Venus Software Monitoring Comparison

[soundx98]

These results were obtained on Venus #D607000349 in Win XP x64 Editon.
Basically a comparison of the latest versions of software monitoring utilities.

I've tried to show a comparison of temps/voltages/fans between MBM5, cpu-z, SysTool, Everest Ultimate Edition 2.8, and a beta of the new version of NextSensor that Vitaliy (VVJ @ CBID) is working on. I really like the 3 decimal place readout of NextSensor but there are still issues with fan speeds and of course I still need MBM5 for importing data to the MatrixOrbital display and Samaurize. Nextsensor also seems to read the 12v rail correctly where all the others are a little high.

ALL the programs are still reading 8-10 degrees lower than the exact same setup on my Ultra-Ds.
I am also sure that Everest is incorrectly naming the sensors themselves and I have added the correct names to the screenshot.



I also get incorrect results using the A64 memory tweaking in SysTool compared to A64 Tweaker. SysTool is still in Alpha stage and hopefully W1zzard can fix these bugs.



More details on MBM5 for the DFI LanParty boards can be found here
http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6798

These all all EXCELLENT programs and kudos to the authors for attempting to give us what motherboard manufacturers can't, correct readings of voltages and temperatures. As you can see they are all very close in readings and your preference is really what matters.

Yes, of course software monitoring is no substitute for a Digital Multimeter. but if you measure with a DMM and than correct the voltage.ini in MBM5 you can get very close to being on the button. MBM5 remains my app of choice since it uses the fewest resources, Voltage and temps can be calibrated/compensated for, and works in both 32 and 64 bit OSes.

All credit for MBM5 to it's author, Alexander Van Kaam.
Hope this helps someone.

[ShoNuff]

soundx98...thanks for your work here. I have this "beautiful box" sitting here but won't be able to get to it until the weekend.

So IIRC, MBM works with the Venus aside from the CPU temps being 8-10 degrees off (as it is with the Expert)? Like you I use the data from MBM for my Crystalfontz device to display quite a bit of information. Good to know I can still use it.

What memory are you using?

edit: Nice clocks on the oppty.

[soundx98]

Thank you for the kind words.
Just wanted to make sure that people knew the various programs were all good on the board and it is really a matter of preference as to which you use.

If you are worried about MBM5 reading a little high on 12v line you can switch it from ITE8712F Voltage Standard 4 to ITE8712F Voltage Standard 2 and it then will read a tad low.
Here is an oldie but goodie that Supershanks found from back in the day
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ad.php?t=37620
May help you as well

My Venus is definately reading the VDimm 0.05 to 0.06 lower in MBM5 than it is set in the Bios.

RAM is old skewl Mushkin PC3500 Black Level II BH-5 with a 5/6 divider, Drive Strengths at 8, Level 1.

[Coroner Kyle]

Thanks for information. I'm going to start testing with my Venus later this week.

[VVJ]

Thanks for using NextSensor, soundx98! A new version will be available to download soon. Great sceenshots!

[4Qman]

Good work,

Ill have to start using NextSensor, Looks good.

[soundx98]

As Vitaliy (VVJ) said, his new version will be available soon. It just seems very accurate and easy to use.
The current NextSensor that is available at cbid.amdclub.ru is designed for Winbond sensors not the ITE8712F that the DFi's use. (Works great on my NF2). The thermal offset under P-states in CBID intrigues me and VVJ says it is something he may incorporate. I am still not sure if it shows the CPU's corrected temperature or what we need to correct. I'll leave it to smarter guys. Some thoughts on Therma Offset are here http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ad.php?t=89487

I plan on using both as like the display of Video Card temps in MBM5.
But it seems like all the programs have unique features that make you keep them around for one feature or another.
I've pretty much given up on Sandra and really like the Benchmarks in the New Everest Ultimate.
W1zzard's SysTool has a ton of potential and utilities. Still an Alpha but a lot of ground work done.
Speedfan and SmartGuardian have never really appealed to me, but others love them.

Be really nice if we could give these authors more feedback on the programs including bugs. AVK of MBM5 said the reason he stopped working on MBM5 was that is was just too difficult to get information from sensor and mobo manufacturers.
Hope to get some time to do some real measuring with a DVM and Dallas Thermal Probes for some fine tuning.

[VVJ]

I’ve just uploaded.
http://cbid.amdclub.ru/work/nxsensor.zip
The final version that officially available at the website doesn’t support ITE chips.

[soundx98]

Thanks for sharing the latest Beta man.

I see you've got the AUX FAN (DFI Chipset Fan on Fan Header #3) working correctly now. Great work.
But I'm geting the floating decimal point error when I try and enable SYSFAN Fan Header #2 on board) with a fan plugged in. Needed to kill the entire process in Task Manager to stop it.
Same issue as I was having yesterday with the AUX FAN. Will the same "fix" work? Tested in both 32 and 64 bit OS. Keep up the great work!

[Lastviking]

Hmm i dont trust the +12 readings and vbat i got same value like you but i know my +12 is 12.4-> in "nvsensor" .

VVJ do you know whats are the problem?and are you working on it?

[xgman]

Hmm, I couldn't get MBM5 to work on the venus anymore. Some error like "couldn't load driver" or whatever.

