The price and performance of the MacBook struck a sweet spot with me, and I purchased one of the first black units to show up in the Portland area (I waited to see them in person so I could judge the reflective screen's performance for myself). Generally, I've been thrilled with the MacBook's performance, despite having to send it back to repair a way-too-warm power adapter (the repairs were successful). The System Management Controller (SMC) is a subsystem of Intel and Apple processor-based Macintosh computers. The only two things I'm disappointed in are the size (I love the 12" form factor) and the high case temperature (especially in the bottom left corner). It is similar in function to the older SMU or. While I can't do anything about the first problem, thanks to smcFanControl, the second issue is now completely within my control. As seen in the picture at left, this simple app gives you a slider to set the minimum speed for your laptop's fan(s). It works with the MacBook, MacBook Pro, and Intel-powered minis, and it works well.Īpple sets the fan's speed at 1,500rpm, and this works well when I have the machine on the desk. Actually, as per my experience if you are going to do the SMC reset and your not fully charged battery Macintosh machine is charging, the charging indicator will be the reset indicator as below. But on my lap, it gets just a bit too warm. Keep pressing Shift + Option + Control + Power for 10 seconds and indicator is still orange.Ĭharging indicator is orange light when machine powered off. Using smcFanControl, I upped the speed to 3,000rpm, and saw a notable (two to four degrees Celsius) temperature drop. Later today, I hope to get some more empirical data through a USB temperature probe. When I set the fan to max speed, I saw an even nicer temperature drop. but I was having trouble enjoying it, thanks to the 747 that seemed to be landing nearby. Perhaps if you're wearing noise a cancelling headset it would be bearable. However, smcFanControl can detect when the Intel Mac is woken from sleep mode, and will reset the settings by itself. The downsides? More fan noise, obviously - although 3,000rpm was fine for my ears (though I probably wouldn't use that setting in a library). Perhaps slightly reduced battery life, and a bit more wear and tear on the fan components. But in exchange for a cooler lap, I think it's worth it. It's important to note that smcFanControl is just an app - it doesn't install any components (unless you want it to run at startup). I've been using it to increase the fan speed when I have the machine on my lap, and reduce it again when it returns to the desk. I Tryed to reset PRAM but fans was always very noisy even the temperature was normal (50-55). Many people seem to like SmcFanControl for some reason but I don't because it's crude and totally manual in setting the base fan speed which keeps the fan running higher than normal all the time but doesn't help much to cool if the iMac gets really hot unless you manually speed up the fan more. SmcFanControl won't allow you to set the fan speed lower than Apple's default, so there shouldn't be any risk from using this app.
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