Should my CPU be fried?

[firefighter4443]

Alright SO...

I've had a lot of free time to check out Tom's Hardware and other cool sites recently. I kept seeing 60-70 degrees celcius as the max tempature a CPU can take. Right? Well...

I've got a late 2006 Macbook, Intel Core 2 Duo (T7400) 2.16 Ghz. I use the widget iStat pro 4.92 to see whats going on, at a glance, inside my mac.

Anyway, the CPU never drops below 45 Celcius, is often above 60, and I've seen it as high as 90 (ninety) degrees celcius. I've used iStat for a long time, and I remember seeing tempatures way up there for as long as I've used the computer (July 2007).

The question is either:

A) Is my CPU really reaching 90 degrees or
B) Why is iStat off, And
C) Where can I get an accurate computer monitoring program/widget for Mac?

Oh, I'm running OS X 10.5.8

Pictures to follow, if I can figure out how to load them.

 

[Tamz_msc]

Macbooks are Macbooks, they heat up all the time.

 

[firefighter4443]

Yeah, but an Intel Core 2 Duo is an Intel Core 2 Duo. And 91 Degrees celsius is 195.8 degrees Fahrenheit. Isn't that kinda hot for a processer of any kind? Am I correct in thinking iStat is somehow screwing up, consistently, for 3 years?

 

[Tamz_msc]

I don't think that there is anything wrong - you could try removing dust from the fan outlets.

 

[jsc]

I wouldn't want a CPU running that hot in one of my systems. But MacBooks are by definition perfect. Just ask Jobs.

 

[pjmelect]

I have no experience with apple products but it seems to me as if the measured temperatures are wrong. If the temperature was really 90 degrees then the processor should be throttling back and you should notice a drop in performance. On the other hand you have a 45 degree variation from the lowest temperature to the hottest temperature which even if the absolute temperature is wrong would make the actual temperature still quite high at around 70 degrees minimum.

 

[firefighter4443]

I'd like to add that I have no computer problems. I've run this Mac without reliability issues for the past 3 years. Occasionally an individual program will freeze, and I'll restart the program, but I've had to hard restart the computer only 3 or 4 times since 2007.

Also, I've run Handbrake for about 3 days straight recently, at high custom settings (cant remember the specific settings, but it took my computer ~5 hours per video, total video size between ~1 to 3 GB) With no problems. The fan will run at maximum (~6200RPM), but there's never been an issue with stability.

I'm just curious about the CUP tempature and if there's any tool I can use, without deassembling my computer, to determine the actual CPU tempature.

Also, how do you know when the CPU throttles back? Is there any quantifiable value other than the computer slowing down?

Thanks!

 

[hellwig]

Like others, I have no experience with Mac OSX soo... can you dual-boot into Windows (i.e. do you have Bootcamp/Windows installed or could you install it)? There are plenty of Windows utilities that should allow you to monitor your CPU temperature and speed. You could use these utilities to A) see if they report the same temps and B) see what speed your processor is running at when under high-temps.

Otherwise, you might want to try the Mac OSX forum here on Tom's, and get some feedback from some Mac savvy users.

 

[firefighter4443]

No windows, although I have contemplated it. I just cant justify purchasing a copy for the little amout I would use it as of right now. Anyway, thanks for the input!