How to interpret HWMonitor temperatures for CPU and motherboard?

[himmatsj]

Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/yubBUFD.png

How can I interpret the values for the motherboard and CPU temperatures? There are 5 values listed for each.

These are values taken when I was using my PC for light web browsing. If I leave my PC idle for a while, the temperatures aren't much different (look at the min values).

Are these values OK/normal, or high/dangerous? My PC is a stock Dell Inspiron 660 PC that is 3.5 years old with stock components for now, except for the addition of a GTX 750 graphics card.

Thanks!

 

[smorizio]

with air coolers the small stock ones from intel 35-45c is good temp. check that the fan is moving fine on the cpu fan and it clear of dust..once an a while used canned air wit hthe pc off to blow the dust out of the cpu cooler. if it was sitting at 50c or more doing nothing and the fan was moving fine..it would be time to replace the thermal paste and make sure the cooler on tight. 70c and higher your chip is cooking.. time to get a better cooler and or paste.

 

[himmatsj]

How do I interpret the temperature values though? Which shows the actual core temperature of the CPU, and which does the same for the motherboard?

Why do these temps fluctuate every second? (Between 40-45C for example) For the GPU, the temps are fairly stable, never jumping around every second.

 

[smorizio]

the tmp1-3 are sensors on the mb. package temp is the cpu package temp and the four cores of your cpu temp. with intel speed step on a cpu thermal core temps do bounce a bit under load.