SMCfancontrol

You then have to manually set your fan speed, check your toolbar at the top of the screen, your fan speeds and temp should be displaying up there. Click on that and you'll be able to change fan speeds.

 

Would someone care to post some optimal settings for the fan speeds?

Not that I intend to use it,but if needed,what are some numbers that could be of value without being overkill?

 

Max fan speed is 6000rpm on non-unibody models, I believe it's higher on unibodies. There really aren't any key numbers, more like noise to heat ratio that you can tolerate.

 

It's 6000 RPM on the unibody models as well. In either case the utility will not let you set the fan speed below the minimum or let you exceed the maximum. (so you don't overspin the fans) I just set it by feel; I let it stay on the default (2000 RPM) unless it gets hot, which is when I set it to 3250 RPM. If I'm going to be doing CPU/GPU intensive work I set the fans to 4500 RPM preemptively.

 

Is there a way to set them in Windows? I have speedfan but it only gives me a temp readout and it doesn't seem to be able to detect/change fan speeds.

 

Put an app icon to the Dock then launch and right-click it to configure. If you have graphical issues (artifacts in form of colorful lines) I would suggest FanControl by Lobotomo.