temp question?

ok in bios it reports that my cpu runs at a steady 109deg f, but once im in windows a temp monitoring program i have reports that the cpu is running at a steady 86 to 88 deg f. all of this is while idle. so which one should i go by? the bios sounds like a more realistic reading to me. just wanted opinions. thanks

 

trust windows. if you want a good read, here's a good explanation of why it's doing that:

normally, a cpu needs power and some work to live, kinda like how we need to breathe to live. now, windows uses a system idle process that feeds a tiny loop into the cpu, so the cpu has something to do. it's a simple little thing, kinda like how simple 1+1 is to us. since it's simple and only uses a tiny portion of the cpu, the cpu temperature is very low. the bios, on the other hand, feeds it massive amounts of code that exercises more of the cpu, making it warmer when it's doing "nothing".

now, the temperature you'll really want to worry about is the load temperature. try running folding at home and see what temps you end up getting. FYI, if it's in the 50C range under load (that's 122F), it should be just fine.

 

ive been running the seti at home program for a while now and the temp monitor reports between 102 and 105deg f. im guessing that the seti program puts a good load on the cpu it runs the cpu at 100% non stop until you exit the program. guess that means my case is cooling pretty well then. thanks appreciate it