iMac fan speed thresholds

[vansouza]

Does anyone know what the fan speed thresholds are for the different temps as things get hotter? I ask because no matter how hot the iMac gets based on iStatPro reportage, I never hear an fans ripping off. And I need to increase the speed using fan control and the temp drops.... just wondering really... thanks...

 

[vansouza]

Bump... anyone?

 

[daniel huxtable]

i would like to know as well. i was monitoring my temps before installing the smcfancontrol and they were pretty high and ive heard some horror stories of the heat destroying the harddrive and other componenets. i upped my fans to the following:

ODD: 700 RPM (default speed)
HDD: 2400 RPM
CPU: 2100 RPM

with these speeds my iMac is still relatively quiet. i love it!

these are my temps after about 7 hours of just browsing the web, using iChat, and listening to music in Itunes:

CPU A: 35 C
GPU: 43 C
GPU Diode: 41 C
GPU Heatsink: 41 C
Ambient: 23 C
Memory Control: 39 C
Airport Card: 52 C
HD Bay 1: 47 C


i keep my iMac on 24 hours a day but i have my settings set to where the monitor turns off after 10 minutes so the fans have a good workout 24/7 but i'm confident they can take the pressures of being on all day. i have apple care anyway so if they go out i can always get them replaced. i'd rather have the fans go out than my hard drive or motherboard due to heat.

i'm still a newcomer when it comes to Macs but i hope i helped a bit. maybe a more experienced Mac user could help us out.

 

[nickf]

tbh, as an iMac owner I trust Apple's engineers enough not to fiddle about with the default fan settings. If a speed bump is deemed necessary I'm sure we'll see it in a software update some day.

 

[Leon Kowalski]

tbh, as an iMac owner I trust Apple's engineers enough not to fiddle about with the default fan settings.

As an engineer, I trust temperature sensors -- and I also trust Seagate
and Western Digital engineers to know far more about disk drives than
Apple engineers. If disk drive engineers say 55C or 60C max ambient
operating temperature (and Apple says nothing), who do you believe?

If a speed bump is deemed necessary I'm sure we'll see it in a software update some day.

"Some day" ain't soon enough -- today's overheating damage is forever.

LK

 

[nickf]

As an engineer, I trust temperature sensors -- and I also trust Seagate
and Western Digital engineers to know far more about disk drives than
Apple engineers. If disk drive engineers say 55C or 60C max ambient
operating temperature (and Apple says nothing), who do you believe?

LK

Well Apple, obviously, since they designed and assembled the system.
Or perhaps they don't know what they're doing?

 

[fmaxwell]

Well Apple, obviously, since they designed and assembled the system.
Or perhaps they don't know what they're doing?

nickf,

Stop being a fanboy.

Apple has made errors in the design of several of their products. They've had to recall iPhone power adapters and 1.8 million notebook battery packs. They have released notebooks that have been plagued with screen failures and others which just intermittantly shut down and required motherboard replacements. They released iPhones which had high failure rates on their touch screens. They sold iPods which were prone to screen breakage.

Apple's engineers are human and no less prone to errors than other engineers.

In other cases, they trade off fan noise, battery life, and product longevity, sometimes reasoning that it's more important to have a quieter product or longer battery life than long product lifespan.

Leon Kowalski was completely right. You were completely wrong. Leave engineering discussions to engineers and don't try to join-in.

Regards,
Fred

P.S. I really hate digging up old threads, but I didn't want this line of fallacious reasoning going unanswered when someone finds this thread via a search.

 

[wawanarchist]

nickf,

Stop being a fanboy.

Apple has made errors in the design of several of their products.

Thank you for saying this... I'm sitting here reading this thinking 'wtf...' This board is plagued with people talking about error with their iMacs, MISTAKES made by apple engineers. Apple is not some sort of God, they make mistakes, we all do. There would be no need for a genius bar if macs were all perfect and lasted forever.

People need to think with their heads and not their dicks which seem to be perpetually hard for apple. Saying this, I love macs and have been using them for years. I think apple engineers are some of the best out there, but basically saying that they are infallible is just scary.

 

[AlexisV]

I think people are creating arguments and problems where none exist. And throwing in a bit of one-upmanship for good measure.