What are your fan control settings?

[z400central]

What do you have the following set at:

- Base Speed
- Lower threshold
- Upper threshold

And what temps do you operate at? Interesting to see what other people run.

Thanks!

 

[ironring2006]

I've played around a bit using the smcFanControl which really just allows you to increase the minimum default. It allows you to have 3 different settings based on using it on battery, AC (not charging), and AC charging.

I currently have it set to:

battery: 1800 rpm
AC (not charging): 3100 rpm
AC (charging): 4600 rpm

These settings keep it at about 45 C for light IM/e-mail/iTunes/web activity level, except on battery it runs about 50 C.

My reasons for these settings are when on battery, a slower fan decreases power usage. 3100 rpm on AC not charging is just low enough that I can't really hear the fans, but keeps the cpu the coolest. Increasing it for when the battery is charging allows the battery to stay cooler since charging will heat it up more.

 

[alljunks]

Will it shorten the life on the fan with such high RPM??

I've played around a bit using the smcFanControl which really just allows you to increase the minimum default. It allows you to have 3 different settings based on using it on battery, AC (not charging), and AC charging.

I currently have it set to:

battery: 1800 rpm
AC (not charging): 3100 rpm
AC (charging): 4600 rpm

These settings keep it at about 45 C for light IM/e-mail/web activity level, except on battery it runs about 50 C.

My reasons for these settings are when on battery, a slower fan decreases power usage. 3100 rpm on AC not charging is just low enough that I can't really hear the fans, but keeps the cpu the coolest. Increasing it for when the battery is charging allows the battery to stay cooler since charging will heat it up more.

 

[winchest]

Do you see a recognizable difference in battery power with those settings?

 

[ironring2006]

Will it shorten the life on the fan with such high RPM??

Possibly, but I think the benefits of the added life to the cpu and the rest of the logic board is well worth it. Replacing a fan is probably one of the cheapest things you can do. Also, running the fun at constant loads rather than jerking it up and down is better for it as well. Before when I ran without these settings, the fan would do a lot of speed up/slow down cycles.

Do you see a recognizable difference in battery power with those settings?

To be honest, I don't run my MB on battery enough to have a good enough feel for this (currently only at 33 battery cycles on a almost 6-month old machine). It's just a simple thing to do when running on battery to save a few precious mAh. I suspect it probably only really saves you a few minutes here and there. It's not a setting that will increase your battery life by an hour or so.

 

[winchest]

Thanks for the quick reply!

 

[brendan8]

What is the highest RPM you can safely constantly run on a MB?