newshound laid this down on his screen :
On 09/08/2012 19:22, Dave wrote:
Looking to buy an infrared thermometer without breaking the bank and
also without knowing exactly what I'm looking at - for instance, what is
"emissivity" and does it need to be adjustable?

I'm sure that these are the sort of things that are bought for one
purpose but actually end up being used for dozens of things and I'm sure
I'll find loads of uses for it, but my main use at the moment would be
to monitor temperatures of GPUs and CPUs on laptop motherboards.

I live about a mile away from CPC in Preston and have seen this one for
£43 inc VAT:

http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/level5/mo...ml&sku=IN05457


or http://tinyurl.com/bp2p5wd

Anyone have experience of them? Good? Bad? Anything better for
absolutely no more than £60, but preferably £50 or less?

TIA


I have something unbranded but similar looking, and a smaller cheaper version
(no laser). I think they would be fine for CPU temperatures, they are also
good for balancing radiators. I stick a bit of black PVC tape on the valve
when doing this in the belief it should improve the accuracy. For most
purposes you don't need absolute accuracy to less than a couple of degrees.
In theory results should be less reliable on shiny metal surfaces (google
emissivity for more details). If you were using it (say) for process control
where accuracy was important you could always calibrate it against a
thermocouple (and then you would have to decide whether you need a calibrated
thermocouple). My guess is that they might have similar errors to cheap
thermistor based devices. But they go up to much higher temperatures.

Cheers Newshound, I think I'll treat myself tomorrow then lol