When I swap a component out, sure, I'll check the new kit is working as intended, and if I swap my PC case I'll keep an eye on temperatures. Nowadays, I tend to monitor my PC a little less. I used to be really obsessed with checking my temperatures and fan speeds, like annoyingly into it, and while I'm sure not everyone is going to want to to check their PC temps mid-game, I sure did. Now onto my second recommendation: maybe you don't always need to keep an eye on your PC's every electrical action. That is a bit of an all-in-one open RGB control app that not only simplifies the many apps you have to install and keep up-to-date, but also allows you to then ditch the proprietary monitoring software for something simpler. Though you might find you can get the same functionality from third-party tools such as OpenRGB (opens in new tab). So sometimes you're a bit stuck with one of them.Įven I'm stuck with a few of them and I'm not all that pleased about it. Those added extras are normally always to do with proprietary lighting or features on the manufacturers products that you might not be able to control easily elsewhere. There are tons to choose from, every manufacturer has one, basically, but they all achieve something along the lines of system monitoring with a few added extras along the way. Though what I've never been a fan of are the all-in-one manufacturer specific system monitoring tools, and that's why you won't find me recommending any here today.

HWMonitor is fast, simple, logs all the information you could need out of it, and keeps track of every PC vital stat you could reasonably be after. That helps when you're doing some actively to the system and wish to monitor the impact those changes have in real-time. While it's effectively more of the same by way of monitoring, the handy GPU overclocking tools and live graph presentation really aid in easily understanding the monitoring data presented to you over time.

I'd also like to give an honourable mention to the old hand that is MSI's Afterburner (opens in new tab) software. The built-in tools Performance tab offers a lot of data nowadays without the need for any third-party tools, and it'll even report your graphics card's temperature. Another system monitoring tool worth mentioning, and in keeping with the spirit of minimal fuss, is Windows' own Task Manager.

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