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Anybody using SMC Fan Control?

A

Alex78

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 22, 2013
12
0
I notice that my Mac mini i7 2.3 late 2012 is so quiet even when I do some processor demanding work, so I installed iStat pro to check temps and fan RPM.
Well my temps was on idle 41c (105f) and fan rpm 1800, then I run Cinecench for mac several times to heat up the processor then I found that the fan stayed at 1800 rpm till 90c (194f)!!!
then just moved to about 2000 rpm on 91c (198f),
then only when temp. become 97c (206f) the rpm moved to 3000 rpm then 3400 rpm to keep the temps down is that normal for the i7 mac mini?? or I have a problem on mine??
I also notice that iStat dos not show my Samsung 840 pro 256gb temp (just 0) is that normal for this SSD??
I was reading on internet and I found that some people recommending the SMC Fan Control to give better control for the fan curve but I also thinking running fan more than needed can build up dust so quickly inside the computer :confused:
 
SMC fan control works great. You can build your own fan curve. 3000 rpm sounds low to me at 90C. Mine hits almost 6000 rpm at 85C and I never see 90C even during Handbrake encodes.
 
Yes those temps are normal. There are countless previous threads discussing this exact question. Max temps for the mini's processors run 100-105*C for the late 2012 model.
 
COrocket said:
Yes those temps are normal. There are countless previous threads discussing this exact question. Max temps for the mini's processors run 100-105*C for the late 2012 model.
Click to expand...

I am not really worry about the temps I am worry about fan curve is it normal? or this is because I replace the original HDD with SSD and mac can't read SSD temps I guess because iStat shows me for HDD 0 temp so fan curve works by deferent way?
 
i have a late 2009 mini with a 120 gig SSD and 4 gigs of ram , and i,m using SMC fan control , it runs great , from cold to full boot up 24 seconds , best thing ever for the mini was the SSD and ram upgrade :), idal about 40deg C
 
Alex78 said:
I notice that my Mac mini i7 2.3 late 2012 is so quiet even when I do some processor demanding work, so I installed iStat pro to check temps and fan RPM.
Well my temps was on idle 41c (105f) and fan rpm 1800, then I run Cinecench for mac several times to heat up the processor then I found that the fan stayed at 1800 rpm till 90c (194f)!!!
then just moved to about 2000 rpm on 91c (198f),
then only when temp. become 97c (206f) the rpm moved to 3000 rpm then 3400 rpm to keep the temps down is that normal for the i7 mac mini?? or I have a problem on mine??
I also notice that iStat dos not show my Samsung 840 pro 256gb temp (just 0) is that normal for this SSD??
I was reading on internet and I found that some people recommending the SMC Fan Control to give better control for the fan curve but I also thinking running fan more than needed can build up dust so quickly inside the computer :confused:
Click to expand...

Your fan curve as you call it is normal. The 2012 has a fan that does not kick in until mid 80s to 90ºC. The 2011 kicked in a lot earlier. The idea was that the heat threshold/specs on the 2012 is higher so they let it kick in later so it is quieter for longer. The 2012 fan is also more efficient at ventilation so it can also kick in later. In other words the 2012 has minimal fan for the majority of its use and a lot of fan only when the CPU peaks, while the 2011 has a moderate level of fan even at moderate (but not high) use and therefore is noisier at non-peak times.

Also, I am not sure about the Samsung 840 Pro SSD but a lot of SSDs do not have a temp monitor in them (because they do not get hot). OCZ for example sets the temp at 30ºC as a figure no matter what the temp is just to keep monitoring software happy. The OCZ temp setting is available in a tweak in their firmware update software so perhaps Samsung has a firmware fix/tweek. Having said all that there are a lot of 840 Pro users here so I am sure they can comment better.
 
Last edited:
opinio said:
Your fan curve as you call it is normal. The 2012 has a fan that does not kick in until mid 80s to 90ºC. The 2011 kicked in a lot earlier. The idea was that the heat threshold/specs on the 2012 is higher so they let it kick in later so it is quieter for longer. The 2012 fan is also more efficient at ventilation so it can also kick in later. In other words the 2012 has minimal fan for the majority of its use and a lot of fan only when the CPU peaks, while the 2011 has a moderate level of fan even at moderate (but not high) use and therefore is noisier at non-peak times.

Also, I am not sure about the Samsung 840 Pro SSD but a lot of SSDs do not have a temp monitor in them (because they do not get hot). OCZ for example sets the temp at 30ºC as a figure no matter what the temp is just to keep monitoring software happy. The OCZ temp setting is available in a tweak in their firmware update software so perhaps Samsung has a firmware fix/tweek. Having said all that there are a lot of 840 Pro users here so I am sure they can comment better.
Click to expand...

Thank you for explaining, all my worries was because If fan curve working on average temperatures between processor and HDD temps and in my case HDD temp is 0 so the fane conceder system cooler than it is actually is and kicks latter!! :eek:
 
Unless something changed recently, SMC fan control and Mavericks 10.9.2 don't seem to be compatible. It will fill up the console log with "security" errors, otherwise seems to work OK.
 
I have SMC fan control set to about 2600 and it never changes. Temps between 40c and 60c no matter what. I do not do anything overly stressful.
 
SMC Fan Control is indeed a good, simple utility. I used it across several Intel Macs, old and new--especially on my former Mac Mini, which I just sold yesterday.

However, if you want more automation with your fan's RPM/Temp curve, I suggest downloading the Fan Control prefpane to see how it works with your Mac Mini.

I used this prefpane for my former Late-2011 15" MacBook Pro, and my first Nehalem Mac Pro; However, for the Mac Pro, I used a special version of the prefpane for that specific model (a volunteer created this version with the provided source code).

Despite its age, Fan Control always worked for me on newer Macs with newer versions of OS X.
 
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