PC Power and Cooling 110 ALERT® Heat Alarm [Case Temp Detect]

Hi I'm one of the many who have a very expensive rig. I have a pc with some pretty rare parts inside and I keep my system on quite a lot. Most of the time it's on non stop for 2 or 3 days straight until the occasional power down. Anyways I just stumbled upon a thermal alarm that will beep if my system is at/over 110°F/43°C. That's supposedly the temperature that begins to ruin pc components like the unattended pc below.

[Example]



Here's the alarm:



Store:

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/6...10_ALERT_Heat_Alarm.html?tl=g12c133s492#blank

Price: $10.99

My question for you pros is...

Is this a gimmick or really a valid alarm that I could use to warn me of over heating?

Do computer parts really start melting/ruining at the temps I mentioned above?

 

I find it hard to believe that computer parts would melt at 110° because hot water that comes out of the taps is usually in the 110° to 120° range and it doesn't melt things.
I suspect the temperature was hotter than 110°.

 

Of course the temperature was higher than 110 in that picture. I got that from a review for the alarm. The guy that reviewed it said his friend once left his pc on for weeks on end like most people do. & one night he went to bed when his major fan died and it gave way causing his parts to overheat. I can't remember what part that was that burnt in the picture but I think it had to do with the video card.

Here's the review:

http://www.2cpu.com/articles/67_1.html

 

The temps listed in the first post seem WAY to low to be dangerous. Many CPU's run at over 43c at idle, and close to 55-60c when under a high load. So there's no way that the info is accurate. And that melted part was DEFINITELY over those temps, and was probably over 200c for the solder to melt. I would think with that alarm hooked up, it would be going off constantly depending on where the temp sensor is. If it just measures ambient case temperature, then 43c may be too high. If the air in your case is at 43c, imagine how warm the hardware would be....

From WikiPedia (searched for 'solder' and got 'soldering iron') :

And there you have it.

EDIT- upon looking at the pic a bit closer, it may not be actual solder (it sure looks like it though), but it still got MUCH hotter than the listed temps....

 

Even before the chips look like that your CPU would have long been damaged.


There is a free program called Motherboard Monitor, a little older, but has an alarm feature that will sound the PC speaker when any fan, temp, or voltage drops below or over any threshold. And, ha, just googled it, and it's here under the downloads.

 

Yes it's not for specific hardware points like cpu monitoring. It's for ambuent case temperature. Your supposed to peel the adhesive off the alarm and place it inside the top of your case. Since hot air rises it has to be above not below.

I don't have a new pc that would have parts which would allow software monitoring so that's of no use to me. I'd still like to figure out if 110°F/43°C is a valid dangerous ambient case temperature point which would be useful with the alarm I posted. Or if it's just a gimmick.

Anyone else have any opinions????

 

43 C is kind of on the hot side. It may be a good indicator of a possible overheating situation, but doesn't necessarly mean that any componets are overheating, as the temps of CPU vs. Case temps will vary.

 

So hey Lazy you think it would be a good buy? Because like I said I don't have a new pc with parts that would allow software temperature detection. I've tried to use countless software to do that before but it's all incompatible with my pc parts. I'll buy this alarm if it is a valid tool. Do you think I should buy that in my situation Layzie? I'm in a room that gets really hot during the summer. The ventilation in this room is quite poor... A good alarm would be nice but not if it's going to go off at anything. I don't think it would though because it's trying to catch the ambient case temp.

 

Might want to look for an alarm that can be adjusted to meet your needs. However in a room that is not air conditioned, no ventilation, 43 C / 110 F, is still pretty hot for just being inside the case. If it's not too expensive, I can't see something like that being more than $30, $30 keeping expensive componets from being "fried" is not a bad investment. Just check prices and features.

 

Yah it's only $10.00 so not a bad investment at all. I can't change the alarm temp feature so it will always beep at 110°F/43°C ambient case temp. All the other alarms I find are drive bay fan controllers with added temp detectors that are small wires you stick on places you want to observer for high temps on any computer hardware such as a HDD, CPU, etc.

I guess it is a good tool since you said 110°F/43°C seems to be a bad case ambient temp. Hey for $10 why not? I just wanted to know if it was a gimmick or not. Seems like it is a valid alarm one can use who has an older yet expensive system like me.

 

well $10, I would have done bought it in that situation