.

I have a an ASUS M4N82 Mobo and an AMD X4 Phenom II Black Edition 965 CPU. CPU is unlocked, but not currently overclocked.

for that cpu anything under 65 is fine if ur on a air cooler, ur mobo should be under 40 unless in a very hot room. I got a amd Phenom x4  II 955 black, its watercooled and od'c to 4ghz and i dont see any higher than 50 at 100%load  my mother board is 30 at max

Very nice. Well then, you've much room for an overclock. So get to it.

Not very knowledgable on overclocking

It's really easy with the newer chips: turn off any kind of auto-unclocking feature, manually set your RAM speed, and increase your CPU multiplier one notch at a time, until you get to temperatures you're comfortable with. There are many guides around.
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But then, if W@W is all you play, then your defaults speeds are surely more than enough. If your CPU support Hyperthreading, turning it off will also lower temperatures.

Ugh i have the same CPU and right now just idling its at 48.  Well not IDLING but pretty much just Chrome open and Steam.