Libre Hardware Monitor is a fork of Open Hardware Monitor and offers some extra functionality

Ashwin
May 8, 2020
Updated • May 26, 2020
Software, Windows software
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4

Last year, when I reviewed Sidebar Diagnostics, I mentioned that it uses a module from Libre Hardware Monitor for reading Ryzen CPU sensors.

Libre Hardware Monitor is a fork of Open Hardware Monitor and offers some extra functionality

Libre Hardware Monitor is a fork of Open Hardware Monitor. The program's project appears to have started when the development of Open Hardware Monitor seemed to have stalled. The latter has received a few updates recently, after a gap of nearly 4 years. If you haven't used either program, these are real-time system monitoring applications that you can use to observe/log the system's CPU load, Bus Speed, temperature levels. It can be a useful utility to have when you're running intensive games, virtual machines editing videos,, etc., and want to see if the computer could be overheating.

For the most part, Libre Hardware Monitor is quite similar to the original. The icon and the interface are the same. You can use them side-by-side. Scroll down the interface of LHM, and you will notice some minor differences. Libre Hardware Monitor displays some additional information, most notably, the Temperature readings of the CPU. Open Hardware Monitor shows the current and max temperature values of the CPU Core and CPU Package. But LHM also displays the CPU Core Distance to TjMax, the Core Max and Core Average values.

Libre Hardware Monitor vs Open Hardware Monitor CPU

Note: For those unaware, Distance to TjMax is the maximum temperature the CPU has been rated for, when it will be throttled to prevent overheating.

This reading displays the number of degrees for the CPU to reach TjMax, i.e. the difference between the current temperature and the maximum it can reach. For e.g. If your CPU is rated for 105°C, and the current temperature is 55°, the Distance to TjMax would be 105 - 55, which is 50° C.

That's a total of four extra monitors which Libre Hardware Monitor has so far, and there's more. In the memory section, the program has two extra modules, to read the amount of virtual memory that is being used and the available (remaining) in terms of GB.

Libre Hardware Monitor vs Open Hardware Monitor virtual memory

Moving on to the hard drive monitors in the application, in addition to the used space value, LHM also displays the write activity, total activity (both in %), read rate and write rate (in MB/s).

Libre Hardware Monitor vs Open Hardware Monitor hard drive

Unlike Open Hardware Monitor, which does not display network adapter information, Libre Hardware Monitor does. You can use the readings to view the Network utilization (current Load %), Data Uploaded, Data Downloaded (in GB), Upload Speed and Download Speed.

Libre Hardware Monitor network adapters

Those are the differences between Libre Hardware Monitor and Open Hardware Monitor. The rest of the options are similar, so you can set it to automatically start with Windows, change the temperature unit to Fahrenheit/Celsius, log the sensors, etc.

Libre Hardware Monitor's source code is hosted on GitHub. Its downloads however are located on AppVeyor. You'll need to download the archive that is called "Release.zip".Yes, LHM is a portable application. A brief word about AppVeyor, it is a web hosting/build service that creates automatic builds of programs from the given source code repository (for e.g. GitHub). Downloads for most applications are available from the Artifacts tab.

The extra features give Libre Hardware Monitor an edge over Open Hardware Monitor.

Summary
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2.5 based on 13 votes
Software Name
Libre Hardware Monitor
Operating System
Windows
Software Category
System
Price
Free
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Comments

  1. Clay said on May 11, 2020 at 4:03 pm
    Reply

    right on the github page…

    Libre Hardware Monitor, home of the fork of Open Hardware Monitor

  2. Matt said on May 9, 2020 at 1:20 pm
    Reply

    “Libre Hardware Monitor is a fork of Open Hardware Monitor and offers some extra functionality”

    …….a fork of Open Hardware? Did you just make this up?

    1. Gino said on May 10, 2020 at 10:22 pm
      Reply

      No he didn’t. He clearly explained why he said that. Clearly they didn’t write the whole thing from scratch. They have not a similar but exact same interface. They added a few more options. Hence the use of the term “Fork”. I don’t see a problem. Why don’t you explain you argument.

    2. Doyle said on May 10, 2020 at 12:10 pm
      Reply

      Is it not a fork of Open Hardware Monitor?

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