Erratic fan speeds or predictable

[Lwis]

Okay, so I've started using Fan Control in an effort to reduce the temps on my MBP6,2. After using the program for around 10 hours I've still not come to a conclusion as to what I prefer. The program essentially takes control of the fans and allows the user to set the threshold of min fan speeds and the temps which they will be triggered at. Now this sparks some thoughts.

Life - How would this effect the life of the fans and the processors, because you have two scenarios here. The first being that without the manual control of the fans the fans generally won't kick in under the lower temps and let the heat build on the processor in an effort to let the heat dissipate before the fans are actually needed to assist in cooling. The second being that the fans are manually controlled with tighter thresholds and the fans are much more erratic in the way that they will spike at random intervals (maybe only for a few seconds) in an effort to keep the temps more stable. How would this effect the overall life of the fans? Being more active with the manual method is sure to reduce their life time, whilst keeping the rest of the components at a more comfortable heat. Whilst being less active but kicking in when it is necessary would possibly increase the life span of the fans whilst reducing the life span of the components as they are generally under more stress from the heat. - The difference in life is not much.

Noise - Now this is another problem I face, if I'm working and I have my thresholds set tight my MacBook will be erratically spinning up and down to keep my temps stable, I could not use this and just let my temps get high before the fans go from 2k to 6k and have the fans sitting at 6k whilst I'm working. Or I have the choice of keeping the fans at a lower dB but possibly keeping them on for longer.

Temps - Comfort does come into this to some degree, I prefer to have my MacBook cooler in the long run as if I am working with it on my lap I don't want to have to move it because it's burning me whilst I'm encoding a video or compiling a program. So for me the lower temps would probably be the better option as I am able to keep a more stable lower temp as the heat is being removed more efficiently. Although others will disagree with this.

Overall I'm still not decided on what I will ultimately end up doing, I am enjoying the fact that I can manage my temps to be more efficient with heat removal at the moment but I don't know how long I will be able to stand the erratic nature of the fans under the manual control. I do think that if I where able to set a much more relaxed and larger threshold that I could have more desirable results, but the application is quite limited in the fact that it is quite old. (which just made me realize that the source was included...)

Thoughts are welcome, I'd like to know what the community prefer and how they prefer their MacBooks. - Thanks for reading!

 

[snaky69]

Okay, so I've started using Fan Control in an effort to reduce the temps on my MBP6,2. After using the program for around 10 hours I've still not come to a conclusion as to what I prefer. The program essentially takes control of the fans and allows the user to set the threshold of min fan speeds and the temps which they will be triggered at. Now this sparks some thoughts.

Life - How would this effect the life of the fans and the processors, because you have two scenarios here. The first being that without the manual control of the fans the fans generally won't kick in under the lower temps and let the heat build on the processor in an effort to let the heat dissipate before the fans are actually needed to assist in cooling. The second being that the fans are manually controlled with tighter thresholds and the fans are much more erratic in the way that they will spike at random intervals (maybe only for a few seconds) in an effort to keep the temps more stable. How would this effect the overall life of the fans? Being more active with the manual method is sure to reduce their life time, whilst keeping the rest of the components at a more comfortable heat. Whilst being less active but kicking in when it is necessary would possibly increase the life span of the fans whilst reducing the life span of the components as they are generally under more stress from the heat. - The difference in life is not much.

Noise - Now this is another problem I face, if I'm working and I have my thresholds set tight my MacBook will be erratically spinning up and down to keep my temps stable, I could not use this and just let my temps get high before the fans go from 2k to 6k and have the fans sitting at 6k whilst I'm working. Or I have the choice of keeping the fans at a lower dB but possibly keeping them on for longer.

Temps - Comfort does come into this to some degree, I prefer to have my MacBook cooler in the long run as if I am working with it on my lap I don't want to have to move it because it's burning me whilst I'm encoding a video or compiling a program. So for me the lower temps would probably be the better option as I am able to keep a more stable lower temp as the heat is being removed more efficiently. Although others will disagree with this.

Overall I'm still not decided on what I will ultimately end up doing, I am enjoying the fact that I can manage my temps to be more efficient with heat removal at the moment but I don't know how long I will be able to stand the erratic nature of the fans under the manual control. I do think that if I where able to set a much more relaxed and larger threshold that I could have more desirable results, but the application is quite limited in the fact that it is quite old. (which just made me realize that the source was included...)

Thoughts are welcome, I'd like to know what the community prefer and how they prefer their MacBooks. - Thanks for reading!

TL;DR

I think you're overthinking this. The chips can handle the heat without issue, Apple likes to have a quiet machine so the default settings only ramp up the fans when not doing so could potentially damage the computer.

Fan control on the other hand lets you decide what that critical temperature is. It is only a way to extrapolate a curve of fan speed according to temperature.

Neither will damage, extend, shorten, or whatever the life of your processor.

I use fan control simply to lower the idle fan speed so that my machine is even more silent, and to ramp up a bit earlier so that it doesn't start to become burning hot near the processor while I type. That is all.

 

[Lwis]

TL;DR

I think you're overthinking this. The chips can handle the heat without issue, Apple likes to have a quiet machine so the default settings only ramp up the fans when not doing so could potentially damage the computer.

Fan control on the other hand lets you decide what that critical temperature is. It is only a way to extrapolate a curve of fan speed according to temperature.

Neither will damage, extend, shorten, or whatever the life of your processor.

I use fan control simply to lower the idle fan speed so that my machine is even more silent, and to ramp up a bit earlier so that it doesn't start to become burning hot near the processor while I type. That is all.

I'm fed up of 'TL;DR' it's just an excuse to be lazy and ignorant.

 

[snaky69]

I'm fed up of 'TL;DR' it's just an excuse to be lazy and ignorant.

I'm not being lazy nor ignorant, and I read diagonally through your post, and I believe I answered most of your questions, and if not, please point me to the parts I might've left out.

I'm tired of a forum being just and excuse to be rude.

 

[Lwis]

I'm not being lazy nor ignorant, and I read diagonally through your post, and I believe I answered most of your questions, and if not, please point me to the parts I might've left out.

I'm tired of a forum being just and excuse to be rude.

And saying 'Too long; didn't read' is not being rude? You're visiting a forum because you're interested in what people have to say and share with you, and other people are interested in your thoughts. Not reading the original post makes me ask the question, why are you on here if you've not got the time to read what I have to say?

 

[deadwulfe]

snaky69 qualified his response with "TL;DR," because your post is too long and it is actually hard to read. Your words don't flow and I have a hard time following your points, and even questioned if you had one in a couple of your paragraphs. By the time I skimmed to the end, I still questioned myself what your point is with this thread. I see 1 question and an invitation to generic discussion.

snaky69 offered his thoughts and you got pissy with him. Put on your big boy pants and accept the fact that you invited the discussion and someone didn't want to read all of your jumble. That's their choice for themselves, not your choice for them King William Middleton of Macrumorstan.

 

[snaky69]

And saying 'Too long; didn't read' is not being rude? You're visiting a forum because you're interested in what people have to say and share with you, and other people are interested in your thoughts. Not reading the original post makes me ask the question, why are you on here if you've not got the time to read what I have to say?

Did you even bother reading past those 4 letters or did you get so fixated by this that you stopped there?

I remind you, I did try to answer your post.