Control the fan speed of your Mac laptop
Mac OS X, Tips & Tricks, OS X Apps, Utilities
If you have a MacBook or MacBook Pro you’ve probably noticed that it can get a bit warm, no surprise considering the tremendous amount of processing power stuffed into their respective cases. The cooling system is simple to understand; when your CPU load goes up, your fans will kick in. Well, not all users think their fans kick in soon enough, so a third party application called smcFanControl allows you to adjust the fans on your own, which can be really nice for those warm days when a hot laptop on your lap isn’t the most comfortable.
smcFanControl was created by a small company called Eidac, and it allows you to set the minimum fan speed that your MacBook or MacBook Pro will run at. There’s actually two versions, version 1 and version 2. I prefer version 1 because it is more simple, so that’s what I’ll feature here, but version 2 is just as capable and even adds a menu to quickly adjust your fans settings.
Features:
- Simple and clean interface
- Set the minimum RPM speed for fans
- Adjust fan speed manually to cool down a warm laptop, allowing for comfort
- Auto-apply option to set the new fan speeds after restart
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Comments:
Comments: 8
Comment from Chris
Time: April 25, 2007, 12:44 am
I rather recommend Fan Control ( http://www.lobotomo.com/products/FanControl/ ) because it’s a simple System Preference, instead of a stand-alone application. That way it takes less resources.
Comment from Bam
Time: April 25, 2007, 2:45 am
I second Fan Control, its really quite nice.
Comment from MurphyM
Time: April 25, 2007, 10:25 am
Does Fan Control work under Windows? From what I understand, smcFanControl settings carry over to Windows when you have it running and then reboot into Boot Camp.
Comment from Edwin
Time: May 5, 2007, 8:18 am
I just tried the program and it works great.
Comment from dave
Time: May 24, 2007, 5:30 pm
powerbook support? none.. meh. cool idea though, would like to stop burning my legs. 
Comment from Richard M
Time: May 24, 2007, 11:52 pm
awesome post thank you so much i turned my fan speed all the way up and it cooled everything of in a hurry !
Comment from Brian Stark
Time: May 27, 2007, 7:19 pm
Asks for admin name and password which I gave and it does not recognize. Good idea, but cannot get it to work
Comment from hgh
Time: March 17, 2008, 9:43 am
I second Fan Control, its really indeed
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