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smcFanControl for Mac

By Hendrik Holtmann Free Editors' Rating

Editors' Review

Download.com Staff Sep 3, 2009

smcFanControl lets the user set the minimum speed of the build-in fans. If you've got burnt thighs from an old MacBook Pro or you notice that your computer is always overheating and crashing from using CPU-intensive apps (like playing PC games in a virtual Windows environment), you might want to check out smcFanControl. This free, GPL-licensed utility has a single purpose: letting you increase the minimum speed of built-in fans, so your Intel computer will run cooler.

smcFanControl lets you monitor the current temperature (in Celsius or Fahrenheit), assign different minimum speeds for each fan using sliders, and even apply different settings when your power source changes (for example, going back to default fan speed when using battery power). As with any settings-tinkering software, you'll want to use smcFanControl judiciously--but fortunately this application always keeps fans in automatic mode (so speed will increase along with CPU load) and never lets you set the fan speed below the Apple-recommended minimum. This most recent version adds support for every current MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mini.

Full Specifications

What's new in version 2.5

  • New: Reduced energy usage on OS X 10.9 and OS X 10.10
  • New: Support for Yosemite Dark Mode
  • Fixed: Crash on OS X 10.9, when deleting Favorites
  • Fixed: Various smaller fixes, improvements and code optimizations
  • Support for OS X 10.5 is deprecated

General

Release October 21, 2014
Date Added October 21, 2014
Version 2.5

Operating Systems

Operating Systems Macintosh, Mac OS X 10.9, Mac OS X 10.6, Mac OS X 10.10, Mac OS X 10.8, Mac OS X 10.7
Additional Requirements None

Popularity

Total Downloads 362,215
Downloads Last Week 6
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Developer's Description

smcFanControl lets the user set the minimum speed of the build in fans. So you can increase your minimum fan speed to make your intel mac run cooler. However in order not to damage your machines smcFanControl let's you not set minimum speed to a rate under Apple's defaults.
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