Gemini Software Corporation Thermalarm^tm

Reviewed by Leonard Siau (3rd October 98)

Introduction

Nowadays, practically everyone is trying to overclock everything imaginable, from cpus, video cards to 3D accelerator boards, to tweak every last ounce of performance for their $. Hardware manufacturers are even recognizing this trend and are building this capability into their products, most notably motherboard and video chipset manufacturers.

However, overclocking is not without its dangers. Overclocking any peripheral usually results in excessive heat being generated, which can cause system instability leading to crashes. It is therefore prudent to have some sort of system to monitor temperature in any computer system. Intel and Motherboard manufacturers recognise this fact and they have both worked towards providing such capabilities to the modern PC. But how about the old guard, those who use the older generation of Pentium systems? Enter Thermalarm^tm!

It was a few months ago that I stumbled upon this product on the internet. Intrigued, I sent a few emails enquiring about ordering. Two weeks later, I came home and found a box at my doorstep. The kit came with the interface board, y-joystick cable, CPU sensor, standard thermal sensor, software diskette, small jar of thermal grease and some documentation.

Installation

It was quite easy to install it. The instructions were simple and straightforward. First thing I did was to find a vacant slot to attach the card to. Don't be mistaken, this card doesn't require to slot into any slot on your mobo. Interestingly, it actually uses the gameport! Next, I removed my P133 CPU, applied some thermal grease and attached the CPU sensor underneath it, taking care to make sure that all 321 pins were in-line with the perforated holes, then I clamped it down again. As you can see from the design, this allows for very accurate temperature readings right from the core of the CPU! Next, with the other standard sensor, I decided to mount it on my IBM Ultrastar. I did some research before hand and found that my harddisk had a maximum operating temperature of 55 °c measured from the top metal plate in the centre. I secured it there with thermal tape. Next, I attached both sensor leads to their respective mounts on the interface card.

The rest was pretty easy, all I had to do next was to plug the male, single end of the Y-cable into the game port and the other female end to the Thermalarm^tm board. Then I booted the system up and installed the software. Upon installing, the system started screaming, "Warning...Level 2....Sensor A." At first I thought, this can't be true, my system on the verge of meltdown? Later I discovered that I had neglected to calibrate the interface board with my gameport. Once this was done, I proceeded to configure the settings to suit my system. This software is quite flexible and powerful as you are about to see.

Not only does it look cool! You can virutally configure Thermalarm^tm to
monitor the temperature of any part of your PC!

It supports a myriad of temperature measurements and you can configure even the frequency it updates itself. Not present when the disaster happens? No problem, you can configure the software to run a certain program to avert that disaster!

Even more amazing, Thermalarm^tm is actually clever enough to page you with the system temperature readings and alarm priority on your alphanumberic pager if you specify so! Other than that, it has other options ranging from a simple computer generated voice warning to complete shutdown. Incidentally, for sensor A, which monitors my CPU, I set the level 1 alarm to 60°c and level 2 alarm to 65°c. Reason being, I read on the web that Pentium processors only start acting strange at 70°c. Actually I have nothing to worry about as the hottest my CPU ever got as reported by Thermalarm^tm was approx 50°c.

The Good

The $64,000 question is does the thing work? Sure, from the time I started my P133 (o/ced to p166) it showed that the CPU got warmer by a few degrees each minute. The same was also true for the sensor that was attached to the harddisk. Ultimately two questions kept running through my mind. How sensitive really is this sensor to subtle changes and whether do those HLT thread issuing programs really work? Well to answer these two questions, I used CPUIDLE 5.0 and the graphing feature of Thermalarm^tm to find out.

As you can see, I left my computer running for about an hour, running scandisk continuously until the CPU got nice and toasty (Green Line, A - B). The minute I loaded CPUIDLE, the temperature plunged (as you can see on the graph)! Reaching a low of 39°c from a high of 49°c, just after about 10 minutes! The impressive thing is that, notice the sudden spike between B - C? Guessed what caused that? It was a 2-3 °c increase in temperature due to me loading up Hypersnap to take this snapshot! Hows that for accuracy? I sure wished though that I had a multimeter to check the actual temperature readings against the ones recorded by Thermalarm^tm.

Another good thing, due to the design of the standard thermal sensor, it is possible to mount/screw it onto peripherals such as the ramdac of a video card or even to just leave it dangling in the casing to monitor the ambient air temperature in the casing. There is also beauty in the flexibility of this system. Gemini already has in its works a P][ version of the CPU sensor and in future, perhaps even more customised sensors allowing for even more accurate readings. Lastly, I must mention the excellent tech support. Every email I sent during weekday was answered within 24 hrs! How often do you get that?

The Bad

If you are expecting Thermalarm^tm to monitor a wide range of temperatures and therefore possibly have other applications besides for the pc, think again. Try as I might, I just couldn't get it to register a temperature lower than 18°c. At first, I thought perhaps it may be due to the gameport on my AWE64 and some calibration problem. However an email enquiry soon answered that question:

'Thanks for your interest.  Unfortunately, the answer to your question is not completely straightforward:  the device is guaranteed to detect between 25 and 150 degrees celsius.  Above 150C, it will continue to operate, but the integrity and accuracy of the thermal sensors cannot be guaranteed.  Readings below 25C depends on your system.  It is likely, though not promised, that you may receive readings down to about 20C. Any lower might be achieved (again, depending on your gamecard) with a little engineering -- which we can discuss, if you are interested.'

This actually isn't a shortfall as long as you use Thermalarm^tm as intended. The other qualm was that try as I might, I couldn't get my joystick (CH Flightstick) to work with the Y-cable supplied together with Thermalarm^tm. The message paging feature was also a disappointment, obviously by looking at the options, you can see that the American paging system differs quite alot from ours. I however managed to get the software to least page me whenever a certain temperature level was reached. Since I don't own a message pager, I am not sure whether it actually sent me the temperature readings and the alert level.

Another gripe is that the software only runs under Windows NT and 95/98. DOS users and Linux users, look elsewhere. Lastly, the accompanying documentation and help file could also be improved.

Conclusion

Thermalarm^tm can be said to be quite a revolutionary product and one of a kind. If you are the type who is into heavy overclocking and who doesn't own one of those SMART motherboards, Thermalarm^tm is definitely for you! On the other hand, people who own SMART motherboards, but want even more monitoring, features and flexibility should take a look also. Gemini also has a more expensive model called Firealarm! The only difference is that Firealarm supports circuit monitoring to ensure that stuff like fans and PSUs are working continuously.

 

Availability

Gemini Software Corporation Thermalarm^tm

^{Pricing (Includes one CPU sensor, 1 standard sensor + shipping and taxes) : USD$ 50.35}

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