2. Identify the Sensors and Temperatures
The first thing we want to do is identify which fan readings in Speedfan correspond with the fans in our case. The easiest way to do this is to unplug one of the fans, and then see which reading drops to zero. It takes a second or three for the new speed to register, but on our test motherboard, Fan1 is the fan attached to the CPU, Fan2 is for our rear exhaust fan, and Fan3 is a connector meant to control the PSU fan. Make a note of which fan corresponds with which reading in Speedfan.

Next, we’ll identify the temperature sensors. To find out which temperature is for the CPU, use CPU Burn-in to place a 100 percent load on the CPU (be sure to run two instances if you have a dual-core CPU). After CPU Burn-in runs for a minute or two, you’ll see one temperature jump a few degrees. That number should be the CPU temp. To find out which temp is for the chipset, we recommend temporarily stopping the chipset fan to see which temperature begins to rise.

HD0 is obviously our hard drive’s temperature, since there’s only one reading for a hard drive. If you’ve got more than one drive, you’ll need to shut down your computer, and disconnect all the drives, except your boot drive. Then restart the computer and note the drive reading that shows up in Speedfan. Most RAID controllers block the information that Speedfan needs to report hard drive temperature. If your drives are in a RAID array, Speedfan probably won’t detect any drive temps.

3. Rename the Temperature Readings
Once you’ve figured out which sensor is monitoring which hardware, you need to change the labels within Speedfan.

Click Configure. You’ll be in the tab labeled Temperatures. Here you’ll see the four temperature sensors listed. Click the first item and press F2 to change its name. You should give each sensor as descriptive a name as possible; we named ours “CPU” and “Chipset.” If any of the sensors in your machine report erroneous results (like our third sensor, which reads -128 C), disabled them by unchecking their boxes.