BIOS, OverDrive, SpeedFan Conficting Temps

[Spartanrevenge]

Hi, I have a question dealing with temperatures and how to identify them on my computer. For a while I used AMD OverDrive, since I have and AMD CPU and, Graphics card, and other components, I figured it would be the best tool. Recently I installed Gigabyte's own EasyTune (I think that's what it was called), and it gave me different, specifically higher, numbers for my CPU temperature. I disregarded it, until one day Windows gave me an error:

Warning! Your CPU fan doesn't work properly. You must turn off your system and check it right now!

I checked what process this comes from, and it is csrss.exe. Again I looked at the fan and seemed to be running fine, and OverDrive reported my CPU temp as 28C, so I ignored it, but was getting concerned. After upgrading my graphics card, and adding another fan to my computer (just to be safe), I went to overdrive to see what it was reporting now. The CPU temp was the same as always, but my other board temperatures were very different, they had dropped from 59C to 5.9C. This made me suspicious about OverDrive's accuracy so I checked the forums here, and downloaded SpeedFan.

SpeedFan reports:
Temp 1: 42C
Temp 2: 44C
Temp 3: 52C
Core: 29C

I checked the forums here again yesterday and I saw someone with my same processor asking another question, some one mentioned HWmonitor, so I tried that and it agrees with SpeedFan. My motherboard's BIOS says my CPU temp is 40C.

I have no idea who to trust now! Three sources give me three different temperatures for my CPU! I'm leaning towards siding with the motherboard right now, but I would really like to know if I'm missing something here, because I wanted to start overclocking my CPU.

Sorry for the long question, but I'm not certain what my problem is, so I didn't know how else to say it! So I guess my question is "Is there something serious I should fix?" and "Is it safe to overclock this system?"
(BTW, all temperatures were after windows was on desktop for 10 minutes)

Thanks in advance!


My Computer's Specs

Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-US2H Rev 1.0
AMD Athlon 7750 X2 Black Edition "Kuma" (with stock fan + heatsink, not overclocked)
8GB DDR2-800 Corsair RAM
Diamond Radeon HD 5770 1GB (overclocked)
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W

3 Fans
-1 on front of case
-1 on back of case
-1 on side of case, pushing air in
(also power supply, cpu, and graphics fans)

 

[Lmeow]

Download HWMonitor and Core Temp - I trust those programs more than SpeedFan which gave me 16°C idle on my i7, but I doubt it. Real Temp is the best, however it only works with Intel CPUs.

Is your CPU fan spinning? If it is... then I'd disregard EasyTune.

It should be safe but you'll need an aftermarket cooler.

 

[Spartanrevenge]

Download HWMonitor and Core Temp - I trust those programs more than SpeedFan which gave me 16°C idle on my i7, but I doubt it. Real Temp is the best, however it only works with Intel CPUs.

Is your CPU fan spinning? If it is... then I'd disregard EasyTune.

It should be safe but you'll need an aftermarket cooler.

I tried HWMonitor and it reported the same temperatures as SpeedFan. I will try Core Temp ASAP. The fan is definitely spinning. Ok, the reason I want to know the temperature is to determine how well the stock cooler does, and see what kind of an aftermarket cooler I need. What temperature are safe for a CPU under load? I have seen a lot here, some people say 100C (which can't be right, can it?) or 60-80C as the limit.

Thanks!

 

[Lmeow]

Best to keep it below 65°C or so, 70°C at the very most for me.

 

[Spartanrevenge]

Ok thanks for the help

 

[Spartanrevenge]

Best answer selected by Spartanrevenge.