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imac cooling fans/pads?
- Thread starter vmflapem
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I don't use a special fan when I am doing something CPU or GPU intensive instead I find a piece of free software does the job nicely.
SMCFANCONTROL
https://www.eidac.de/
https://www.eidac.de/
https://www.eidac.de/
When I need it I can use a preset where the fans are sped up. When I am done encoding I can have the fans return to normal. BTW, it also shows how warm/hot your system is running.
Thanks for the input everyone. I used to play overwatch on my 2013 13" Macbook pro and it was heating like crazy so I had to use a cooling fan for that one. That's why I'm not too sure if I need one for my imac as well when I play overwatch. It's the 2015 fully maxed out 27" imac - any opinions?
The fan will ramp up in accordance with temperature. Thing will sound like a Hoover but that's just how it is.
Some people worry about the temps they run at so they use 3rd party fan controllers. I used one when playing ESO to keep the GPU below 80 but there was no noticeable performance difference.
I use Macs Fan Control, and really like it. Bonus: they have a Win version for Macs to run in bootcamp.
I find it very useful, as Apple ramps the fans to late in my view. I have the fans ramp up speed sooner, so they run at medium speeds, and temps stay at an acceptable level. Especially in Win/bootcamp. Without cranking fans up, the back of the iMac is almost too hot to touch. I worry about long term health with it running so hot. Ramping the fans speed up earlier makes huge difference in temps, as the good tools can show you all the sensor readings, and you can decide for yourself.
And yes, an external fan isn't crazy, as the aluminum shell is a good heat sink. Even just a bit of air movement can help when an iMac is getting hot.
I find it very useful, as Apple ramps the fans to late in my view. I have the fans ramp up speed sooner, so they run at medium speeds, and temps stay at an acceptable level. Especially in Win/bootcamp. Without cranking fans up, the back of the iMac is almost too hot to touch. I worry about long term health with it running so hot. Ramping the fans speed up earlier makes huge difference in temps, as the good tools can show you all the sensor readings, and you can decide for yourself.
And yes, an external fan isn't crazy, as the aluminum shell is a good heat sink. Even just a bit of air movement can help when an iMac is getting hot.
I'm planning on running Overwatch on my 27" fully maxed out imac. However, I'm afraid that the heat might damage this expensive machine so I am looking to find a product that'll help keep my imac cool. Does anyone recommend any cooling product?
Have you tried it out since you posted this identical question a month ago?
You could give it a try, and see what your iMac really does when you test it with overwatch?
You may find out that you don't need to do anything special, as the cooling system should do a pretty good job of cooling without attention from you.
Or, you CAN run an app that allows you to control the fan, such as SMCFanControl.
Just curious - does "fully maxed out iMac" include 64GB of RAM? Nice machine, eh?
You could give it a try, and see what your iMac really does when you test it with overwatch?
You may find out that you don't need to do anything special, as the cooling system should do a pretty good job of cooling without attention from you.
Or, you CAN run an app that allows you to control the fan, such as SMCFanControl.
Just curious - does "fully maxed out iMac" include 64GB of RAM? Nice machine, eh?
No mine has only 32GB of RAM. Didn't know you could go all the way up to 64GB tho! Anyways I will give it a try without a cooler. I was just super paranoid that it could damage my imac
I play Overwatch on my 2015 i7 with R395X and the cooling system is not pressed enough to the point where I can hear the fans, so I don't see what value a cooling pad would offer.
Or you might end up wearing out the fan bearings earlier. Who knows? But it's a possibility.
Buying Apple care and then do whatever you want sounds like a better way to deal with your "worriness". No matter what you do, the stock cooling system still not up to standard. The heat simply trapped inside the case, I don't think there is any external solution that can effective cool down the CPU / GPU to a level that considered "reasonable (if compare to abnormal gaming PC")". MacsFanControl can help a little bit, but that's at most can prevent overheat / thermal throttling. Still impossible to significantly lower the temperature to avoid premature failure (if any).
Agreed.
But fans are cheap and fairly easy to replace if/when they fail, compared to cooked GPU and or logic board. Having worked inside many Macs, replacing fans is (usually) a viable repair, and an acceptable risk (for me).
I used this solution but not very effective when i watch out the temperature, maybe it is weak laptop cooling pad.. IDK
