How can I measure Z68 chipset temperature..?

[canardlover]

Hi all, I am a bit worried about the rather hot Z68 chipset in my desktop. I can feel with my fingers the heatsink being 45-50C which I think is a bit on the high side. I cannot find any temp.reading corresponding to the Z68 in my attached pic.... when blowing cold air on the chipset heatsink. Have I missed something..?...Please advise...Thank you..!

[boondocks]

Try HWINFO. It will show you every sensor available on the motherboard. If it's not in there it doesn't exist.
I no longer have a Gigabyte Z68 board so I can't look for myself to see what's available.

[canardlover]

WOW, many thanks boondocks for that info which made my day.....! Installed HWinFO64 and yes indeed, it found the PCH/Z68 sensor right away and as you can see my "fingertip sensor" was rather accurate. That PCH temp was missed by both BIOS/TouchBIOS and SpeedFan in my hands(my fault..?)
OK next step was to borrow my wifes hairdryer again and blow ambient(20C) air on the Z68 heatsink and voila..!!..PCH temp immedietely(10-20seconds) dropped from 49C down to 44C but NOT ANY FURTHER..?!..it just stopped there..!
Apparently the chipset is so busy even at idle that it produces enough heat to keep the sensor at 44C regardless of my cooling efforts..?! Or the thermal connection between the heatsink and PCH/sensor is less than ideal.
Maybe I should consider upgrading the Z68 heatsink..?

[stasio]

You can also check by ET6 or AIDA64 (PCH temp),but anyway this temp is OK.

[boondocks]

Yeah, you're OK on temp.

[Vinster]

anything under 65 degrees is fine.... from my readings on other boards it is designed to have a max of 90-100 degrees but you wouldn't want it to play there at all.... anything near 65 degree I'd plan on either adding a fan to it or replace the head sink for something beefier.

Vin

[canardlover]

OK, thanks to all of you for input, but I´m still puzzled regarding the behaviour of the PCH temperature.
1) Why is the PCH sensor refusing to go below 44C when the heatsink is cooled down to ambient....??
2) Running prime95 did absolutely nothing to raise my PCH temp..?!?...so what torture test is there for the Z68 chipset..??
3) I tried shuffling large files between my SSD and HDD back and forth but the PCH just sat still at 48-49C as if it had an inbuilt thermostat..
4) I´m being constantly reminded that there is an update for my HWINFO64, which one should I pick..??
..OK, not that this is the end of the world but I´m curious about the strange behaviour...what are your chipset like in behaviour..??....Cheers/H

[Vinster]

It's unlikely that the sensor is stuck but that can happen, and when a sensor sticks it doesn't move... yours changed when you put a heat gun to it. also the sensor is installed within the PCH so the temperature on the outside surface of the heat sink is not at all related to the temperature from within PCH. if the PCH temperature is not increasing then I'd say the heat sink is doing it's job.

if you want to test anything I'd replace the heat sink with either a smaller one or a larger one and see the temperature change at that point.

but imo if the temperature can be changed, and is under 60-65 degrees I wouldn't think or pay any attention to it.

Vin

[canardlover]

....

if you want to test anything I'd replace the heat sink with either a smaller one or a larger one and see the temperature change at that point....


Vin

Thanks Vin, I plan to glue another heatsink with really large fins on the current one with thermal epoxy adhesive. If I then see an improvement I will leave it at that, should I see a temp increase I will take out the mobo and replace the current sink(s) with something better.....will keep you posted on progress.
Tried to revive this thread:
My modded NB chipset cooler installed. 1155 Gigabyte z68
...but it appears micro5797 is not responding.

[canardlover]

OK, took out the mobo today and replaced the stock low profile heatsink with another one from my scrap box which has a much smaller "footprint". This still means more fin area and less transmission of heat to the neighbouring components on the mobo. I was of course curious as to the new PCH temp and to my delight the PCH now runs 5-6C cooler.....!! As I write this reply HWinFO64 shows PCH at 44C compared to 49-51C with the stock heatsink..!!..and still passive..!!..