G'day Iloveamd64 :wavey:
As far as using a temp monitoring program is concerned, I personally use a combination of SF and a fan controller. I tend to agree with FragTek's suggestion of using the monitoring software that came with your motherboard.!!! Your thermal sensor is nothing but a variable resistor that changes according to temperature. The voltage rise/falls between the resistor is the "signal" being detected by the Winbond chip. This Winbond chip will convert the voltage read into some register value, which in turn will be displayed as temperature. When voltage is low, temperature is high; and vice versa. So temperature monitoring software, in its very essence, monitors the voltage present on a thermal resistor built into your motherboard. Depending upon its location, you will always get fluctuations in temperature, as the only true reading could be gained from a thermal probe on the core. Anandtech have a little to say about potential problems here...
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.html?i=2026
You may be able to get a more accurate reading from a bios update, as usually these are calibrated to more accurate readings.
nice work PV
very accurate little guide there
Dave, I'll do a little guide for you on how to set up SF, in order to control fan speeds. Anybody using aftermarket fans for example those needed on XP-90 or XP-120 HS's should never run them off the pin headers on the motherboard. This is a sure fire way to burn them out, if this is the case get yourself an hardware monitor...like my Gatewatch etc.
