After one of our Mac Pro's internal drives started throwing SMART errors (500 GB Seagate) and saw another had suspicious melt marks on the bottom (250 GB WD stock) I started to suspect some of our recent hard drive issue may be heat related.

The system monitoring widget iStat Pro showed that the hard drive bays were hitting temperatures over 100° F, which is not where they need to be. Somewhere in the 80° range is where I wanted them.

There is a free program called smcFanControl that establishes minimum fan speeds on Intel-based Macs so that the internal components get more air flow as a default.

After I installed smcFanControl I upped our minimums and didn't notice any difference in fan volume, but the internal temperatures of the hard drives dropped to in the 80-90° range. If that didn't work I was considering adding another cooling fan (and still may) to keep the temps down inside the computer...

Hope this helps others!

Awesome! Thanks man!

You're welcome, Nathan. Please note that the program is supposed to work well with the MacBook Pro as well. Too bad it doesn't work for the Powerbook G4!

A more detailed review of smcFanControl and how it can lower internal temperatures is at the Arizona Macintosh Users Group site.

I've read that Macs are in the "safe" range so long as the temps run lower than around 200 F. I've Google'd trying to find some more info, but not much has come up.

I'm very seriously contemplating installing this, but I'm afraid that it might blow the fans. I mean, is there a reason that the fans only run as fast as they do?

My MBP stays at around 125 - 145 F. I have it raised and everything, but it's probably because I live in the South with no AC.

Hope, I'm pretty sure 200°F is not safe for most computer equipment. Room temperature for hard drives and < 130°F for the Intel processors (< 150°F for the G5) is what I've read are the acceptable, normal operating levels.

From what I understand the reason the fans run a little less than the G5 is because the design of the case is supposed to be more efficient in dissipating heat passively. In the real world I don't think that's necessarily the case with the way the four hard drive bays are set up and photographers' processor-intensive work.

As for blowing your fans I also don't think that's a real issue. At the same time I'd lean towards getting new fans over replacing hard drives or PCI cards. I'd much rather lose the fans over a system drive or client pictures!

i just showed my husband this and he advised against using it.

Ok, we'll start from the top:

Why does he advise against using it?
How much does your husband know about hardware? Macs?
Why does his opinion differ from AMUG's?

I'm not trying to be difficult, it's just that your post was so cryptic.

Yeah, I wish Apple would publish something definitive, because one tech website varies from the next. I did find that MBPs shut down automatically if they hit a critical temperature to prevent damage to the hard drive - which makes sense because mine has shut down three times randomly in the month or so. Not good! I'm going to go ahead and download it!

Tami, please share with us any concerns your husband has!

cause i hate trying to sound like a know it all! seriously, my husband is an IT manager (for a large, worldwide advertising agency) and works on nothing but MACs all day and sometimes all night. i honestly dont think there is anything abou thtem that the does not know. he lives and breathes it. (them). sometimes... ihate macs.....


seriously, if you ever have a question or a concern about them, just ask me and i will pass it along. we have (ok, he has) all the biggest latest G whatevers in our house...... i have lost count........

he has just ggone onto a conference call so i cannot ask him why but i will later. he just told me it is best to let the computer handle the fan. i'll ask him more later when he can read the whole thing -

Here's another program:
Lobotomo Fan Control
I'll try this one out tonight and post back.

Tami:

Don't feel bad passing along useful information from someone qualified. If someone knows better than me and what they're saying is something from their professional experience then it would be foolish not to listen to her/him!

But on that note, given that our computer was running a bit hot (for my tastes) I'm gonna have to go ahead and, uh, disagree with your husband. Again, I'd rather lose a fan than lose data.

I'm not sure your husband got a full look at this program. What it does is just set a minimum fan speed. It's not actively changing the fan according to processor load -- that's something the developer specifically avoided.

I'd really be interested to hear what he has to say in more detail if he looks into it further.

Tried smcFanControl and Lobotomo, and I found Lobotomo to be much more user friendly. My temps have fallen ten degrees and are still falling.

I just open the case and have a desk fan blowing into it. Works great!