Question Temperature sensor placement

[BigObamus]

Hey there.

I'm building my first rig and currently connecting the Commander Pro with my other components (I'm building in a Corsair Obsidian 500D RGB).
Now, I discovered the 4 included thermal sensors, but I'm not sure where and how to place them. If you got any suggestions, I would like to hear them.

Thanks.

 

[kanewolf]

So many components already report their temps, there isn't a lot more info you could get. Ambient internal case temp. Inflow air temp. Maybe an NVMe temp to prevent you from opening another app. I really can't think of too many uses.

 

[CountMike]

In addition to what kanewolf said:
Much depends on MB and which sensors it has, many even newest MBs don't have sensors in VRM but it's handy to see the temps there, specially when overclocking etc.
Temperatures are most accurate from internal chip sensors but if there's not any, placing a probe to it's heat sink should give you about 10c higher temps, placing a probe at the back of MB, under VRM should give you temps closer to actual and if you measure temps at heat sink and another under MB would show heat sink/cooler efficiency. When overclocking or troubleshooting, I use an IC thermometer at those places.

 

[Paperdoc]

Actually, placing a temperature sensor in the RIGHT place, making sure it is securely fastened so that it stays there and does read the temperature accurately, and then deciding what is the RIGHT temperature for that component all are nearly impossible for the average user. So for purposes of CONTROL of your cooling system, I think these sensors are not useful. However, they ARE useful if you merely are interested in what temperatures are normally found in your system, and how they change with workload. The information they provide can be interesting, if not necessary for proper cooling control. In that case, where you place them is entirely up to you - there is no "Correct" placement.

 

[tennis2]

If you're using the commander pro to control fan speed you'll definitely want a temp sensor on the CPU heatsink. This can be difficult/ impossible if you have water cooling though. What CPU cooler do you have?
I'm not sure if the commander pro reads temps from software (like HWMonitor does). If that's the case, that's your best place to monitor temps from since that's the temp from sensors built into each component, which will be more accurate than an external sensor.

I like the idea of having a sensor on a M.2 SSD (if it's not already reporting it's temp in software) . If the drive doesn't have a heatsink, glue it to the controller, if it does have a heatsink, glue the sensor to the heatsink above the controller (typically near the base where it plugs into the mobo).