Question about Fan Control apps for iMac

[onthecouchagain]

Spike, just curious, what are the lowest RPMs you can set your SMCFanControl to? In other words, what are Apple's minimum RPMs? Mine say: ODD 1000, HDD 1100, and CPU 1200. It should be the same on all iMacs, right?

 

[jean01]

thanks a lot Spike ! 🙂

 

[Spike88]

Spike, just curious, what are the lowest RPMs you can set your SMCFanControl to? In other words, what are Apple's minimum RPMs? Mine say: ODD 1000, HDD 1100, and CPU 1200. It should be the same on all iMacs, right?

With SMC Control 2.2.3 installed and using a custom profile (not their default profile), I think the slider goes down to 900 & 1,000 RPM "on my specific iMac box". Which happens to be Apple's default for my iMac box.

To confirm Apple's default fan RPM speeds, simply access SMC Control 2.2.3 program and quit the application. Then, use iStats Nano (Free widget) and watch the fan's RPMs slow down. Under a cold state, my iMac fans go down to 900 / 1,000 RPMs - as shown in iStats Nano program.

Long mumbling short... I bet the Apple "minimum" fan RPMs on 2010 i3 is different then a 2011 i5 or i7 box - since they run much hotter (due to hotter running CPUs & video card as well).

Hope this helps in your research....

 

[onthecouchagain]

With SMC Control 2.2.3 installed and using a custom profile (not their default profile), I think the slider goes down to 900 & 1,000 RPM "on my specific iMac box". Which happens to be Apple's default for my iMac box.

To confirm Apple's default fan RPM speeds, simply access SMC Control 2.2.3 program and quit the application. Then, use iStats Nano (Free widget) and watch the fan's RPMs slow down. Under a cold state, my iMac fans go down to 900 / 1,000 RPMs - as shown in iStats Nano program.

Long mumbling short... I bet the Apple "minimum" fan RPMs on 2010 i3 is different then a 2011 i5 or i7 box - since they run much hotter (due to hotter running CPUs & video card as well).

Hope this helps in your research....

Thanks Spike. It does!

I've settled on an additional 200-300 RPM above Apple's minimum as my "default" fan setting. Then I pump it up to about 400 or so above Apple's minimum when playing SC2. Computer still heats up a bit, but I can't imagine how hot it would get if I didn't have ramped up fans speeds.

Though my power supply heat seems to always be very high. 60-70's C. Wonder if that's normal.

 

[Dilysi]

I'm happy that I found this post and I appreciate all the info that everyone posted. It helped me to find a solution to my problem with my iMac overheating. I have a couple of things to add - which I hope proves to be helpful to some, in return - from my recent experiences with four fan-control/monitoring programs that I tried (note: the images below are from the developers' websites):

smcFanControl http://www.eidac.de/?cat=40

• Control speeds for: ODD (Optical Drive), HDD (Hard Drive), CPU fans.
• RPM (min/max): ODD (1500/3300), HDD (1500/5500), CPU (940/3400)
• Temperature Threshold settings: none.
• Cool feature: monitoring of Temperature & Fan Speed for one of the three fans in menubar (select corresponding radio button in Preferences).

However, for my iMac, smcFanControl only controlled the CPU fan; I set all three fans to maximum speeds and I could hear them ramp up, then the ODD and HDD fans returned to minimum speeds, while CPU fan remained at whatever speed I selected. Tried both v.2.3 and v.2.4 (released 21AUG12). Contacted developer - no response.


Fan Control 1.2 http://www.lobotomo.com/products/FanControl/index.html (for MacBook, not iMac)
Installs to System Preferences (asks to quit System Preferences before launching program - OK)

• Control speeds for: Left & Right fans.
• Set Base Speeds of both Left & Right fans via one slider.
• Temperature Threshold settings: yes.

Installed this without realizing that it was for MacBook, not iMac. Maximum base speed for fans was ~3400 RPMs each.
For my iMac: Left fan = Optical Drive, Right fan = Hard Drive.


iMac Fan Control 1.2 http://www.derman.com/iMac-Fan-Control
Installs to System Preferences (asks to quit System Preferences before launching program - OK)

• Control speeds for: CPU, HD (Hard Drive), DVD (Optical Drive) fans individually via sliders.
• RPM (min/max): CPU (1200/3500), HD (1200/5500), DVD (1000/4600)
• Temperature Threshold settings: yes.
• Shows Desired / Current Fan Speeds
• Shows Current Temperatures: CPU Heatsink, Internal HD-?, Internal DVD, GPU Heatsink

Program seems to work well (mostly) with my iMac for manually setting the fan speeds, however, today the temperatures went above the minimum threshold settings and the fans did not adjust automatically. Will continue to monitor temperatures and response from program re: fan speeds.

Noticed that maximum speed for the Optical Drive differs between programs:

• iMac Fan Control 1.2: 4600 RPM
• smcFanControl: 3300 RPM

--------- Anyone know what the actual maximum speed for an iMac Optical Drive ought to be? ---------


iStat Pro http://www.islayer.com/apps/istatpro/
Installs to Dashboard.

• Shows temperatures of seven internal points (plus ambient temperature).
• Shows current speeds of fans: Optical Drive, Hard Drive, CPU Fan.
• Shows other cool info about computer (however, none relating to this post).

---
iMac i7, OS X Lion 10.7.4

 

[nigel.hughes]

Hi, I'm trying to get iMac Fan Control to work on an early 2006 iMac and it is giving me 0C for the CPU GPU Heatsink temperature - though Temperature Monitor shows a full suit of temperature sensors (as attached). I've been looking around on forums and can't find anyone with a similar problem. Can anyone give me a hint as to what I am doing wrong?
Cheers...

 

[MeFromHere]

Thanks Spike. It does!

I've settled on an additional 200-300 RPM above Apple's minimum as my "default" fan setting. Then I pump it up to about 400 or so above Apple's minimum when playing SC2. Computer still heats up a bit, but I can't imagine how hot it would get if I didn't have ramped up fans speeds.

Though my power supply heat seems to always be very high. 60-70's C. Wonder if that's normal.

If you're playing a game or doing something else that generates a lot of heat, you should see the fans go faster even WITHOUT and add-on software. Apple doesn't just run the fans at minimum speed, they adjust them as the measured temperatures go up.

Make sure you aren't missing a firmware update for your system. Sometimes Apple decides to adjust the fan speeds somewhat after a system is released. That's done by upgrading the firmware. So you might see different minimum speeds depending on your firmware version. And you should certainly expect Apple to use different minimum speeds on different models of Mac.

 

[kgian]

I have never heard my fans speed up. I have a base 21.5 2011 iMac and usually am boot camping. Even after long sessions of 3d games like skyrim I never heard the fans. The back of the computer sure was hotter then than when browsing the Internet, but never had any overheating problem.