Thanks a lot to John Sproule, Joseph Marty, and Richard Glazier for their exhaustive replies. i am sorry that i omitted to mention that the system does not
have a case fan and the only fans are ps and processor heat sink.

anyway i took the advice of all and went into bios and noticed the following:-

(1)with the side panel open(10minutes observation)

mobo temp.--39/40 deg c

cpu temp---47/48 deg c

cpu fan speed--- ranged between 3792 rpm to 4115 rpm

system steadied at bios at cpu=48 deg c and cpu fan=4218rpm not static at these figures but hovering around them

(2) side panel closed (10mts.observation)

mobo temp---40/41 deg c

cpu temp---49/51 deg c

cpu fan speed-- ranged between 5037 rpm to 5357 rpm

steadied at cpu=5
0 deg c and cpu fan= 5273rpm (was hovering around these figures)

i went to intel site and checked specs. for my processor (espec no SL7C4)
and among other things found:-

thermal guideline=73.0W

thermal spec=67deg c

i shall be grateful for any help in understanding "thermal guideline" and the
"w" (watts?) and also does the thermal spec. mean that the processor can reach upto 67 deg c safely?

in my bios there is a cpu temp. warning feature which is disabled at the moment because i do not know what fig. to input. (it lists 50deg c upwards)

depending on the forum's input i will set the cpu warning and also consider a
case fan for which there is a provision in the mobo and also an opening at the back of the case.

thanks again for all the help and God bless-- venkat viswanathan

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