With the increased popularity for the 40mm fan mod, I was wondering if we could accurately measure whether the mod does or does not enhance cooling of the CPU, GPU or PSU even? Are there sensors that can be checked or has anyone written a tool for this?
Not that I know of - the VA0 Dreamcast had a thermistor strapped to the side of the heatpipe, but all that did was gate the clock off if the unit got too hot.
No, but something like this glued or taped down right next to the chips and then connected to a Raspberry Pi would work for testing. https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10988
You'd probably want to measure air temperature at a couple points around the CPU and GPU, as well as the plate that acts as a heat sync for both. A few cheap 1-wire sensors would be easy enough to read with a microcontroller or Pi.
