Here is a screen-grab to illustrate a fast computer running quiet and cool.

This is a program that comes with the ASUS “republic of Gaming” motherboards, the ones with the “DUAL INTELLIGENT PROCESSOR 5” feature that runs in the background to monitor and control the the various functions of the board.

I can’t tell you if there are similar software-hardware packages with the competitors, but several of the more expensive models are just as popular, so I suspect so. Some simpler boards have this information available only by monitoring it in the BIOS.

This one is called AI Suite 3 and it can be displayed on the screen, as you see here, while a fairly-taxing spyware scan, the free version of SUPERAntiSpyware is in progress for a few minutes.  AS ALWAYS, CLICK THE PICTURE TO SEE IT BIGGER AND CLICK THE x ON THE BROWSER TAB OR THE BACK-ARROW ON YOUR BROWSER TO GO BACK TO READING!

In the picture above, the scan is running (partly-obscured) and the monitoring program is overlaid in a window on top of it.

On the top, the water pump curve is shown, running at a fixed full speed at any temp, and the CPU cooler fans are running in the extremely quiet zone (yellow dot in blue zone) around 400 RPM and one case fan is shown in the quiet 5oo RPM range. This is a fan-configuration screen, but it demonstrates many of the things on topic. The yellow dots track the temperature of the monitored item and the associated fan speed.

Below notice the CPU is running at 4800 MHz (4.8 GHz) at 20% overclock (of the i7-6700k 4 GHz CPU). All four cores are running, one shown, and the CPU is drawing about 35 watts (a dim light bulb). The processor is capable of about 95 watts,but this is the strongest program that I run on a daily basis.

The memory (RAM) is running at about 3000 MHz, which is its highest rated overclock speed “16 GB DDR4, 3000”, (for you nerds).

Nothing is being run over-voltage. (as that tends to prematurely wear out parts)

To the right of center, the CPU internal temperature is less than body temperature (think “98.6F is about 37C.”) This reading is below skin temperature,  which is few degrees cooler. So the CPU isn’t even “warm” at 20% overclock.

To the right, four fan speeds are shown, all in the “quiet” zone around 500RPM.

This is what I mean when I say “fast, cool, quiet.”

When the scan is done, the computer would automatically “throttle back” (idle) at a much slower speed, typically 800 MHz , when there is not much to do (waiting at a stop light).

Of course, the purpose of this description is to compare the readings to things you are familiar with.