Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

SAFE fan control for mac Pro

T

tibs

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 8, 2009
13
0
Okay, first time posting, but have been browsing for a few months now.

I am looking for some information about mac pro fan speeds, i purchased my mac pro in mid september and it was running flawlessly, quiet, and quick.

It is a dual quad 3ghz processor with 2gb of ram, nvidia geforce8800 gt 512mb video card and a 500gb hard drive.


Within the last few months, the computer starting to get very loud due to high fan activity. I brought it to the Apple store tonight, and obviously it was running quietly there. When i got home, it was running loud again, and I downloaded an app that let me control my fan speeds. Below is my current fan speeds as well as what they are set at.


After setting the fan speed down to being the max 1000rpms, it seems to be running pretty quietly and I only hear a little bit of fan noise, however I know that if you put it to low you can fry the computer, so I don't want to risk this happening.


I am new to the mac world, this is my first mac but I have used them at school for the last few years in my graphic design courses, however when it comes to technical issues, I know more about PC's, but its changing everyday and i'm learning more.

Is this safe to run:

picture1cj3.png


picture2ke9.png


Mostly what I'm worried about is that power supply fan being to low.


Thanks in advance!
 
The last I tested, Fan Control spun the heck out of my CPU and Exhaust fan like a vacuum cleaner.

I'm using SMCFanControl, and AFAIK, it has no effect whatsoever on the Power Supply fan. So when I load my Mac Pro, the PSU temp can reach as high as 86C while its fan spins around 900rpm.

As a comparison, mine is running as below on a non-air conditioned environment:

Exhaust = 1600rpm
CPU Fan = 1500rpm
Power Supply = 850rpm (variable, depending on PSU and ambient temperature)
Hard Drive/Expansion = 1000rpm

Half the day I'll be running it on an air-conditioned environment, so I'll lower the CPU fan speed instead.

The newer Harpertown-based Mac Pro runs cooler due to its 45nm engraving, but then again if your CPU is idle most of the time, a CPU fan speed of 800 to 1000rpm would be fine.
 
So do you think I can run my computer fan at those speeds in the images i posted?

I heard smcFanControl is not as good a 'FanControl' because it doens't change the speed depending on the temp of the computer
 
I don't see any problems running at that speed. In fact, I have another Mac Pro at work, a Dual Quad 2.8GHz Harpertown with 2GB RAM and a default GC running BOINC 24/7 (for comparison if it makes you feel better), I set the CPU Fan and Exhaust to 1000rpm and 1100rpm respectively, both CPU Temp Diodes and PSU temp hovers around 48C to 55C comfortably at an ambient temp of 24C to 27C

Assuming yours is a Dual Quad 3.0GHz Harpertown, the CPU TDP is higher than a 2.8GHz, resulting in greater heat output, your slightly higher fan speed should compensate. I wouldn't worry about PSU temp cause it's not user-modifiable, and rely on PSU and ambient temperature.

My pair of Clovertown Xeons however are a bunch of heaters on my already heaty climate... :(

And I prefer SMCFanControl over Fan Control for a "manual freak" like me because it allows presets of variable fan speed control on my ever-changing room temperature, and the amount of processing cores being utilised on BOINC.
 
thanks, I think I will start running it at 1000rm then..

what is a not so safe temperature? mine was running about 21*c ambient
 
tibs said:
Mostly what I'm worried about is that power supply fan being to low.


Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

The PSU fan is automatically adjusted according to the heat generated within, there's a diode in the PSU. There's no need to worry about it.

Personally I have my IO fan set higher, typically 1200~1250 and the entire system is on 24/7. There's a RaidCard installed with four drives, plus a ATI 3870 with a huge passive heatpipe heatsink (it generated lots of heat!), enough to keep the room warm! :D
 
hm, so ur saying running 1000rpm is fine?
does apple recommend this to lower the sound of the fans and the noise in the computer, because that is what is really the reason im doing it for.
 
tibs said:
hm, so ur saying running 1000rpm is fine?
does apple recommend this to lower the sound of the fans and the noise in the computer, because that is what is really the reason im doing it for.
Click to expand...

You're asking us, if the low 1000rpm is fine and approved by Apple??

You should check the default speed, when you leave your hardware to monitor itself, it's much lower! Most people here use additional third-party FanController to bump the base fan speed, or keep the temperature constant... but it's not required by default, it's a user addition.

