Overclocking newbie...temperatures

[Ben_Nelson]

I am new at overclocking and am wondering what temperatures your motherboard, video card, and RAM should be at. Also, Is there any good software/hardware for monitoring the temperatures of these things? I have a program that monitors the temps of my cpu and motherboard, but I dont know of anything that monitors video cards or RAM. Are you just supposed to guess and try not to overdo it or what?

[gone_fishin]

You can get thermal probes and paste them where you want to take a reading. For system ram it is not that important unless you get extreme, just place a small fan blowing air at the sticks. Some video cards come with temp monitoring software, but most do not. As for how hot they should be, that is system dependant. For the motherboard maybe 10C above room ambient is a good goal.
Run everything at stock speeds and monitor the temps for a while before overclocking anything, this will give you something to gauge the increase in temps once you overclock.

[Random Nonsense]

For overclocking most people self impose a 55c rule, overclock until it hits 55C at load, and go no further. this is playing it safe, as you can run with higher temps if the machine is stable though many choose not to.

[SiGmA_X]

I follow a 50C rule with my OC, but in the summer I let that slide up to 55C MAX. If it's over 50C normally, I freak out. (And un-OC it)

[WyrmMaster]

However, that 55c depends on how you measure temps. If you measure by the insocket thermister then 45c -50c is probably a better rule. If you use the XP internal diod then your probably ok up to 60 -65 c.