This is probably a known question but since i havent seen any posts about this on the brand new mbp i really dont know if it is normal for may fans to always be at 2000 rpm. Oh and by the way it gets damn hot! I know about smcfan control but im the kind of person who would rather let things be although im not so sure this time. Any comments will be appreciated, thanx.
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MBP penryn 2.4 fans ALLWAYS at 2000 rpm. Is it normal??
- Thread starter mgurquiza
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Open activity monitor, and see what is going on, sort by CPU, and see what is taking up all your CPU cycles, which is generating the heat, which is making your fans run fast.
No it is not normal.
Activity monitor is in the Hard Drive, Applications, Utilities folder.
Thanks for asking this question. I was curious about it too, but I think your situation might be normal. I'm a new owner (less than a week) of a 15" 2.4 and my fan speeds are always at ~ 2000 (sometimes 50-100 rpm less) even from when waking up from sleep and the case is 'cold'.
Mine gets pretty warm with normal use and 'hot' under heavy use (enough for me to be concerned and start looking at fan temps). I did some reading and I could be totally wrong, but I through I found that the fans didn't really kick up until the CPU was at 158f or higher and the limit on these CPU's was 225f (smoking hot).
I installed smc fan control, but being a noob thought if I didn't know what I was doing it would be more harm than good, so I removed it. I got paranoid and have thought something was wrong with the fans / temps since then, so it's sort of good to see other units are the same.
Regards,
Wayne
Mine gets pretty warm with normal use and 'hot' under heavy use (enough for me to be concerned and start looking at fan temps). I did some reading and I could be totally wrong, but I through I found that the fans didn't really kick up until the CPU was at 158f or higher and the limit on these CPU's was 225f (smoking hot).
I installed smc fan control, but being a noob thought if I didn't know what I was doing it would be more harm than good, so I removed it. I got paranoid and have thought something was wrong with the fans / temps since then, so it's sort of good to see other units are the same.
Regards,
Wayne
Just another quick note. I wrote these posts on my Win desktop, so I woke the laptop up to immediately see what the starting temps were:
CPU A: 34c (93.2F)
Left Fan: 2001 rpm
Right Fan: 2000 rpm
CPU usage: 1% (99% free)
The laptop was asleep for a couple hours and had a fan I have on my desk (little portable one) blowing across the case (for me). The case was very cold. Ambient temp in my office is about 75F.
Hope this helps! Can anyone w/ a 2.4 confirm your temps and fan readings?
Thanks -
Wayne
CPU A: 34c (93.2F)
Left Fan: 2001 rpm
Right Fan: 2000 rpm
CPU usage: 1% (99% free)
The laptop was asleep for a couple hours and had a fan I have on my desk (little portable one) blowing across the case (for me). The case was very cold. Ambient temp in my office is about 75F.
Hope this helps! Can anyone w/ a 2.4 confirm your temps and fan readings?
Thanks -
Wayne
But guess what Wayne, I also downloaded smc fan control and i am also a little paranoid about the fans being different since then, in fact that is the reason of this post because i think that it might have changed the way they work. Whenever I would set my fans at 4000 rpms, I would quit the program and the fans would stay at 4000 so it makes me wonder if after deleting the program the way the machine administrates the fan rpms chaned. So yea, If anyone (who hasnt installed smc before, and with a penryn machine) can confirm their fan readings that would be great.
The Penryn machines and Santa Rosa machines are identical with the exception of the processor type. If it makes you feel better, I went to the Apple store today to replace a mouse, and the idle fan speeds on the demo machines are 2000RPM.
Ok, so I called a friend of mine who also just bought a mbp 2.4 (thanks StealthRider, I didnt think they where the same) and did the test. After a good night rest, he switched his mac on, immediately opened the istat widget and the fans where running at 2000 rpm. Also, he monitored the fans through out the day and they were always at 2000 no matter what task he was doing. Mine does the same exact thing, so yea, i think we can claim its normal that the fans always run at 2000 rpms and smc fan control does nothing to your machine except make it better 
Thank you all for your replys.
Thank you all for your replys.
Yeah, I've got a new MBP and mine is the same way..the fans are always kicking at 2000 rpm..nothing to be concerned about!
The old Santa Rosa and new Penryn MBP all idle/startup with fans at roughly 2000rpm, so it is normal. Standby temperatures will vary depending on environment at roughly mid 30's to high 40's C. After extensive use (video encoding, image editing, transfers, etc.) temperatures will jump up anywhere from high 50's to 70' C and I find the fans to kick in at about 4000rpm.
Ya ya ya. I f'd that up. I swear I read 4000rpm. And the fact that he was saying it was getting really hot, I just went into auto.