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Macs Fan Control (Bootcamp & OSX)

OrangeSVTguy

OrangeSVTguy

macrumors 601
Original poster
Sep 16, 2007
4,127
69
Northeastern Ohio
Wow I just found this software, I've never seen/heard it before. It's the fan control software I've basically always wanted. I did see a OSX version so I'll have to download it when I boot back to Mavericks. Have full control over all the fans as well as temp readings too. I've tried many others before but this seems to work the best so far.

http://www.crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control

Sorry if this has been posted before, but I have never seen it.
 
OrangeSVTguy said:
Wow I just found this software, I've never seen/heard it before. It's the fan control software I've basically always wanted. I did see a OSX version so I'll have to download it when I boot back to Mavericks. Have full control over all the fans as well as temp readings too. I've tried many others before but this seems to work the best so far.

http://www.crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control
Click to expand...

I've tried that one before, but I could not get it to work properly. No matter how I set it up, the fans would just spin up to their maximum speeds.

If you've managed to get it to work, then please let me know how you did it.
 
I downloaded it and installed it without any problems. Can manually set fans to desired RPM or run them based on temps. They show the min/current/max rpms for each fan too. I like how all the temps for every sensor is listed too, including each HDD.

I can control all 5 of my fans:
PCI - PCIe bay fan
PS - Power Supply
Exhaust CPU Exhaut
Intake - CPU Intake
Boosta - CPU

I am using a 4,1 Mac Pro with Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit if that helps at all too.
 
I've used smcfancontrol with most of the Mac notebooks since they went unibody and clients are hammering the CPU at lot, or extending life out of 2006 on iMacs with ati or intel graphics. The fan controls in bootcamp suck really badly using windows so if they use it it gets placed on a zalman cooling pad. Applies to mini's too lol.

The Mac Pro's I look after are the one exception I've found, especially now I've got one whether in OSX or Windows 7. They don't have a need for fan control apps I've found cos they don't have the razor tight thermal specs of the other macs.
 
I haven't bothered with the 3,1 but can confirm it works on my 2010 MBP perfectly with Windows 7 x64.
 
Last edited:
Thank you so much for sharing this! I've been looking for a tool exactly like this for the longest time! This is perfect, and works exactly as expected!


Cool. :cool: (Pun Intended.)
 
OrangeSVTguy said:
I can control all 5 of my fans:
PCI - PCIe bay fan
PS - Power Supply
Exhaust CPU Exhaut
Intake - CPU Intake
Boosta - CPU

I am using a 4,1 Mac Pro with Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit if that helps at all too.
Click to expand...

What I am intending to do is set this up so that the INTAKE and EXHAUST fans will speed up from 600 rpms to 1000 rpms when the CPU diode reaches 70C. As long as the diode temp remains above 70C, those fanspeeds should remain at 1000 rpms. When the temp drops below 70c, I would expect the fanspeeds to settle down to their default speeds.

Is this similar to how you are using this app?

I have not been able to make this happen. At 70C, the fans don't stop at 1000 rpms, but run full speed.
 
I'm using this App for both OSX and Windows. Found it about 2 months ago. Works very well.
My PCIE fan always ramps up to 1400rpm after a fresh start. It only goes down after the GPU has been utilized. Now with this software, that can be very easily compensated.
 
Sounds like everyone is having some success with this app.

If any one of you feel like it, would you mind testing my desired settings to see if you can get them to work properly?

I'd like for just the INTAKE and EXHAUST fans to increase to 1000 rpms when the CPU diode reaches 70C. As long as the diode temp remains above 70C, those fanspeeds should remain at 1000 rpms. When the temp drops below 70c, I would expect the fanspeeds to settle down to their default speeds.
Click to expand...

You can use iStat or Temperature Monitor to see your CPU diode temperature. Any sort of CPU benchmark or Handbrake will run the diode temp beyond 70C, I suspect. You could even test with a lower temp. Whatever you feel like.

I'm using a 2009 Mac Pro, by the way.

If anyone tries this and makes it work, then please post a screenshot of your settings so that I will know what to do. Thanks in advance.
 
This program was able to fix an issue I was having on my Macbook Pro. It wouldn't spin up the fans on its own no matter how hot it got, and all SMCfancontrol could do was manually spin them up. Using Macs Fan Control I set it back on system/automatic and they started working again.
 
Many times we have stated that Mac Fan Control is THE App to use to control your fans.

Others have often stated problems with other Apps, so why this 'need' to report an App that doesn't even offer support!
 
carpsafari said:
Many times we have stated that Mac Fan Control is THE App to use to control your fans.

Others have often stated problems with other Apps, so why this 'need' to report an App that doesn't even offer support!
Click to expand...

No, MacsFanControl is not everything. This software is a little bit more powerful and safer than MacsFanControl in some area.

1) This software can set a min fan speed AND still automatically spin up when necessary, MacsFanControl cannot. MacsFanControl can only either set a fixed fan speed (as the min fan speed) OR automatically controlled by the min / max temperature, but not both at the same time.

Therefore, if anyone like me want a lower idle temperature and automatically fan control, MacsFanControl doesn't work.

2) MacsFanControl set the fan speed by altering the "target fan speed", which will override everything, the system has no way to spin up the fan anymore if the CPU is too hot. Therefore, if the user set a wrong fan profile, it can cause overheat.

This apps control the fan speed by altering the "minimum fan speed", therefore, if the user set a wrong fan profile, and the CPU is approaching overheat, the system can take over by setting a higher "target RPM", which means this app is fail safe, but MacsFanControl is not.

I only use the MacsFanControl to control my PCIe and PSU fan, because I need it to override the wrong "min fan speed" which is well known bug in the 4,1 (high PCIe / PSU fan speed after boot, until the GPU is stressed). Iit's so powerful that even the system bug cannot set a higher fan speed if MacsFanControl command a lower RRM.

3) This is an open source software. I can give it more functions. e.g. I make it monitor both the CPU and north bridge temperature, and the fan will spin up either of them reach the min temperature threshold. MacsFanControl cannot, it can only spin up the fan base on a single parameter.
 
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