are these iMac 27" i5 fan speeds normal?

[mywhitenoise]

Every once in awhile my CPU fan will randomly start speeding up until it gets to about 2000RPM, the optical and hard drive fans will reach about 1250 RPM. After about 10 minutes of annoying fan noise it'll slow down back to around 1000 RPM for all fans.

Is this normal? The temperatures all look fine according to iStat, and it's not like I'm doing heavy computing (just running firefox, uTorrent, and iTunes). Is there a way to regulate the fan speed, or do I possibly have a defective computer?

 

[Stan Mikulenka]

Hi mywhitenoise,
get a Fan Control.prefPane where you can set Min. & Max. Temps. and Min. base speed for your Fan, like this:

 

[Kapetan]

Well you don't have defective computer because that you wrote about is normal. That is happening when your cpu gets near 7o celsius and fans are starting to cool it down. I had the same "issue" but after few days monitoring I realised that CPU sometimes is going near 70 Celsius. Good solution is to i install smcFanControl (free from apple site) and then you can adjust fan speeds, profiles for quick switching etc.

I have three profiles saved, one is labeled 3o% and all fans are set to operate at arround 1/3 of max rpm. Second is labeled CPU where CPU fan is at max and HDD and optic fans are set at 4o%. I use that when doing some video editing. Third is labeled FULL where all fans are set at nearly 95% of max speed. That's in case when I'm playing games while converting some video,downloading something or streaming a movie in background.

 

[IndustrialSpace]

Are iMacs so incapable of monitoring their fan RPMs to temps, that you're required to install these monitoring programs?

Wow. What if one doesn't bother adjusting these fan settings... do the components fail quicker?

Is there evidence that the default iMac fan speed operation is detrimental to the machine and induces a shorter life?

Is this another worry/problem for the new iMac?


Whats next??????

 

[Kapetan]

I really think that if you did not use these monitoring programs it will run just fine. This is only a one way if you want to have more control over fans temps etc. At the end, it's normal to get some temps higher because of its construction. Do you think that this happens on Mac Pro???

Again, I have no issues for two months of heavy using iMac before I installed smc.

 

[Stan Mikulenka]

IndustrialSpace, are you getting paid by some Win. PC manufacturer for your remarks?

 

[IndustrialSpace]

IndustrialSpace, are you getting paid by some Win. PC manufacturer for your remarks?

Huh?

I dont understand. What does fan speed monitoring have to do with Windows promotion? Does Windows sell a program to monitor the fan speed? Im not sure. But I certainly am not trying to sell or endorse theirs, because I didnt even know one existed! I'm not trying to take business away from the product you sell called Fan Control which you told the OP about. Relax. Im just wondering why its necessary to have your Fan Control product installed. Is this because iMac can't keep temps within limits on its own or because you are pushing your OWN product. Stop creating a red herring. It's very dishonest. Does your product even help? One poster said it isnt even necessary... so why are you trying to sell it to the OP? Preying on his fears?

Like I said earlier.... Is there evidence that the default fan control causes iMacs to fail sooner than without this RPM monitoring program. If not, then why install and if so, then Apple needs to fix this issue. How can they allow temps to go out of control on their own without including in the software a temp monitor that does what your program does. Just doesnt make sense. Is it normal or not.