Hey guys, I'm taking an informal poll on 2009 Mac Pro fan speeds. Specifically, I'm interested in your cpu fan speeds. Mine are at 1114 RPM. Very annoying since they used to be at 800ish RPM.
Got a tip for us?
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2009 Mac Pro Fan Speeds
- Thread starter justflie
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2006 Mac Pro 1,1 Upgraded to x5355 8-core, 12GB RAM, 6TB HDD space in 5 drives, 7300GT.
My fan speeds are controlled manually. I have a bunch of presets I made for job-type and season. So it depends what I'm doing.
My slowest setting it 1,290 RPM. My fastest is 2,255.
These were the same with 4GB RAM too BTW.
My fan speeds are controlled manually. I have a bunch of presets I made for job-type and season. So it depends what I'm doing.
My slowest setting it 1,290 RPM. My fastest is 2,255.
These were the same with 4GB RAM too BTW.
smcFanControl sits in the menu-bar and allows me to pull down and select from a fairly large number of presets. It also displays current CPU temperature.
MenuMeters also occupies space in the menu-bar and (as I have it configured) shows:
Apple's SMC in the 2006 machine is all but broken! It ignores all sensors but the CPU. When the CPU temp hits 75 or so then it bumps up the fan speed just slightly like +50 RPM. If it still continues to rise it will increase more but it never seems to be enough and it can hit 80c or the max Intel rating of 85c very quickly. This alone wouldn't be a huge deal but for the fact that in such conditions my drives (the ones I used to have) would also start increasing temperatures till they were exceeding the manufacturers Max Operating temp of 50c. Also this condition was often accompanied by crazy RAM temperatures.
My new drives are rated at 65c so there's a LOT less to be concerned about but now I'm in the habit anyway. By doing all this manually (with the menu selection) I can be cloning drives, rendering with CPUs at 790%, and writing messages here
and the CPU never goes above 45c, the drives never hit 35c and the RAM stays reasonable. These temps leave the 2006 Mac Pro responsive and stable even under that kind of abuse. I dunno if it's the clock-clipping or just the heat but if I don't do this then when such temperatures are reached the machine lags, things crash more easily, and of course I know it's killing some of it's life-span.
Apple has taken 2 shots at trying to "fix" the SMC and fan behavior and have failed - so I have to do it by hand. I don't mind tho - it's even kinda fun! I only spend maybe 10 or 15 seconds in a busy day doing this so it's not all that bad either.
MenuMeters also occupies space in the menu-bar and (as I have it configured) shows:
- CPU Usage history on all 8 cores individually,
- Current drive activity,
- Current number of memory pages,
- Network activity history + current TX / RX
- Memory usage history,
Apple's SMC in the 2006 machine is all but broken! It ignores all sensors but the CPU. When the CPU temp hits 75 or so then it bumps up the fan speed just slightly like +50 RPM. If it still continues to rise it will increase more but it never seems to be enough and it can hit 80c or the max Intel rating of 85c very quickly. This alone wouldn't be a huge deal but for the fact that in such conditions my drives (the ones I used to have) would also start increasing temperatures till they were exceeding the manufacturers Max Operating temp of 50c. Also this condition was often accompanied by crazy RAM temperatures.
My new drives are rated at 65c so there's a LOT less to be concerned about but now I'm in the habit anyway. By doing all this manually (with the menu selection) I can be cloning drives, rendering with CPUs at 790%, and writing messages here
and the CPU never goes above 45c, the drives never hit 35c and the RAM stays reasonable. These temps leave the 2006 Mac Pro responsive and stable even under that kind of abuse. I dunno if it's the clock-clipping or just the heat but if I don't do this then when such temperatures are reached the machine lags, things crash more easily, and of course I know it's killing some of it's life-span.Apple has taken 2 shots at trying to "fix" the SMC and fan behavior and have failed - so I have to do it by hand. I don't mind tho - it's even kinda fun! I only spend maybe 10 or 15 seconds in a busy day doing this so it's not all that bad either.
Mine was purchased end of March 2009. I have a 4870 and 2600XT, plus 4 hard drives and 8GB ram in there. Single processor unit.
My fans tend to be running around 850 unless I'm doing something processor intensive.
Keep in mind it's warmer out now, maybe the temp in your room is a bit higher now?
My fans tend to be running around 850 unless I'm doing something processor intensive.
Keep in mind it's warmer out now, maybe the temp in your room is a bit higher now?
No, the temp isn't doing it. It's in a cool basement. Besides, I let it sit in a shut down state for a few hours, started it, and the fans were still at 1115RPM despite the CPUs being at 21 deg. C. There's something screwy with my SMC. I've got a call into Apple and the engineers are checking it out.
And here I thought I was the only one without HD Bay 1 temp sensor reporting. Silly apple.
Also is CPU A towards the front or rear of the case? Cause my CPU A typically runs a minimum of 10C hotter than CPU B.
