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Everytime I measure the temperature of my CPU (Core i5 3570K) using the "acpi -t" command under GNU/Linux I get the same output:

Thermal 0: ok, 29.8 degrees C
Thermal 1: ok, 27.8 degrees C

While I do use a decent CPU cooler this still seems somewhat low to me. Is the temperature o.k. or do I have to fear some serious problems (like the CPU not throttling even when being hot)?

EDIT: My concerns aren't whether the temparature is ok but whether the sensor(s) could be damaged. I am sorry for not making this clear.

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It's concerning if they're the exact same every time. Might indicate sensor errors or failure. – KronoS Jul 5 '12 at 17:21
@drakide, has it always been that temperature or have you ever had different readings? Maybe the sensors are just mislabeled and you are reading a different temperature. Try the other switches to see all the readings. – Synetech Jul 5 '12 at 17:44
@Synetech The values are always the same. What do you mean by mislabeled in combination with a CPU? – drakide Jul 5 '12 at 17:55
might sound a bit irrelevant but what was the atmoshperic temperature at the time of above measurements... your cpu will obviously run cooler in a room maintained at 18C since CPU fan sucks in surrounding air to cool the CPU. – tumchaaditya Jul 10 '12 at 4:59
@tumchaaditya the temparature was about 28 degrees every time I measured – drakide Jul 10 '12 at 5:48
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3 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

If you have a good cooler then 30 C is not too uncommon of a temperature if the computer is idling. The real issue is seeing how your system runs under load. Try running it under stress and see what temperatures you get.

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I get the same values under medium to heavy load. – drakide Jul 5 '12 at 17:38
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then as @Kronos pointed out you might have a sensor issue – Brandon Kreisel Jul 5 '12 at 17:41
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I had my laptop down to that temperature once... but the Liquid Nitrogen tank and double insulated hoses connecting to the heat-sink were troublesome. That and the difficulty of finding someone to top off my dewar flask full of Nitrogen... (suffocation hazard too!) – lornix Jul 6 '12 at 4:52
how....scratch that why? did you get liquid nitrogen cooling for a laptop? – Brandon Kreisel Jul 6 '12 at 13:31
up vote 3 down vote

You can never have your CPU too cold. The colder the better. 29 degrees C is a good temp. You really only have to worry once it gets too hot (typically 90+ degrees C, but it depends on your processor).

However, given the new circumstances it sure sounds like a sensor failure.

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50 C is in no way too hot. My laptop routinely hits 80+ – soandos Jul 5 '12 at 17:21
Yeah, you're right let me change that. – Peter Maxwell Jul 5 '12 at 17:25
@PeterMaxwell - The answer is still inaccurate. You should indicate to look up the thermal limits of CPU you have. The thermal limits for an Ivy Bridge are different then Sandy Bridge and/or AMD Series CPU. Ivy Bridge for instance run hotter because of some design decisions surrounding the thermal paste between the cpu itself and the metal case. – Ramhound Jul 5 '12 at 18:21
Thanks for pointing that out @Ramhound. – Peter Maxwell Jul 5 '12 at 18:31
In theory, the CPU can get too cold. See this answer (and others in that question) for possible issues with semiconductors at (extremely) low temperatures. However, those issues aren't going to show up with air cooling in a liveable environment - you'd have to do something like pouring liquid nitrogen over the CPU. – Bob Jul 15 '12 at 17:22
up vote 2 down vote

I just installed this CPU in my computer, and I was getting exactly the same temperatures as yours. First, the i5-3570K is quadcore, and second I found out that these reported temperatures do not change with load as they should be. So I figured these reported temperatures were bunk. After running sensors-detect, I found the following worked to fix temperature reporting. Following lines must be added to /etc/modules:

# Generated by sensors-detect on Sun Jul 15 12:26:02 2012
# Chip drivers
coretemp

I then rebooted, then installed the "Hardware Sensors Monitor" to my toolbar, which now correctly report 4 temperatures, which rise and fall according to CPU load. At idle, I currently get 33C average for all cores, ambient temperature is 25C.

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