Download: SpeedFan

Computers can produce a lot of heat, especially when they're working hard. Getting too hot can cause the CPU to slow down or crash but prolonged periods of higher temperatures can damage components. SpeedFan lets you see exactly how hot various parts of the computer are. Advanced users can adjust the speed of fans inside the computer to reduce noise.

Installation is easy. The website warns of possible problems with Norton Internet Security or ZoneAlarm but there wasn't a message from any of our security software.

When SpeedFan starts it will look for the hardware in the computer and then display the temperature of the CPU, graphics card and hard disks. Each temperature is accompanied by an icon so it's always clear if something needs attention.

If you know what you are doing you can use SpeedFan to adjust performance settings on your computer. But only make these changes if you are well aware of what you are doing and the risks to your computer. Pushing a computer too hard can break it so we strongly suggest that this section is left alone.

The SMART tab displays information from the hard disk and can be used to spot any potential problems before they can cause data loss. There are also several test that can be run on the disk.

Finally the charts tab shows a graph with the temperature of the different components that are being monitored.

Normally there isn't much cause for a program such as SpeedFan because computers are unlikely to overheat in ordinary use. SpeedFan is a useful tool for tracking down slowdowns or crashes when playing games or working the computer hard with tasks such as video rendering.