smcFanControl on i7 MBP: Good idea, bad idea?

[therealseebs]

A person on a forum said that there was "an article on Apple's support site" saying not to use smcFanControl with the new macs. I know nothing about this either way.

Anyone got pointers to anything to tell me whether it's safe or not? After the trouble I had with my 2007 MBP, I'd like to at least consider keeping the fans a little faster and the machine a little cooler...

 

[MBHockey]

A person on a forum said that there was "an article on Apple's support site" saying not to use smcFanControl with the new macs. I know nothing about this either way.

Anyone got pointers to anything to tell me whether it's safe or not? After the trouble I had with my 2007 MBP, I'd like to at least consider keeping the fans a little faster and the machine a little cooler...

I don't think it's neither bad nor good. Just unnecessary.

 

[mdatwood]

A person on a forum said that there was "an article on Apple's support site" saying not to use smcFanControl with the new macs. I know nothing about this either way.

Anyone got pointers to anything to tell me whether it's safe or not? After the trouble I had with my 2007 MBP, I'd like to at least consider keeping the fans a little faster and the machine a little cooler...

Quick google search "smcfancontrol site:*.apple.com" didn't turn up any articles. I also searched Apples support site for smcfancontrol and nothing came up. I would hope that Apple has finally corrected the issue and smcFanControl isn't needed. I too have a 2007 MBP and have been running SFC since it first came out.

 

[Tegeril]

I don't think it's neither bad nor good. Just unnecessary.

I use SMCFanControl with my 17" i7 and I'd hardly say it's unnecessary. Sure, the CPU stays within heat tolerances as Intel has specified, but I've found that the fans don't ramp up speed until the laptop is already pretty warm, and I enjoy being pre-emptive about that and manage the minimum fan speed myself (that's all it does, the kext that handles fan speeds will increase it beyond what you set with SMCFanControl).

Been using it for a week without issue, though by no means do I suggest you leave the fans above default all the time, just when you are actively expecting high temperatures. I also find that this system, during general use (web browsing, word processing, coding), runs much cooler than my early 2008 MBP that was replaced by this. To keep the CPU in the low 40s, that needed the fans at 4000 all the time, this one does the same (even with the Nvidia GPU on) with the default 2000.

 

[MBHockey]

Been using it for a week without issue, though by no means do I suggest you leave the fans above default all the time, just when you are actively expecting high temperatures. I also find that this system, during general use (web browsing, word processing, coding), runs much cooler than my early 2008 MBP that was replaced by this. To keep the CPU in the low 40s, that needed the fans at 4000 all the time, this one does the same (even with the Nvidia GPU on) with the default 2000.

I guess I don't understand why you need it then.

 

[Tegeril]

I guess I don't understand why you need it then.

Thought I was clear above, but I guess not.

When I go to play a video game, if I don't turn the fans up, the OS will raise them to between 3000-4000 after the laptop begins to warm up, and keep the processor at a reasonable-for-its-specs temperature, but over time that ends up making the entire case warmer than I like, so I pre-emptively raise it to 5000 if I'm doing video encoding or playing video games that run full screen for a long time to help keep the ambient case temperature down for lap comfort.