Mac Pro 2009/2010 Fan Control (Now Version 2!)

[Concorde Rules]

NEW Alpha for Dual Processor People only

I don't have a DP machine so this might not work, but please give me your feedback.

The CPU A Fan Control sliders effect CPU B too. CPU B uses it's own temperature however, i.e. if CPU B is loaded, it will use the conditions set for CPU A and spin up accordingly. I couldn't see a reason why you'd want them different TBH.

http://www.concorde-photos.co.uk/mac...Control2b5.zip

PLEASE REPORT BACK IF IT WORKS! I can then tidy up the UI.

Cheers

[xEradx]

Originally Posted by Concorde Rules

The SMC itself controls the CPU fan at 142.5% of whatever the intake/exhaust fans are at.

By my calculations it seems that the CPU fans are 185% of the intake & exhaust fans. I have tried many diff speeds and it always comes out to 185-187%. Maybe my computer is too warm to hit 142%?

Second thought is could you add a PCI fan controller? Mine always runs at 800rpm and is the loudest of the bunch. It would be nice to get it down when not using graphic intense apps.

[Concorde Rules]

Originally Posted by xEradx

By my calculations it seems that the CPU fans are 185% of the intake & exhaust fans. I have tried many diff speeds and it always comes out to 185-187%. Maybe my computer is too warm to hit 142%?

Second thought is could you add a PCI fan controller? Mine always runs at 800rpm and is the loudest of the bunch. It would be nice to get it down when not using graphic intense apps.

Yours is a DP machine with smaller fans, so that could very well be true.

Definitely 142.5% on SP machines with bigger fans.

As for the PCI-E fan, I could do, but I have no temperature sensors that I could use to control it against.

I don't know what Apple use to control the temp of the PCI-E fan, it might be fan RPM, fan duty % or temp, but I can't extract any of them from the SMC.

Does my fan app work for you?

[xEradx]

Originally Posted by Concorde Rules

I don't know what Apple use to control the temp of the PCI-E fan, it might be fan RPM, fan duty % or temp, but I can't extract any of them from the SMC.

Does my fan app work for you?

I will try the new app later today! Did not have time yesterday. I will let you know how it works for me.

Bummer about the PCI fan. Thanks anyways.

[xEradx]

Originally Posted by Concorde Rules

To be honest, as long as the temp shown is under 67C (Throttling temp) then it is ok.

Tcase is where the CPU starts to not Turboboost, my W3520 didn't hit 67C there so sat at 2.8GHz all the time, but this W3680 hits it pretty quickly, so I've set it so it aims to sit at 64/65C in a cool room at 100% load. Basically, as long as the CPU is under 67C I want my fans as slow as poss!

Are you talking about 67C for the CPU heatsink temp or the CPU core temp?

[Concorde Rules]

Originally Posted by xEradx

Are you talking about 67C for the CPU heatsink temp or the CPU core temp?

CPU Core temps can be anything up to ~95C, CPU 'A' or 'B' is 67C.

Although today, I let my MP get really hot and it didn't start throttling until 95C core temp. So I aim to keep my cores under 80C.

Will do more testing soon.

[xEradx]

Originally Posted by Concorde Rules

Does my fan app work for you?

Nope. It made my CPU fans max out all the time. I uninstalled and app and restarted and they were still blasting. So installed the original app that seemed to work fine. Well then CPU B fan was still blasting. So I uninstalled again this time holding command+option +P+R at restart. That did it.
Now Im back to using the old app and it works great. It does change both CPU fans! So really the only thing you need to add is the temps that you had for the DP app. That part was cool. I liked seeing the extra temps!

[Concorde Rules]

Originally Posted by xEradx

Nope. It made my CPU fans max out all the time. I uninstalled and app and restarted and they were still blasting. So installed the original app that seemed to work fine. Well then CPU B fan was still blasting. So I uninstalled again this time holding command+option +P+R at restart. That did it.
Now Im back to using the old app and it works great. It does change both CPU fans! So really the only thing you need to add is the temps that you had for the DP app. That part was cool. I liked seeing the extra temps!

*ponders*.

That *is* weird.

Can you do something for me?

Uninstall my app, then load up the first CPU.
Use this: ftp://mersenne.org/gimps/Prime95-MacOSX-266.zip
It is a command line app, select "15" (Stress testing), Cores "4" (Edit: If yours are hex cores then make this 6!) and then "2".
Run it until the CPU fans start speeding up.

I want to know if the SMC controls both fans at the same time or not.

My new version would have run the fans depending on the temp of *that* CPU, not just CPU A.

Can you also run the sensors app (attached)? If you can copy and paste the output that would be great.

If I can't figure out why it doesn't work I'll disable the second CPU fan control code and release that (so it works as the old one did).

[xEradx]

Originally Posted by Concorde Rules

*ponders*.

That *is* weird.

Can you do something for me?

Uninstall my app, then load up the first CPU.
Use this: ftp://mersenne.org/gimps/Prime95-MacOSX-266.zip
It is a command line app, select "15" (Stress testing), Cores "4" (Edit: If yours are hex cores then make this 6!) and then "2".
Run it until the CPU fans start speeding up.

I want to know if the SMC controls both fans at the same time or not.

My new version would have run the fans depending on the temp of *that* CPU, not just CPU A.

Can you also run the sensors app (attached)? If you can copy and paste the output that would be great.

If I can't figure out why it doesn't work I'll disable the second CPU fan control code and release that (so it works as the old one did).

