Modify, Adjust and Control Fan Speed (and Temperature) of Apple MacBook, MacBook Pro and Mac mini
Apple Intel-based computer such as Mac mini, iMac, MacMacBook and MBP (MacBook Pro) operating temperature of the processor can run to very high degree and hot. The hot CPU is due to the slow fan speed that are set to run up to a certain RPM (revolutions per minute) limit. CPU fan is important part of CPU cooler system, together with heat-sink, thermal paste and etc, so if the fan RPM speed is not fast enough, the cooling system can’t dissipate the heat emitted and generated by Intel processor fast enough, and the CPU may get too hot till affect its performance or worse, stop working altogether.
To check and monitor the Intel-based Mac OS X computer operating temperature, Mac users can download and install the freeware app CoreDuoTemp, which is also a menubar application with CoreDuoTemp Widget. Other than CPU operating temperature, CoreDuoTemp also displays indicators of CPU frequencies, CPU usage, and features multiple temperature unit °F, °C or K.
If your Mac system temperature is too high, Mac users can adjust and modify the fan speed to higher speed in order to make the Mac machine runs cooler at lower temperature. There are a few GUI (graphics user interface) based utility software that can help MBP and MacBook (and MacMini) users to control and adjust the speed of the fan cooler.
smcFanControl is one of the such fan speed control utility, to cool down MacBook (Pro). smcFanControl let users set the minimum speed for each built-in fan individually. However, in order to protect and note to damage the computer or notebook, you won’t be able to set the minimum speed to a rate which is under Apple’s defaults. So users can increase the minimum RPM speed of the fans to release and dissipate more heat and thus cool down the system. To change the fan-speeds, users need to authenticate with valid credentials of an user-account with admin privileges. Some note is that you need to check the “Auto Apply after Launch” option and add smcFanControl to Login-Items to auto apply your prefer fan speeds settings after restart, and in order not to lose the changed settings after standby, smcFanControl has to run in the background.
Another application is GPL-based open source software Fan Control from Lobotomo Software. Fan Control also modifies and adjusts the minimum fan speed. However, Fan Control can controls and adjusts the minimum fan speed by increment of 1 unit constantly depending on the current CPU temperature and user’s preset preferred temperature level automatically. Fan Speed also won’t modify the original automatic fan speed control for safety purpose.
While increasing the RPM speed of the fans in MacBook (Pro) can make the laptop and notebook cooler, however, it will consume more power and thus reduce the battery life slightly. And it could shorten the life of the fans too, and the noise of the fan will be louder slightly too.
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Entries (RSS)
February 21st, 2007 02:38
hi.
when i purches my desktop PC i have a problem of fan speed which is mounted on processor,it run approximately 5000RPM, so it is ok or not.
March 14th, 2007 21:44
[...] Keith Davis sent this link: Control Your Fan Speed & Temperature [...]
April 4th, 2007 06:15
What about setting a maximum fan speed? My Mac Mini almost constantly runs at 5400 rpm. Any suggestions?
April 18th, 2007 11:14
[...] The first generations of MacBook Pros tend to run too hot because the low rpm set by default. The new ones have doubled the rpm speed. If you have a first generation on and want to boost the fans a bit to make it run a little cooler, you may find two tool apps to increase the fan speed here. [...]
February 29th, 2008 13:53
Word of advice: you can’t use both simultaneously.
I downloaded both, and as long as the daemon for Fan Control is running, setting a higher minimum fan speed in smcFanControl will only result in a temporary (2-5s) speed boost before returning to the speed chosen by Fan Control, unless you repeatedly set the speed, but this must be done constantly. I haven’t tried quitting the daemon and adjusting the smc speed, but I would guess that at that point, smc would work fine
March 23rd, 2008 00:54
Plz sum1 Plz tell me-How Can disable this message:=-( Warning!! your Fan Tempture is too high) plz sum one plz tell me how can I disable it. After some time my Pc automatically sutdown…Plzzz PLzzz PLzzzzzz Helppppp!!!!Plzzzz
July 3rd, 2008 06:19
Si tienes windows y quieres regular lso ventiladores de tu macbook o macbook pro este es tu programa “http://www.olofsson.info/index.html?inputremapper.html”
Me he tirado un tiempecillo buscando y lo que encontre mejor es esto. Te remapea las teclas y demas pero bueno eso es lo de menos funcionan igual de bien o lo configuras a tu gusto i le puedes decir la velocidad del ventilador
July 14th, 2008 03:28
New iMac and Extended MacBook/Pro Fan Control Versions
I’ve generated 2 new versions of Fan Control, one for the Intel-based iMacs and one for the MacBook/MacBook Pro which has some extended control capabilities over the original Lobotomo Fan Control version. For screenshots and (free) downloads (with source code) see:
iMac Fan Control
Extended MacBook/MacBook Pro Fan Control
The iMac version allows separate sensors to drive the control of each of its 3 fans and the extended MacBook/MacBook Pro version allows fan-control via the CPU and/or GPU temperatures (useful if you play games on your laptop). There are also some other minor enhancements (see the ReadMe files).
I’ve also tried to make it easy to adapt the source code for other systems … e.g., a version for the Mac Pro that uses different sensors to control different fans (or groups of fans).
Hope these are useful to others.
BTW, there are some Mac Pro versions available via this forum posting.