is iMac fan control useful?

[Paulywauly]

The latest version of iStat menus lets you bump up the RPM on the internal fans and it does bring down the internal temperature alot e.g. when ripping a DVD earlier CPU temps were 54c but dropped to 40c.
While this looks great in iStat does it really make much difference to prolonging the life of the hardware? Or does it just risk wearing out the fans? Your thoughts?

 

[TMRaven]

Neither.

 

[ChrisA]

The latest version of iStat menus lets you bump up the RPM on the internal fans and it does bring down the internal temperature alot e.g. when ripping a DVD earlier CPU temps were 54c but dropped to 40c.
While this looks great in iStat does it really make much difference to prolonging the life of the hardware? Or does it just risk wearing out the fans? Your thoughts?

I was seeing problems with my iMac because of high temps. Turning the fan up a little made those go away. That is the thing with digital equipment, it either works or not. If it works you can't make it "work better". So I'd say if you have no problem don't bother to try to fix it. In my case I did have a problem.

But no, I've never used iStat menus. The fan control software I have lets my adjust the thermostat settings and leaves the fan on "automatic" but with changed settings.

 

[Zortrium]

I've had temperature issues with my iMac occasionally on Windows where the machine would get extremely hot without the fans spinning up much, but I've never had any problems in Mac OS X.

 

[TMRaven]

What fan control software do you use that's based on temperature readings and not rpm?

 

[nsontaylo]

i am using IStat menus to show my network load and download speeds. Yesterday I received my new 27 iMac and installed iStat menus and for some reason the up / down the speed of the airport has not signed anything.

 

[Paulywauly]

i am using IStat menus to show my network load and download speeds. Yesterday I received my new 27 iMac and installed iStat menus and for some reason the up / down the speed of the airport has not signed anything.

Sounds like you may have installed an old version of iStat, had the same issue a few months back. Only the latest release shows traffic on the Airport for the Current iMac models.