The sensor app won't run for me. It keeps crashing. Maybe because Im running Lion?
Next I no matter how I configure Prime95 both temps on my CPUs go up as well as both fans??? Can the OS spread out the work load regardless of the settings used?

[Concorde Rules]

Originally Posted by xEradx

The sensor app won't run for me. It keeps crashing. Maybe because Im running Lion?
Next I no matter how I configure Prime95 both temps on my CPUs go up as well as both fans??? Can the OS spread out the work load regardless of the settings used?

It should run on Lion, I don't understand why it won't :/

As for Prime 95 probably, slightly annoying but nevermind. I'll put it back to how it was.

I'll add in a switch so that the hottest CPU takes over control of the fans.

I'll do this over the weekend hopefully.

[melx]

Anyone got it workning properly with mac pro 2008? Missing some temps and problems with lowering fan speeds.. Cheers!

[Concorde Rules]

Originally Posted by melx

Anyone got it workning properly with mac pro 2008? Missing some temps and problems with lowering fan speeds.. Cheers!

The key codes are different for the 2008 version then.

App won't work until I get the right codes

[Concorde Rules]

New Alpha!

Can people try this please? I've removed the CPU 'B' fan control code and instead made the temperature the controller uses is the maximum of the two.

So if CPU B is hotter than CPU A, then it will use the temperature of CPU B to control the fan speeds.

Here it is:
http://www.concorde-photos.co.uk/mac...Control2b5.zip

Feedback would be great.

Thanks!

[riggieri]

Concorde

This app is great. I have been using it on my 2009 Dual 2.66 and it runs great. Using your latest alpha without any bugs.

I would love to be able to control the PCI fan with this utility. All my PCI slots are full to the brim, usually multiple graphics cards, hot ass ATTo R680, RED Rocket, Black Magic Decklink, and it would be great to have PCI fan control. When rendering with the rocket, I have to run SMCfancontrol in order to push the PCI fan higher to cool all the cards. Any way you could add this?

Cheers
Matt

[Concorde Rules]

Originally Posted by riggieri

Concorde

This app is great. I have been using it on my 2009 Dual 2.66 and it runs great. Using your latest alpha without any bugs.

I would love to be able to control the PCI fan with this utility. All my PCI slots are full to the brim, usually multiple graphics cards, hot ass ATTo R680, RED Rocket, Black Magic Decklink, and it would be great to have PCI fan control. When rendering with the rocket, I have to run SMCfancontrol in order to push the PCI fan higher to cool all the cards. Any way you could add this?

Cheers
Matt

I've got no temperatures I can use to control that fan, unless you just want a simple 'base speed' box so that you can adjust the base speed as and when you want?

[riggieri]

Concorde

Yea that would be great. Or just a slider that I can manually adjust.

Thanks for the work on this program. It is great. Got my 2009 set so it runs quiet and cool, never hitting the too high of a temp to not turbo up.

Cheers
Matt

[Beckett5]

Hi Concorde, I'd really love to to control the PCI fan too. Mine is always too loud and running probably much too fast. Don't know why cause everything is cool. If you manage to control it please let me know. It would be really cool. Thanks a lot for your help (and sorry for my english, I'm french
Cheers. olivier

[Concorde Rules]

Originally Posted by Beckett5

Hi Concorde, I'd really love to to control the PCI fan too. Mine is always too loud and running probably much too fast. Don't know why cause everything is cool. If you manage to control it please let me know. It would be really cool. Thanks a lot for your help (and sorry for my english, I'm french
Cheers. olivier

If it is running faster than 800RPM then I can't help you.

That means the SMC is controlling it. I control the *minimum* fan speeds the fans can run at, so if the SMC wants 800 RPM and I've set the minimum to 1000 RPM the fan has to run at 1000RPM, etc...

I will add this functionality at some point, but probably not until late June (exams and stuff coming up!).

[luistrenker]

I love you for this 2b5 version...last week i bought a used 2x2.93 2009macpro and wanted to sell it again, because when cpu was over 50% more than a minute, i couldn't hear my 4-month old daughter crying lying next to me....cpu A heat never more than 78°...cpu B never more than 55°......2b5 works perfect and the Baby is happy again :-)))

[rarz]

Hello there. I have a strange issue here. Please see the attached image. Istat shows different values than Fan Control. Fan Control also has some issues to detect CPU B. I have a dual quad mac pro. When using strongly CPU for rendering images in maya or something similar, CPU fans start to spin strong making a big noise, even when temps are down. Any help?

Thanks!

[riggieri]

Any update on this Concorde?

[c:v]

Love it, runs great! I'm not sure I fully understand the lower and upper threshold though. What settings are you using and why? I have a mid-2010 2.8GHz Mac Pro and using it for rendering 3D visuals (Cinema4D).

Cheers!

[Washac]

What would be a good middle of the road setting for this ?

Intake & Exhaust Control (Combined)

Base Speed ?

Lower Threshold ?
Upper Threshold ?

CPU A Fan Control

Base Speed ?

Lower Threshold ?
Upper Threshold ?


Thanks.

[Concorde Rules]

Apologies guys for the lack of response, I've subscribed to this thread now so I'll get notifications if anyone posts.

@rarz, Are you sure you are running a 09/10 Mac Pro? [Not that it matters 8 months later ]

For the record, I haven't changed anything since the last upload and frankly can't remember what I did change!!

[mseth]

Using it on my MP 4,1. Works well.

P.S. If you don't mind can we please get a new icon? Kind of makes it feel like a new app again.