Image attached shows you the default speed without software control
specs: MacPro'08 8x3.2Ghz/20Gb/BD/3870/RAID5
 

Attachments

  • Picture 3.png
    Picture 3.png
    6.1 KB · Views: 2,994
Yea, i think i have a problem with my computer than, this is what my fans are at right now..
picture3ge0.png


Anyone have any ideas why it would be running so high, yet all of your mac pros run so low? It is annoying as hell as to how loud it is
 
whoa...!!! :eek::eek:

That's one heck of a PSU fan speed... it's like a reminiscent of my MP fan speed when I use FanControl, it messed up completely, that's why I ditched it in favor of SMCFanControl...

Are you loading your MP with some heavy processes when the reading was taken...?
 
nope, that was with adium and itunes open and one firefox window
 
No, ironically enough when i brought it in there, it was silent. quiet as hell, and when i got home and was a roaring up like a steam engine again. I want to see if they can fix it, do u think they'd replace it with an issue like this?
 
tibs said:
No, ironically enough when i brought it in there, it was silent. quiet as hell, and when i got home and was a roaring up like a steam engine again. I want to see if they can fix it, do u think they'd replace it with an issue like this?
Click to expand...

who knows. it's possible though. i would for sure try again, show 'em those pics and maybe leave it there longer.
 
tibs said:
No, ironically enough when i brought it in there, it was silent. quiet as hell, and when i got home and was a roaring up like a steam engine again. I want to see if they can fix it, do u think they'd replace it with an issue like this?
Click to expand...

WOW!! Just now I ramp up my fans just to experience your system's noise and Dude.. it's like I'm living next to the damn airport! I'd imagine your CPU's are running really cool!!

Looking at those fan speeds it appears like something in your system isn't functioning correctly, perhaps there's a problem with the logicboard's hardware monitor or there's a loose connection with one or more of the sensors. Before I jump to conclusions, has the system ever been quiet? Maybe, when it was new?

As an experiment you can try to reset the System Manager Controller (SMC), here's the instructions If you discover the fans are still running erratically, then you could have a hardware issue. As a safety precaution, Apple programs it's hardware monitors to allow all the fans to run at maximum, if the thermo sensors are inactive or not connected... at this point you have two options.

1. Seek professional help from Apple & AppleCare.

2. If your brave and technically minded. You can search the internet for the MacPro technical service manuals,
grab some tools, then proceed to open the machine yourself, checking all the connections - There should be four or five connectors, dotted around.
 
Yea, it definetly is extremely loud.

The system was quiet for a while, then It just started to be extremely loud.

I already tried resetting the pram, and reseting the SMC.

I think i'm going to try to set up an apple store tomorrow because I can not tolerate this annoying sound anymore. This time i'll have more information, i'll be able to show them the screenshots as well as hopefully it will be loud there this time.
 
tibs said:
Yea, it definetly is extremely loud.

The system was quiet for a while, then It just started to be extremely loud.

I already tried resetting the pram, and reseting the SMC.

I think i'm going to try to set up an apple store tomorrow because I can not tolerate this annoying sound anymore. This time i'll have more information, i'll be able to show them the screenshots as well as hopefully it will be loud there this time.
Click to expand...

Show them this thread... lol
 
tibs said:
Yea, it definetly is extremely loud.

The system was quiet for a while, then It just started to be extremely loud.

I already tried resetting the pram, and reseting the SMC.

I think i'm going to try to set up an apple store tomorrow because I can not tolerate this annoying sound anymore. This time i'll have more information, i'll be able to show them the screenshots as well as hopefully it will be loud there this time.
Click to expand...

I may not have followed the entire thread, nor if anyone has suggested this but, have you tried removing Fan Control..?

I simply don't trust Fan Control running on a Mac Pro as I've got bad experiences using it.
 
No, i haven't tried uninstalling Fan Control, I will look ingo that..

it was running like this even before i installed it.
 
One thing I was curious about was, I have the plug to my machine in the same power strip as my monitor and 5.1 surround sound speakers, could this potentially cause the fans to be this loud since it has to work harder since it doesn't have a direct connection to the wall
 
smcfancontrol?

Is there a way to mac smc fancontrol up the fans speeds automatically when the temp rises?
 
I just wanted to let the crowd know, that i FIXED IT!

I have no idea how, I decided to try a number of different things as follows:

- i completely uninstalled fan control
- i plugged my computer directly into the wall to give it a bit more power
- i tried plugging my monitor into the monitor slot 2 rather than 1
- i reset my SMC
- I reset my PRAM


one of these things fixed the issue, my fan speeds are now running almost the same as UltraNEO*'s screen shot of his fan speeds without any added 3rd party apps.

thanks for all the help guys.

-paul
 
Scratch that, I thought i fixed it. Now my PSU is roaring at a whopping 2800RPMs..

I gotta take this thing to apple and get it fixed its getting rediculous. And now I have some proof cuz i've been taking screen shots
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back