What fan speeds do you have your intel iMac set to game?

[Passive101]

After hours of playing HL 2 I can manage to crash my 20" intel iMac with what appears to be a heat related issue and the BSOD is garbled. The iMac is extremely hot and the metal on the upper left corner is quite hot (not warm).

I didn't think I would need a fan controller since I didn't have the macbook anymore. So I installed SMC fan controller and cranked them up. Holy crap is it loud. It never got that loud or ran all 3 fans that fast before the overheats. Why? It can push a lot of air, but instead it didn't move the fans up and it over heated.

But regardless of the reason why I'm guessing windows just doesn't use the same controllers for the fans as OS X does.

What speeds do people have there 3 fans set to while gaming in OS X or windows? (If you boot into OS X first, then restart it keeps your settings for the fan speeds).

The three fans I can adjust on my iMac are the video card, the hard drive, and the CPU.

Defaults appear to be

Video card 1000 RPM
Hard drive 1200 RPM
CPU 1200 RPM


As another question how do you move the settings to even numbers such as 3000 RPM? I can't do it with the mouse as it moves a bunch of numbers at a time.

 

[nando2323]

I have mine set at 1500 rpm and never have a problem. Sometimes I forget to set it and after a few hours of heavy gaming it will freeze due to over heat but that usually only happens in the summer when it's hot and stuff. But if I set it at 1500 it will never freeze due to over heating.

 

[pwn247]

Overheating seems to be a problem in a lot of iMacs. After all, the entire computer- usually in a large case- is all crammed into a monitor enclosure.

smcFanSpeed should work, but it is loud. I know sometimes my Mac Pro (overclocked with that ZDNet tool only a little) will get very hot- CPUs reaching up to 80F (that's 26C), and I'll have to crank my fans up.

Try installing iStat Pro and monitoring the temp of your components. Overheating may fry your hard drive or CPU, and without AppleCare it's going to cost you to have it repaired.

(By the way, are you playing HL2 in Windows?)

 

[naid]

smcFanSpeed should work, but it is loud. I know sometimes my Mac Pro (overclocked with that ZDNet tool only a little) will get very hot- CPUs reaching up to 80F (that's 26C), and I'll have to crank my fans up.

Don't you mean 80C? I don't have a Mac Pro but the coolest-running Intel chip I've seen lately was idling at 45C.

 

[hatehereyes]

yeah i'm pretty sure he means 80c, which is really hot for a cpu.

my mac pro idle temps are around 90-100f

 

[Passive101]

What type of fan is on the video card in my iMac? I'm guessing I only need to turn that on higher in games.

Right now for normal (non gaming) I have the video card set to stock at 1000, but I have the HDD at 2000 and CPU at 2000.

What type of fans are on these 3 units?

I'm guessing it is the CPU fan that is sucking air into the system?


ETA: I am mainly gaming in windows xp right now, but the settings for the fan controller work in windows as long as you first log into the mac side, then restart.


While gaming does BootCamp turn all the fans on high ever? While I was gaming I don't think the fans have ever blown like maxing their speeds with SMC

 

[thezerox]

iMac 24" 2.8 GF8800GS:
HDD: 3000 RPM
CPU: 2500 RPM

It's loud, but doesn't bother me, I'm using headphones.

 

[Passive101]

ODD? I thought that was for the video card, but iStat is telling me it's for the dvd drive?

Why is there a fan on the DVD drive and not on the video card?

I must be missing something here.

 

[vegas-steven]

ODD? I thought that was for the video card, but iStat is telling me it's for the dvd drive?

Why is there a fan on the DVD drive and not on the video card?

I must be missing something here.

ive been dealing with this video card overheating problem for about a week now, trying to figure out what might be wrong as i am out of applecare territory on my 2 year + old imac

so from what i read there is no fan on the video card, and the main mechanical parts that generate heat are the hdd, the optical drive (odd) and the cpu fan.

the video card has passive cooling meaning just dissipating heat with the heatsink on top of it.

in theory if you cool the rest of your compoments enough the heat shouldnt build up and your problems would dissapear.

 

[Passive101]

How hot does the ODD get if you're not using a cd/dvd?

I have since moved my HDD to 4k, processor to 2800, and ODD at 3000 while gaming.