Monitor voltages, fan speeds and temperatures with SpeedFan
SpeedFan is a free program that will monitor voltages, fan speeds and temperatures in your computer. SpeedFan can access digital temperature sensors and can change fan speeds accordingly, thus reducing noise. The most widely available temperatures are from the chipset, the CPU, the ambient and from the power circuitry. Modern CPUs can report their own internal temperature. Multi-core CPUs are often able to report temperatures from each single core. SpeedFan can access those readings and report changes.
SpeedFan can report the speeds of each fan and it can even change their speed based on current temperatures. This lowers noise and improves computer experience. Almost every hard disk can report a set of data about its own health and status. This is called S.M.A.R.T..
Based on reported data, a hard disk failure can often be early detected. Hard disk temperature can be read too and it is useful to identify overheating components that could reduce your valuable data reliability.
SpeedFan cooperates also with a Hard Disk CPU GPU Temperature Desktop Gadget you can have to monitor easily the temperature of your hard disk(s).