[soundx98]

xgman, ygpm

[cronic]

to read the cpu voltage on the venus with a dmm do i measure off of the bottom of the three smds that are labeled c203,c293,c298 near the upper right hand corner of the cpu socket? if this is the measure point, when i set 1.475v x 109.6 = 1.61v, but cpuz and mm5 read 1.57, and the bios reads 1.59v but the dmm reads 1.643v. if this is the correct measure point, my 170 takes about .054 more volts to be stable than my a8n32 did. is this the correct read point? thanks of ryour hard work guys

[VVJ]

Good news, guys! I’ve just connected to the thermal diode of my AMD Sempron processor. So, NextSensor will have an addition K8ThermDiode temperature option to sense the temperature of any AMD64 processor. Actually, I found for myself that my W83627EHF chip is too inertial. As an experiment, I’ve created an ambient condition with a rapidly changed temperature gradient. So, the thermal diode was quickly responding to the ambient temperature changes and finally showed a true value of the temperature at the end of experiment – 18 Celsius degrees, while the hardware monitoring chip showed 28 Celsius degrees.

[soundx98]

Bring it on Vitaliy,
I'm more than happy to continue as a tester.
Regards and Respect

[VVJ]

Hi there!

Here is the link to unofficial version: http://cbid.amdclub.ru/files/nxsensor_b.zip



See the new K8ThrmDiode option. Note, NextSensor doesn’t use any formula, it reads the temperature directly from the processor!

Any feedbacks appreciated!

Oh, a new version has a Remote Monitor function. Just enable it and you can get the temp/voltage/Fan status using a web browser.

[Diverge]

I don't think this is reading temps correctly. If so, my CPU would be in trouble if it idled at this temp:


Also, if you look at my smart guardian temp, which includes a +6 or +8 (i forget atm) delta, it is no where close.

Edit: actually, i just noticed i am supposed to be looking at the K8 temp thing, which is not enabled with my system.

[soundx98]

go to "controls" and select DFI LanParty.

I'm testing as well right now.

It should enable Vdimm and VLDY readings as well and allow selection of K8THAMDIODE

[VVJ]

Diverge, actually, old AMD64 processors with CG, C0, B3 Revision are not supported by NextSensor. Therefore, the K8ThrmDiode checkbox is always disabled.

soundx98, thanks a lot! I’ll be waiting for your results!

[ReelMonza]

K8ThrmDiode temp went up to 58° while processor temp was 33° !

I used S&M's FPU test

I'm using a IT87xxF compatible mobo, not using Venus

Hey VVJ, can you add :

fan divisors ?
mbprobe style tray icon flashing both mb/cpu temps and baloon showing fan speeds ?

[VVJ]

Hey VVJ, can you add :
fan divisors ?
mbprobe style tray icon flashing both mb/cpu temps and baloon showing fan speeds ?

If people are ready to pay for my software then I’ll be glad to develop anything they want ;-)

Good luck!

[ReelMonza]

OK, I got your point

See ya

[soundx98]

Vitaliy, as I said in earlier conversations I like this program very much.

Testing on Venus with Opty 146 CAB2E 0540 FPMW using MBM5 and SysTool for comparisons. On 3/29 Bios but Temp Adjustment in Sys Health is set to Default. Rest of equipment in sig.
I'm using my "stock" MBM5 config WITHOUT Voltage calibration ini.

This is the 146 we discussed that shows a P-State of +20 in CBID.
(older pic I posted earlier)


The temps are matching my MBM5 exactly. (as does SysTool)
As far as voltages I have not had a chance to test with DVM yet, but I still believe that yours are more accurate as I said earlier. I can calibrate my MBM5 voltages to match the DVM (and Nextsensor if it is accurate as I believe).

I'm posting two screenshots of the NextSensor B, MBM5, SysTool comparison.
As I told you and others, I chose to use IHF Voltage Standard 4 in the MBM5 config file because I believe it is closer to the correct CPU Voltage. Unfortunately it also will make 12V Rail show higher than it really is.

The only difference with Screenshot #2 is that the MBM5 voltage sensors are set to read IHF Voltage Standard 2 (instead of 4). This increases the VCore reading but it decreases the 12V rail reading. NextSensor seems to be somewhere in the middle of the two

IHF Voltage Standard 4 (12V high)



IHF Voltage Standard 2 (12V Low)



The K8THAMDIODE sensor at Idle continually fluctuates between 30 and 36 degrees and seems to spend most of the time at either 32 or 34 degrees. I did note that it is always an even number, never 33 or 35. It's been idleing without any use and most programs killed for an hour and still slight shifts.

So my question is, "If the K8THAMDIODE is reading 34 and CPU Temp is at 29 are you saying my Motherboard/CPU combination is reading 5 degrees low?"

Sorry for being long winded but I am assuming 95% of the users will never bother to calibrate any program and wanted to be clear on my initial thoughts.

Keep up the excellent work.You'll never know how much the community appreciates people like yourself that develop these excellent FREEWARE programs. Thank you for all your efforts.

Carl

[cronic]

software monitoring is great, but as i stated earlier i would like to know where the raed points on the venus are so i can make a comparrison to the dmm. anybody help me with this?

[Diverge]

I enabled the DFI control as Soundx98 said. My results can't be right, I even saw the temp shoot up to 80 degrees, while smart guardian never exceeds 40 (w/ +6 or +8 delta.. would be 30-32 deg w/o delta in bios). My cpu is not one of the older rev's listed above. I ran 1 instance of toast for around 3 minutes (using remote connect to my pc, so can't run 2 instances... might lock up my remote desktop application). Anyway, here's my results: