How hot should 39oC feel?

[jimbouk]

I've got an Asus motherboard with onboard (Nvidia 6150) graphics, and the northbridge heatsink gets rather toasty to touch. The hottest I've seen in on the Asus Probe is 39oC, which after a quick reboot is a little bit lower in bios.

How hot should 39oC feel? I can't really keep my fingers on it, but bios and Asus Probe seem to agree, and there's no sign of instability so it can't be that hot can it be?

It's a passive heatsink, but it's clipped on rather than the standard holes so I couldn't really upgrade it easily. Am I just having overly sensitive hands or should I consider some thermal glue stuff and a Zalman northbridge cooler?

Cheers

[Clunk]

What kind of clips?

Cant you just put a fan over it?

[manwithnoname]

How hot should 39oC feel?

If you are fit and heath you should be around 37oC, so touching something 39oC shouldn't feel much different. If something feels warm all you can really say is it is hotter than 37oC, and if something feels cold it's cooler than 37oC

[Ciber]

My old P4 motherboard had a similarly hot northbridge. You could maybe fit a bigger aftermarket heatsink on it or even a fan if it worries you, but I wouldn't worry unless your system is unstable.

In answer to your question, if the chip is 40c, then the heatsink will likely feel warm, but not hot to the touch. The chip itself is probably hotter than is reported, but it's not unusual for the sensor to be wrong.

[daniel_owen_uk]

Originally Posted by manwithnoname

How hot should 39oC feel?

If you are fit and heath you should be around 37oC, so touching something 39oC shouldn't feel much different. If something feels warm all you can really say is it is hotter than 37oC, and if something feels cold it's cooler than 37oC

Holy smoke that's the craziest thing I have read today.

Your bodies CORE temperature should be 37c

[jimbouk]

I do have rather bad circulation! Maybe my hands are just colder than they should be...

I'll take a picture of the clips when I get home tonight. It's an Asus M2NPV-VM. It's a bit of a narrow heatsink so a 40mm fan might be too big, I don't really want to be using electrical tape to hold my computer together (again...).

I might see if I can snaffle a thermometer from somewhere, figure it out one way or another. Probably safe to ignore it, but I do worry. CPU sits below 30oC and feels slightly cool - but the heatsink is about 20x as big with a fan so who knows.

[manwithnoname]

Originally Posted by daniel_owen_uk

Holy smoke that's the craziest thing I have read today.

Your bodies CORE temperature should be 37c

How hot are your hands?

May be I am but I wouldn't expect my hands to be too much cooler that 37 - unless I put them in the fridge for couple of hours ... or the oven, gas mark 5 until golden brown ... maybe I am

[timtim86]

Originally Posted by manwithnoname

How hot should 39oC feel?

If you are fit and heath you should be around 37oC, so touching something 39oC shouldn't feel much different. If something feels warm all you can really say is it is hotter than 37oC, and if something feels cold it's cooler than 37oC

Dude, that just isn't right, for a number of reasons. First, your hands aren't going to be 37 degrees. That's your inner organs and they have to be around that temperature to live. Your hands are rarely that temperature, mostly less, because they can stand a far greater range of temperatures and there isn't really anything to heat them up apart from air temperature (blood does obviously, but it's going to be less than 37 degrees when it gets to your hands).

Second, the temperature that an object feels like is a lot to do with how well it conducts thermal energy. Touch a bit of metal and it feels cold because it conducts heat away from your hand. A bit of wood in the same room would feel warmer because it doesn't conduct heat away as well.

In response to this question, I just touched my northbridge heatsink at 50 degrees and it pretty much burnt me. Not fun. I actually wondered if speedfan was reading the temperature right cos it felt pretty damned hot.

Oh and as a final, most important note, how something feels to you is to do with temperature receptors of the nervous system, not your body temperature. So at the end of the day it really has nothing to do with your actual body temperature!

[sitalchauhan]

I agree, anything around 37 degrees would feel very warm to touch by hand. 37 degrees is your core temperature, but your hands would be much cooler than this.

This has lead me to think now, does anybody know the approximate temperature at which it feels hot and you can keep your finger pushed on it for about 5 seconds, but then after this is starts to become very uncomfortable and you have to take your hand off?

I dont have any working temperature sensors on my mobo (they say like 105 degrees, and -30 degrees lol) and my NB is as above, hot and I am able to stand the heat for like 5secs, but then becomes uncomfortble, and I would just like to know the rough temp it is at

[JPreston]

You're soft then - I remember being told in school that 60 degrees feels like the hottest temperature that you can comfortably keep your hand on indefinitely. IIRC we did experiements heating stuff in water with a bunsen burner, measuring how hot it was, and timing how long we could hold it. I went to a proper 'ard school, me.

39 degrees will certainly just feel like body temperature - probably your armpit is not far off that, and shouldn't present a burning hazard if you want to try it.

[timtim86]

Haha a proper 'ard school? I love it. I think i went to a big softy school.

I don't know what 39oC should feel like actually. I'd have thought pretty warm. And the fact that mine burns me at 50oC does make me think there's something up with the sensor.

My armpit feels warm. If you're really desparate to find out what almost exactly 36.8oC feels like (unless you're sick), there's another place you could put your finger! Ha!

[manwithnoname]

@timtim86 I'm not suggesting that a finger is going to be the best reading of temperature just a bit of a guide.

Point of my orginal post was a chip at 39c is not going to feel too hot.

I've got this other great test: Any one got a chip reporting it's at 100C or above? Pour water on it, if you get steam it is.

[jimbouk]

Well the results are in, according to a thermometer from a cheap weather station pack it's sitting just below 60oC.

Here's pictures of the heatsink (with thermometer bit), and the clip.

So is 60 degrees ok for a northbridge? Maybe I should email Asus and ask/complain about it. Going to be a mess fitting a fan as it's not a standard size - and I've only currently got 80mm fans spare!

ps the off topic bits really made me laugh, can't beat a Hexus forum for amusing tangents!

[Blitzen]

Basically, if you can touch something and hold it without discomfort it aint gonna be too hot.

[sitalchauhan]

Asus are known to be sloppy with TIM on their heatsinks on mobos, especially on the heatpipe motherboards like the P5W and the Commando. On these boards, most people remove the stock thermal paste and replace it with arctic silver and see massive drops in temperatures. Might be worth a try if you are concerned...

[jimbouk]

Ah good plan, I'll definitely give that a go. Always the simple things you never think of...