E8400 How to tell the 2 core temps?

Hey guys,
I just purchased an e8400 core 2 duo, and I understand they had some issues with the temp sensors where the temp would be stuck on one of the cores. I am curious as to how to tell what temp each core is running at. The bios and my hardware monitor from biostar both show the CPU at around 21-22 degrees core temp. I am currently using an aftermarket cooler in a well ventilated case so I am assuming these temps are fairly accurate. Thanks!

Core Temp - but most people will still tell you to use a thermal probe for more accurate readings, unfortunately, you can't discern between cores with a thermal probe easily... so core temp is your best bet.

NEVER.. EVER EVER EVER trust a BIOS temperature reading, they are always wrong. Software readings are pretty much in that same boat - but if you can figure out how much your board varies from actual, you can compensate. (Thermal probe!)

Is there a good resource I can look at? What does it take to use a thermal probe - how to people accurately monitor temps when OC'ing?

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away I have written an article on this topic. Check it out! Measuring Temperatures with Thermal Probes and External Sensors.

Great article to learn from.

If you already have a good cooler and are getting low temps under load, then CPU temperature may not be your next problem, as you OC it will also effect other chips on the motheboard including memory, memory controller and northbridge chipset. You need to make sure these are also within their temperature limits as you increase any OC'ing you are doing.

OK Great! Thanks for the information!

Another question... If I have a 92mm CPU fan, a 120mm Exhaust fan, and a 120mm fan pulling air from the front, which direction should I face extra 120mm fans mounted on the side door? Should they be sucking air out, or pulling air in?

Depends on the location of the front and rear inlet and outlet fans.

The aim is to get a flow of air (from the outside) over the components and out the exhaust. When doing this you need to try and not get any stagnent or isolated air pockets where components will just overheat because they are lacking air flow.

So if you are taking air in lower front and exhuating upper rear then it would normally also take air in if they are towards the bottom, if they are towards the top and front/rear are as mentioned then they may be more useful as exhaust.

Back in 2006 I have also written the following articles on the topic of cooling and such. Check those out, too.

An Introduction to Adequate Cooling Methods

How Cable and Wire Management Affects Aesthetics and Performance.

The first "Adequate Cooling" article is the first part of a 3-part article series, but the 2nd part covers water cooling, while the 3rd one discusses extreme cooling measures such as LN2, Dry Ice, and various phase change systems. You should be only interested in the first article, the "Introduction" part covering air-cooling, which I have also linked above.